Is Tom Cruise Being a Dick to US Navy Crewmen on the Set of Top Gun 2?
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Source – Navy officials have said reports that Tom Cruise was rude to Sailors in San Diego while filming the sequel to ‘Top Gun’ are not accurate.
An anonymous service member alleged that Cruise was impolite to crew aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt while shooting scenes for ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ NBC 7 reported. …
Naval escorts who accompanied Cruise aboard the ship said, ‘At no time did Tom Cruise say to a sailor, ‘”Do not look at me. Do not touch me.”‘
The Navy master chief who spoke to NBC on Monday said Cruise behaved in quite the opposite manner.
‘Some sailors may have misinterpreted guidance from the Navy that told sailors to not approach actors while filming and not use cell phones on the set,’ the official said.
Cruise reportedly addressed the crew and personally thanked everyone for their support at the captain’s ‘all hands on deck’ call on Friday, the official said.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but we need to get to the bottom of this, and we need it five minutes ago. The United States Navy has no greater priority than this at the moment, and we need the truth to come out, no matter how painful it is. When the greatest naval power in the history of the world (Sorry, 19th-20th century Britain. You had a good run.) is potentially in a beef with its most iconic fictional character, this will not wait. Nor will a couple of statements by some mid-level officers and PR people suffice. I need every Navy man from the lowliest deckhand the commanders to all the Joint Chiefs to the Secretary of the Navy to the C0mmander-in-Chief making this Job One. And I want Rear Admiral on this too. We need to know what the hell happened, if anything.
My default setting is to side with the crew members who said Tom Cruise was being an arrogant dick to them. I hate to admit that, because he’s a national treasure. And because Maverick is the very embodiment of all that is right in the American Male. But my dad was a Machinist’s Mate on the escort carrier USS Solomons, so I’m born to defer to those guys, as opposed to their officers.
At the same time though, most of this talk about “arrogance” and “Do not look at me” seems to be coming from a Reddit post by someone who’s sister is on the Roosevelt. And an anti-Scientology site:
And since Scientology will send people to harass the shit out of anyone who says anything negative about them is a fine and very legitimate religion that does great work and deserves its tax-exempt status, I take that anonymous criticism with a grain of salt.
So what do I think happened? Just what the Navy is saying. It was all a big misunderstanding. If Tom Cruise came across as an arrogant dickhead, it’s because Maverick is an arrogant dickhead. It’s called Method Acting. It’s getting into character. Like Daniel Day-Lewis on the set of Lincoln making everyone call him “Mr. President.”
When you’re playing a guy who’s writing checks his body can’t cash, who’s been busted, lost his qualifications as a squad leader three times, put in hack by his superior, with a history of high speed passes over five control towers and one admiral’s daughter, you’ve got to come across as a little cocky. You need to be doing it better and cleaner than the other guy. Otherwise your next role might be playing a guy flying a cargo plane of rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong.
So with all due respect to whoever started this rumor, I’m on Team Maverick all the way. He IS dangerous.