It’s hard to imagine a world without the movie Top Gun. AvGeeks watch it at least once a year despite the 80s corniness, because the flying scenes are as cool now as they were 30+ years ago. Top talent was hired to ensure a successful production, but the star of the movie needed convincing from the Blue Angels to finally decide to become Maverick.
In another fantastic interview by Ryan Notthaft at Blue Angel Phantoms on YouTube, the Blue Angel pilot who flew Tom Cruise, Curt “Griz” Watson, talks about his experience.
A thin script with no story, yet
Reading the script alone Cruise was not amused. He was a serious actor still making a name for himself, and there was a lot of apprehension about how the public would receive an aviation movie. Because the truth is no aviation movie was ever truly a big time blockbuster before Top Gun.
But the producers knew they had a winner. They considered Top Gun like “Star Wars on Earth”, inspired by a story years earlier in California Magazine. But Cruise didn’t initially share their vision, and neither did many production companies before Paramount. They had no real characters or story, just cool flying jets.
“When I first read it I thought they had a very thin story and script,” recalled Cruise in a old Behind the Scenes feature on the making of the movie, which you can watch here. “I thought yea, I don’t know about this.”
Help us Admiral
In a last desperate attempt to convince Cruise to join, producer Jerry Bruckheimer put in a call to Navy Admiral Peter Garrow, requesting the Navy fly Cruise to convince him to do the movie. Garrow, naturally, called the Blues with the orders.
Grizz rung out Cruise pretty good in the team’s #7 jet, an A-4 Skyhawk. With a bag full of vomit Cruise was hooked, and his love affair with aviation began. Upon landing he walked to the closest payphone, called Bruckheimer and said “I’ll do it”.
But he wasn’t satisfied with just the Blue Angels A-4 ride. After all, Mav is an F-14 Tomcat pilot. So Cruise requested flight time in the F-14 as part of his character development. Which made perfect sense. Cruise even put it in his contract. The producers and Navy happily accommodated.
His first F-14 flight kicked his butt good too. His pilot, call sign Bozo, put him through the wringer. You can watch the interview above about some of that flying, or better yet, watch this video where both Cruise and Bozo talk about it.
He loved flying the F-14 so much, that he even told his pilots “let’s get these scenes shot and then go rip it up. I’m gonna rate you on who is the best pilot.” Each pilot wanted to know how his other pilots did, and would then compete to see who could kick Tom’s butt in the sky the hardest.
Cruise has been in love with flying ever since. He’s now an accomplished pilot himself, rated for numerous airframes. He even owns a WWII P-51 Mustang fighter.
