Top Gun: Maverick Star Miles Teller Has One Of The Greatest Tom Cruise Stories Ever
"Top Gun: Maverick" is responsible for many great developments from the past month: the biggest opening weekend of Tom Cruise's career, a sharp reminder that we should all be paying attention to Glen Powell, a whopping $400 million made at the domestic box office, and best of all, a new supply of top-tier Tom Cruise stories. My personal favorites include the story of Cruise working his movie star magic to get "Maverick" greenlit with a single phone call to the folks at Paramount, along with older anecdotes like the resurfaced tale of his close friendship with Martin Scorsese's parents. Evidently, the universe has heard our cry for more of this, please and another day brings yet another story of how Tom Cruise might very well be one and the same as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell.
First, some necessary context: for a couple of months now, the cast of "Maverick" has been recounting their experience at "Tom Cruise Boot Camp," the tongue-in-cheek nickname for the training that Cruise put his castmates through so they'd be ready to strap into real jets for the sake of cinema. Cruise does his own risky stunts and a large part of his interest in both "Top Gun" movies was giving the audience an authentic idea of what it feels like to be up in a jet. Cruise is a veteran, but Top Gun newcomers like Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro, and Jay Ellis endured a host of flights before sitting in the cockpits of actual fighter jets to film their scenes. The result? Many bags of vomit and some of the greatest plane action the silver screen has ever seen. But it turns out that so much time in the air took a real toll on the actors.
Miles Teller feels the need ... for a doctor
The story starts with Miles Teller and some fascinating medical issues. He recounted the tale on "Late Night with Seth Meyers," explaining that he first noticed issues deep into the shoot, after spending a day filming in a jet:
"We landed and I'm just like, 'Man, I'm not feeling too good.' I was really hot and I just started itching like crazy. So I get out of the jet and I'm just covered in hives, like head to toe. Instantly, I go to a doctor, I do a blood analysis, this, that whatever. Then I'm in an oatmeal bath that night."
The oatmeal bath did him some good, but the blood analysis is where things get interesting. Teller revealed that when his blood work finally came back, it revealed "flame-retardant, pesticides, and jet fuel" in his blood. Obviously, he had the sane response of "oh my god." But all that time with Tom Cruise must have rubbed off on him because, after some brief concern, he changed his tune. He said, "I thought, 'Wait a second, this is actually kind of cool.'" Naturally, this is where Cruise gets involved:
"So I go to set the next day and Tom [Cruise] is like, 'So how did it go, Miles? What did they find?' I was like, 'Well, Tom, it turns out I have jet fuel in my blood.' And without even skipping a beat, Tom just goes, 'Yeah, I was born with it kid.'"
Spoken like true Maverick. Honestly, Tom Cruise having pure jet fuel coursing through his veins would explain a lot. How else would he survive two "Top Gun" movies and eight rounds of "Mission Impossible"?
"Top Gun: Maverick" is now playing in theaters.