Actor Glen Powell, who portrays Captain Jack “Hangman” Sears in “Top Gun: Maverick,” recently shared a nerve-wracking experience he had while filming in the UK with Tom Cruise, also known as Tom Cruise, pulling a prank on him. Powell revealed that during a helicopter ride with Cruise, the helicopter seemed to lose control, leading him to believe he was facing a potentially life-threatening situation.
The 35-year-old actor Glen Powell, playing the pilot “Hangman” in “Top Gun: Maverick,” recounted the incident to GQ magazine. While reshooting a scene of a plane returning to London at a studio in the British countryside, Cruise took Powell for a ride in a helicopter, simulating a helicopter crash.
Powell said that Cruise exclaimed, “Oh, no, oh, no,” and then began to purposely swirl the helicopter over London. Powell humorously reflected on the experience, contemplating whether he might end up as an unknown casualty in the midst of smoke in London’s city center alongside Cruise.
Regarding his own flying skills, Powell mentioned that he obtained a pilot’s license in November 2021. He jokingly remarked that he aspired to be like Tom Cruise, who pilots both helicopters and real jet aircraft. However, Powell clarified that his own aircraft is a smaller five-seater single-engine plane, different from Cruise’s, and humorously mentioned that flying his SR-22 to New York or Texas would take quite a while.
Previously, Cruise had trained a group of actors in flying for “Top Gun: Maverick,” initiating a three-month F-18 flight training program for the cast. Powell, Lewis Pullman, and others completed the intense training, with all actors feeling the physical strain after the flights.
Powell’s upcoming film “Twisters” is set to release this summer, where he put to use lessons learned from Cruise. Cruise advised Powell that for a movie to resonate globally, it must convey universal emotions and touch on shared feelings of unease. Powell emphasized that he achieved this in “Twisters.”
He expressed, “You can watch a big disaster movie and say, ‘Oh, cool, everyone loves disaster movies.’ No, that’s not it, no. It’s about what kind of people we are in the face of disaster and how human instinct reacts in such situations. When facing a tornado, how can we make the audience feel like they are right there in the moment? How can we make them feel on the ground?”
“Twisters” is set to premiere in Taiwan on July 17th and in the United States on July 19th.