by FilmInk staff
How do you look back on the original now? Obviously that period was an incredible one-two-three for you, of Flashdance, Beverly Hills Cop and Top Gun – what do you remember of that time? And did doing this movie take you right back to it?
“Absolutely. It’s nostalgic. It’s classic. Working with someone like Tom [Cruise], and the whole group of people that he put together, it’s been like going back; like going back and seeing an old friend you haven’t seen for a while, enjoying hanging out with them again. At the same time, it’s hugely enjoyable to be giving audiences something so new and fresh. My career has always been about that; about entertaining people, giving them something new.”
So the story goes, it was when you saw a picture of a pilot in a magazine that you came up with the idea for Top Gun. Is all of that legend true?
“Well, what happened was that I opened a magazine – I think it was called New West, here in LA. And I looked at a photograph of a pilot in a cockpit, with another plane right above him. I think that plane was upside down. I was like, ‘Whoa! This is like Star Wars, for real. This is amazing!’ The piece was about this school named Top Gun, in Miramar, California. So, I threw it on Don’s [Simpson] desk – he was my partner back then – and he said, ‘Oh wow, this is great! We’ve got to get this story!’ So, we negotiated with the magazine and got the rights to the story. We hired some writers and started to put it together. It was quite a journey to get the movie made. When we had a script, we hired Tony [Scott, director] and the first person he wanted to give it to was Tom. So, we sent over the script, and it was a journey to get him to commit! But he finally committed after I arranged for him to fly with two Blue Angels, in El Centro, California. They took him up. At the time, Tom had just finished a movie with Ridley Scott called Legend, so he had a long ponytail. These pilots, they took one look at him walking onto the tarmac and they were like, ‘Oh boy, we’re going to give this guy a real ride!’ They took him up there and did all kinds of Gs and flipped him and spun him, and he loved it! He got out of the plane, went straight to a phone booth and called me up. He just said, ‘I’m in! I’m doing the movie!’”
How about the other actors on that first Top Gun? Is it right that they were physically sick, with all the Gs?
“Yeah. You know, they went up a lot. We took advantage of what we’d learned, so we put everybody up in these planes. But Tom was the only one who could handle the Gs – the rest of them were throwing up! It was a disaster! So, for this movie, Tom put together a training program for all the actors. It took three months to train the actors to be able to be in an F-18. We started in a prop plane and then he put them into aerobatics – he’d spin them a little bit. But you don’t really have that much speed in a prop plane, so then he put them in a jet, and they could really start to feel the G-forces. But it’s nothing like an F-18. That was the last part of the training. For two months they were in all these other planes, and then for the last month they were in the F-18s. That’s when they really felt the G-forces, and they really felt them! What you see in the trailer and what you see in the movie is really them in those planes, handling those G-forces. And Tom, he can fly those planes. Tom can fly anything. He has a helicopter pilot license, a jet pilot license, he flew his own plane in the movie. He is very accomplished, and he made sure all the other actors knew what they were doing. We put six cameras in the cockpits and the actors had to know when to put the cameras on, had to know where the sun was, the light was, had to do their lines, deliver the scene. You know, these guys are handling the G-force and trying to remember their lines! They had this enormous pressure on them – literally and figuratively – to get their lines right. And then they had to turn the cameras off [afterwards] too! It was quite an ordeal for them.”
How do you feel about that? On the original, most of the actors did their plane scenes on a gimbal, but here they are doing it for real. How does that make you feel as a producer?
“It scared the hell out of me! Even though we had these really skilled pilots working with us, this is dangerous stuff!”
You did Days Of Thunder together in between, but it’s been nearly 35 years between Top Guns for you and Tom. How have you both changed in that time, and how have you stayed the same?
“Well, Tom is a friend and has been for a long time – since the first movie. He’s a phenomenal guy; very giving, very respectful. To everybody. No matter who you are on set, he is very respectful to you, no matter what your job is. He was very generous to all the young actors on this movie. He spent an enormous amount of time with them. Because, you know, each and every one of them wants to have his career! Just look at him! Look at how long he’s been in the business – and he’s still the biggest movie star in the world. I’m sure everybody out there in the business wants that same career trajectory that Tom’s had. So, [on set] he would sit with them and talk to them about the choices he’s made, about the directors he’s worked with. He guided them on what worked for him. That was really generous of him. I’ve worked with a lot of actors over the course of my career. Some of them can’t wait to get off the set and go home. Some of them just sit in their trailer the whole day or are angry when you call them to set. Tom is the opposite. He loves coming to work. He demands excellence and he can do anybody’s job on the set. He could certainly do my job better than I can – I can tell you that!”
What’s your motivation on this movie?
“I just get such a thrill when I can stand at the back of the theatre and watch people be entertained by something we gave them. Something that takes them away from what’s going on in their life. And there’s no more of a need for that than right now. There’s a lot of stress, because it’s obviously pretty scary out there. And if we can give them two hours of entertainment where they forget about all that, and just really get absorbed in the characters and the story, I feel really good about that. And as long as they let me keep doing it, I’m going to keep doing it! It’s never been about the money for me. It’s been about how we entertain people, how we take them on a ride. I’ve seen this movie a number of times now and I love it. It’s so entertaining and so fun and edgy and romantic – it’s got all the stuff that I love about going to the movies. The reason I go to the movies is because of movies like Top Gun.”
Have you been up there yet, in one of the F-18s?
“No, I haven’t. I’ve been offered but I’m not sure I can go through what those guys go through up there!”
What can you tell us about the new recruits on this movie, Miles Teller in particular?
“Joe Kosinski [director] worked with Miles on his previous picture [Only the Brave] and I’ve always respected him as an actor. I’ve always thought he’s really great at what he does. So, Joe brought him in, and he read with Tom, and he just got the character right away. He brings such depth to the character and pathos and humour. He’s a consummate professional and a terrific actor, so we’re really lucky. But, you know, you’ve got to be that way around Tom because he sets the standard on set. You’ve got to be on your toes around Tom because he’s at the top of his game, so you’ve got to be at the top of yours.”
What was it that made Joe the right guy to step into Tony Scott’s huge shoes?
“First of all, Joe is a visual artist. He’s a trained architect. Tony was a painter, went to art school, so there are similarities there. Joe’s movies always look phenomenal; he’s a good storyteller. Plus, he came up with the idea! So, Tom, he went to Paris with Joe, when Tom was doing Mission [Impossible]. And Joe had done a look-book of photographs of where he thought the character should be going. And he told a really good story, and that was what got Tom really excited. Tom was excited before and wanted to make the movie. We already had a script, but Joe took it in a different direction.”
Top Gun: Maverick – Buy it first on Digital August 24. Rent it September 14. Coming to 4K-UHD™, Blu-Ray™ and DVD November 2
