Glen Powell says Tom Cruise pretended to lose control of helicopter as a prank

Tom Cruise and Glen Powell attends the Korea Red Carpet for Top Gun: Maverick at Lotte World on June 19, 2022 in Seoul, South Korea.


Glen Powell may not be getting back in a helicopter with Tom Cruise anytime soon.

In an interview for British GQ Hype, the 35-year-old Hitman The actor revealed that Cruise, 61, once pretended to lose control of a helicopter while piloting it, with Powell as a passenger.

According to the outlet, the prank happened as the two were returning to London after filming reshoots for Top Gun: Maverick at Pinewood Studios, around 18 miles from the English capital.

“Tom says, ‘Oh no, oh no,’ and he starts dropping the helicopter over London,” Powell recalled of Cruise’s joke. “I thought, ‘Am I about to be the anonymous guy who dies with Tom in a smoking hole in the middle of London?'”

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Glen Powell in Top Gun: Maverick (2022).

Paramount/courtesy Everett Collection


Powell also spoke about holding his own pilot’s license in the United States. GQ interview, joking: “I thought I could be Tom Cruise.”

“He has a helicopter and he flies real jets. If I have to go to New York or Texas, on this SR-22, it will take me forever,” added the Scream Queens alum.

Powell played Lt. Jake “Hangman” Seresin in 2022 Mavericka long-awaited sequel to Cruise’s 1986 hit Top Gun. The most recent film saw Cruise reprise his role as naval officer Pete “Maverick” Mitchell more than three decades after the first film’s release.

Maverick follows Cruise’s title character as he trains a new generation of pilots, including Powell’s character and Miles Teller’s Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, for a dangerous, top-secret mission.

From left: Christopher McQuarrie, Jerry Bruckheimer, Danny Ramirez, Glen Powell, Miles Teller, Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Jay Ellis, Lewis Pullman, Greg Tarzan Davis, director Joseph Kosinski and David Ellison at the premiere British Top Gun: Maverick in London on May 19, 2022.
Anthony Sinclair/Getty Images

Powell previously revealed that Cruise persuaded him to sign up Maverick after initially auditioning for the role of Teller, but did not get it and was not initially interested in moving forward.

“(Tom and I) sat down for a few hours and talked about his life and his career, how he chooses films, how he develops roles and that sort of thing,” the communicated. Anyone but you the star told PEOPLE in April 2022.

“It was really a series of these conversations that convinced me that this role could be really exciting, that I could have a little bit of creative freedom. I could make it my own and create something that could be really special.”

“And I have to give Tom credit, a lot of times people are just trying to talk you into getting into a movie and none of the promises are kept,” he continued. “But he delivered on every one of those promises. And I’m really proud of the movie and I’m proud of my role in it.”

Hitman is on Netflix June 7.

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