Actor Glen Powell was propelled to new heights of stardom when he starred as Hangman in Top Gun: Maverick. The Tom Cruise-starrer was the highest-grossing film of 2022 and was even nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. Powell’s role as an arrogant yet principled Navy pilot received positive responses from fans and critics alike.
Though Powell portrayed Hangman to perfection, that was not the first role he auditioned for. The actor reportedly first hoped to star as Rooster, the role that eventually went to Miles Teller. However, after being rejected from the role and not being impressed with Hangman on the page, Powell was convinced by Cruise to take the character.
Glen Powell Was Initially Rejected From Top Gun: Maverick
Glen Powell began his career as a child actor when he starred in Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over. The actor went on to play several roles in films such as The Great Debaters and The Expendables 3. However, his breakthrough came with Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some!, which saw him play Finnegan, a young and confident teen.
While he was featured in other films such as Hidden Figures, his next big role was Hangman in Top Gun: Maverick. Powell played the role with ease and was perfect as a pilot who is similar to a younger Maverick, played by Tom Cruise. However, Powell revealed in an interview that he was not impressed with the character when he was offered it.
In an interview with The Wrap, Glen Powell mentioned that he first auditioned for the role of Rooster, the son of Goose from Top Gun, but was rejected from the role. He said,
You know, there was a moment in which, obviously, I was auditioning for this role [of Rooster, Goose’s son], I put everything I had into the audition process, and went and lived with aviators and really tried to understand that world. By the time I auditioned for Tom, I felt like I was the guy.
And when I didn’t get the role, it really was a gut punch of epic proportions. I really never get emotionally attached during an audition process. I understand that it’s not really about you or up to you. But this is, again, is a movie I’ve wanted to make my entire life, one of the movies that got me into this business.
The actor mentioned that he was literally sleeping in a fetal position while being sad when he got a call from director Joseph Kosinski offering him another role in the film.
Tom Cruise Convinced Glen Powell To Take Up Hangman
Tom Cruise has been the driving force behind the making of Top Gun: Maverick. From screaming at production assistants to be careful while filming during the COVID-19 pandemic to making sure the film received a wide theatrical release, Cruise carried the film on his shoulders and made sure that it received the acclaim it deserved.
He reportedly also convinced Glen Powell to take on the role of Hangman when he was feeling unsure. The actor mentioned that he was initially apprehensive as he was not impressed with the character at the script level, but Cruise convinced him that it could be improved along the way.
When Tom was kind of pitching these things, and I knew what the role was on the page, and the only way for me to judge if a role is good or bad is what it is on the page. And Tom explained to me his process, which is, it’s not about the page, it’s about your attributes as an actor and how we can create the most compelling character within this world.
And that was what I think was really, really interesting is Tom and Joe and Chris McQuarrie said, “Here are the attributes that we think are compelling about your character. The first movie is a coming-of-age story, this one’s going to be a man facing his age story. And we feel like you represent the spirit of Maverick, like the initial feeling of what it is to be an unapologetic aviator, a guy who believes he’s the greatest weapon the Navy’s ever produced.”
Glen Powell ended up accepting the role even though he wanted to play Rooster first. However, his performance fetched him universal acclaim, and he seemed to have brought some real authenticity to the character.
Top Gun: Maverick is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
