Jerry Bruckheimer Is Why Michael Ironside Didn't Appear In Top Gun: Maverick
In the festival of military might that is Tony Scott's 1986 action movie, "Top Gun," the fighter pilots are surely the stars. At California's Miramar Naval Air Station — the "Top Gun" of the title — the audience watches Tom Cruise's Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, Nick "Goose" Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards), Tom "Iceman" Kazansky (Val Kilmer) and other candidates go through rigorous flight training, shepherded by experienced instructors like Commander Mike "Viper" Metcalf (Tom Skerritt) and Lt. Commander Rick "Jester" Heatherly. Maverick may have gotten a sequel, but it's the Top Gun instructors who train and manage (as best they can) his need for speed.
Jester is played by Michael Ironside, who in 1986 was at the mid-point between playing baddies in David Cronenberg's head trip "Scanners" and Paul Verhoeven's cerebral sci-fi gem "Total Recall" — two movies that bookended a decade where the Canadian actor-writer ascended as one of the most recognizable tough guys on film.
Those scanning the frames of the long-hyped sequel "Top Gun: Maverick" for Jester, however, will be disappointed; the veteran actor isn't in the flick, and he can tell you why. In a 2018 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ironside explains that his relationship with producer Jerry Bruckheimer is apparently beyond the danger zone. He told THR:
"The one person still in charge is Jerry Bruckheimer, and Mr. Bruckheimer and I don't really get along, or didn't get along. He offered me a project 10 or 12 years ago and ... I said no to it. The next time I saw him at a hockey game ... I went up and said, 'Hey Jerry,' and he just turned around and I figured, 'Well that relationship is over with.'"
It's just business
Michael Ironside bears little ill will towards the producer, known for backing lucrative projects like the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies. "He has a business he has to run," Ironside continued, "he has to make decisions based on his way of doing things and what makes him feel safe."
The voice of DC villain, Darkseid, has his own way of doing things: Like some of his more direct characters, he says what he means and means what he says. Speaking his mind has made for great collaborations — he's a repeat player for Paul Verhoeven, exploding heads and blasting bugs over the decades. But in some instances, Ironside's way of doing things can put creators on the defensive. In a 2016 interview with Screen Anarchy, he explained how calling out David Cronenberg on misogyny in his 1988 film "Dead Ringers" led to a falling out:
"David and I have only worked together that once, we had a falling out about five or six years later, over a discussion. It was over the twins film with Jeremy Irons, 'Dead Ringers.' We were talking one day about it and there happened to be somebody listening and I told him I thought it was misogynistic horses***. You start sticking odd objects inside of women and pass it off as drama. I said if you've got to work out your godd***ed s***, why do you have to do it at the expense of the audience? And he said you're full of s*** and we got in to it, and I still hold to that."
To be fair, much of Cronenberg's early oeuvre is clearly some form of relationship scream therapy — sexy, terrifying scream therapy. Whether the drama part of it passes muster depends on how horny and terrified the viewer wants to be.