'Top Gun: Behind Closed Doors': Tom Cruise threw up in first plane ride before saying yes to Maverick's role
It took a nauseous airplane ride for Tom Cruise to be completely sold on 'Top Gun'. The star, who plays the role of hotshot aviator Maverick in the film, was reluctant about taking up the film, as revealed in 'Top Gun: Behind Closed Doors' — a documentary that gives an insight into all the drama that went into making the film. Screenwriter Jack Epps Jr says that they wrote the film for Cruise. "I gave the script to Jerry Bruckheimer and told him, think Tom Cruise when you read the script."
Film producer Bruckheimer revealed that when they handed the script over to Cruise, he wasn't "terribly excited" about the film. "He had just broken up with his girlfriend and was travelling around the country, and wasn't into making committments." However, Bruckheimer and Don Simpson were insistent on Cruise being in the film. They told technical advisor Pete Pettigrew that they couldn't do the film without him. They knew he was going to be the next big star and they needed him, but he was "waffling" whether he wanted to do the film or not. This is when Bruckheimer decided to send him up in an airplane. So, he arranged for Cruise to fly with the Blue Angels in California. Cruise arrived on his motorcycle with long hair and the pilots looked at him and said, "We're going to give this hippie the ride of his life." They took him up and Cruise was throwing up, through his mask. But this rough ride seemed to have sealed the deal as Cruise rushed to call Bruckheimer and confirm that he was doing the film. "He had the time of his life," Bruckheimer recalled.
However, the price was quite high as well. "Don said, Paul Wagner (Tom Cruise's agent) wants a million dollars for Tom, who else is there? I said I'll call you back, I went through the notebooks, I called him back and said there was no one else who was good for the part," said casting director Margery Simkin. All said and done, in retrospect, the role of Maverick was tailor-made for Cruise. The sequel, 'Top Gun: Maverick', will hit the screens in December.