Why Miles Teller Thought He Was Going To Die Filming Top Gun: Maverick
Top Gun: Maverick star Miles Teller broke out to audiences by having JK Simmons through cymbals at him, but this movie was much riskier.
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It’s almost impossible this week to avoid the hype surrounding the new release of Top Gun: Maverick in theaters everywhere. A bonafide hit with critics and audiences, the Tom Cruise-led sequel to 1986’s Top Gun has flown into fans’ hearts and made stars out of a new generation of actors ready to take on the box office. One of the film’s stars, Miles Teller, recently revealed that one particular scene of the movie almost went too far in terms of what the actor was willing to do in order to get the perfect shot for the movie. The sequence was apparently a little too close for comfort.
As reported by Comic Book, Miles Teller stated that there was one specific scene in Top Gun: Maverick that almost cost him his life. The scene in question is where several actors and their stunt pilots were hurling towards the ground, and they had to do a max G pull-up, which is to say that the pilot needed to yank the aircraft hard at the last second to avoid hitting the ground. As Teller watched his life flash before his eyes when the fighter jet was plummeting to the ground, he confirmed in an interview with LADbible that “It was the first time we’d done a maneuver like that and I completely stopped acting. I looked at the ground, and thought this wasn’t going to end well for me.” Luckily for Teller, the pilot stuck the move without fail, and everyone came away unscathed.
Many would probably think that such a maneuver in the sky would cause some newbies to the fighter jet world reason to vomit. Miles Teller wasn’t one of the actors who would end up getting sick during many of these flights, but unfortunately for actor Glen Powell, that wasn’t the case. According to SlashFilm, the Everybody Wants Some!! Austin-native confirmed that there was a lot of puking going on on his end during pre-production training that lasted three months, and possibly for some of the other actors in the cast as well. However, apparently franchise star Tom Cruise didn’t get sick once, as he seemed to be a constant professional on set as both the lead and producer of the film.
Top Gun: Maverick has taken the box office by storm since its release during Memorial Day Weekend, with a stellar cast of would-be movie stars. Advertised currently as a new record for Tom Cruise in terms of opening weekend numbers, the sequel has grossed $151 million domestically, as well as a $248 million payday worldwide thus far. Critics have taken a liking to the film despite the overwhelming hype, with Rotten Tomatoes rating the movie as Certified Fresh with a 96% on its Tomatometer, along with nearly universal praise from audiences with a 99% Audience Score. The sequel stars Tom Cruise reprising his role as Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, along with Miles Teller as Rooster, the son of the character Goose from the original film. Rounding out the cast is Jennifer Connelly as Maverick’s love interest Penny Benjamin, Glen Powell as Hangman, Jon Hamm as Cyclone, Jay Ellis as Payback, and Monica Barbaro as Phoenix. Val Kilmer is also featured in the film, reprising the role of Iceman from the original Top Gun.
