Highway to the Danger Zone! As Top Gun: Maverick continues to top the box office, fans are soaking up all the behind-the-scenes content from the set.
Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Jay Ellis, Greg “Tarzan” Davis and more members of the newer generation of pilots have made waves, in particular, for a shirtless scene in which they play football on the beach with Tom Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell — a nod to the infamous volleyball scene in the OG Top Gun, which premiered in 1986.
“We’d all seen the original Top Gun scene. I was eating more grass than a bunny rabbit, and protein bars,” Davis told USA Today about getting in shape for the montage. “I was in peak form. It was like, ‘Oh, yes.’”
Teller, for his part, got down to 7 percent body fat for the shirtless scene.
“For breakfast, it was six eggs and then, you know, you work out and then you have a shake and then it was two lunches. Each lunch would be chicken breast, full potato and some broccoli and I’d have two of those,” the actor said during an interview on the Joe YouTube channel. “And then I remember there’ll be another snack after that,” he For dinner, specifically, it was 20 ounces of certain fish or steak.”
While he added that he didn’t enjoy eating so much, the moment has helped him go viral on TikTok following the movie’s May release.
“Feeling the love for Rooster and #TopGunMaverick. We share this moment together, thank you,” Teller tweeted on June 4.
Tellers’ wife, Keleigh Sperry, meanwhile, has also embraced her man’s newfound sex symbol status, encouraging fans to “thirst on” while sharing social media clips of their marriage and her husband in the movie.
Jon Hamm, for his part, admitted to Men’s Health that he was “very, very happy to leave the shirtless parts to the younger generation” as his character, Admiral Beau “Cyclone” Simpson, walks on the beach fully dressed to question Maverick about why the group is playing football.
Off the beach, Top Gun: Maverick follows Cruise’s character training the next generation of pilots, including his late friend Goose’s son, Rooster (Teller), for a dangerous mission.
“I got to see the full cut of it the other day. It is one of the greatest movies of all time. I am so excited to show the world this,” Powell exclusively told Us Weekly in August 2020. “What makes me feel so good about it is that when you know you have the goods, there’s no need to rush it. … Tom and I talked after I watched it, and I told him! I was like, ‘I literally have no more fingernails left. I’ve chewed off all of my fingernails.’ … You cry, you laugh. It’s got adventure. It’s got romance. It’s just like one of those movies, where you’re like, ‘Oh, God, why can’t all movies be this fun and great?’ It’s so rare.”
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