He had the need, the need to fulfill expectations.
Glen Powell is opening up about the “pressure” he felt while filming “Top Gun: Maverick,” the long-awaited sequel to 1986′s “Top Gun,” which soared into theaters over Memorial Day weekend to rack up over $1.4 billion worldwide.
“When you have a movie the size of ‘Top Gun,’ there’s a lot of expectations on how you play a certain character,” Powell, 33, who starred as hotshot Lt. Jake “Hangman” Seresin, told People.
“You don’t want to be a derivative. You don’t want to be stuck in the ‘80s. You’re trying to figure out a way to update things. When you have that amount of expectations, there are a lot of ways to miss,” said the “Set It Up” star, 33. “There are a lot of ways to fail.”
Though “still pinching” himself over how much the film has resonated with fans, becoming the year’s highest-grossing film and the 13th-biggest of all time, Powell admitted there was “a lot of pressure” fueling it.
But, he said, Tom Cruise, who reprised his role as Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, advised the cast: “‘Pressure’s a privilege.’ When there’s [an] expectation on something, it also means there’s a lot of opportunity.
“Everybody put everything they had into making sure this movie was great,” continued Powell.
Set in the present day, “Top Gun: Maverick” — which was delayed multiple times due to COVID — sees Maverick instructing a group of TOPGUN grads for a seemingly impossible international mission, amid personal turmoil.
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