Top Gun: Maverickis out in theaters and soaring high at the global box office. It is known at this point that the scenes in the air were filmed in F-18 hornet jets, not in a flight simulator. But, getting into those planes, withstanding the extreme flying, and handling their own cameras was not the easiest experience for Miles Teller, who plays Lt. Bradley ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw.
As part ofTop Gun: Maverick, the actors had to undergo rigorous training for five months in order to prepare them for what was to come. When signing their contracts, they also had to sign a waiver that confirmed they weren’t afraid of flying. During theTop: Gun Maverickflights, they would experience intense G-force, the force of acceleration on a body, while managing the camera rigs inside the jets. It may have looked great on-screen, but it was a strenuous process nonetheless.
RELATED:Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick Has A Very Specific Audience
Teller plays an integral role inTop Gun: Maverickas the son of Nick ‘Goose’ Bradshaw. Having lost his father, he is quite resentful towards Tom Cruise’s Capt. Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, but spoiler alert, the two do reconcile towards the end of the film. However, in order to reach that point, Teller’s Rooster has to go through intense flying, all of which was filmed in a real jet, and not a part of post-production. In an interview with theLADBible, Teller opened up about the terrifying experience of flying in an F-18.
“I definitely had a moment where I thought I was going to die,” he said. As part of theirsecret mission inTop Gun: Maverick, the main characters have to fly their jets close to the ground to avoid the surface-to-air missile and pull up completely at one point. This is referred to as a “max G pull-up,” and when going through training for that particular moment, Teller said he “stopped acting.” At that moment, he “looked at the ground, and thought this wasn’t going to end well for [him].”
Some of Teller’s co-stars have revealed some behind-the-scenes facts in previous interviews and confessed to puking during training. Teller, on the other hand, revealed that he didn’t throw up even once, and refers to it as a “secret skill.” The intense training andfilming process forTop Gun: Maverickis something that has Teller appreciating regular commercial flights. “I like a flight with very minimal G exposure,” he joked.
