Last year, Tom Cruise led a monster of a movie release with Top Gun: Maverick, which became a billion-dollar hit and an Academy Award winner. The dust may have settled on the huge release now that Barbie has become this summer’s phenomenon, but the cast of Maverick are still reeling from the highs of the experience with a currently active group chat. Interestingly though, Cruise is not part of the stars' chat, and his co-star, Lewis Pullman, shared a funny and honest reason for not adding him.
When the 30-year-old actor reflected on his Top Gun experience, he not only disclosed how the cast really peed while filming flight sequences. He also provided an update on the cast’s Top Gun group chat, which has occasionally come up during interviews. One would think that the leading man would be in on the fun but, as his colleague suggested to Vanity Fair, it's probably for the best that he's not:
Our crew is still on a thread. Not Tom; we don’t need to bother him with all of our memes. He’s got more important stuff to do. But he’ll take a call at any point if we ever need help.
In Lewis Pullman's estimation, Tom Cruise doesn’t have time for the memes, and honestly... yeah, that sounds about right. I definitely don’t take the actor and producer for the texting type. The actor seems more content with jumping out of planes and plotting his next big stunt. To put it simply, he remains one of the busiest people in show business. So he really doesn’t have the time to shoot the breeze with the bright-and-bushy tailed cast, which also includes Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Danny Ramirez, Manny Jacinto and more. But as Pullman also mentioned, Cruise will answer the call if a co-star is in need of his assistance.
Another Maverick cast member, Greg Tarzan Davis, discussed the existence of a Top Gun group chat while talking about his need to keep Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One secrets. (That movie re-teamed him with the Ethan Hunt actor.) Davis also shared that the group chat is “never quiet” even if it's not as active as it used to be. The Call of the Wild alum also shared that because the cast is quite dispersed across the globe, the chat allows them to keep in touch and remain the “family” that they are.
It’s sweet to know that the Top Gun newcomers made some deep connections with one another during their experience working on the highly anticipated sequel. That includes all the crazy training they had to go through collectively. Danny Ramirez has dubbed the rigorous prep program set by the movie’s lead as “the Tom Cruise School of Being a Badass”. As part of that, the stars had to complete a five-month program that had them learning to endure G-forces and water training.
Given what we know about the group chat, Tom Cruise's omission feels appropriate, and one would think that he probably doesn't mind. He certainly comes off as a man who loves action as opposed to a guy who loves gifs.
Those who want to check out the chemistry between him and his young co-stars can check out the blockbuster right now using a Paramount+ subscription and see Tom Cruise in the latest Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, which is now playing in theaters.
