Audiences love to hate mean characters. Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter series, King Joffrey from Game of Thrones, and Negan from The Walking Dead are just a few iconic antagonists whose role is to be unlikeable… and, in doing so, become a crucial part of the movie or series. That’s what Glen Powell‘s character Hangman achieves in Top Gun: Maverick. Hangman is an arrogant Navy pilot who constantly teases and pokes fun at his comrades, earning him dislike among the more cool and collected members of his squad, and in turn, earns dislike from the audience. As per IndieWire, Glen Powell revealed that he took some advice from lead actor Tom Cruise for the role, who told him to “lean into the douchebaggery” while playing Hangman:
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“Sometimes you can fall into the trap of wanting to be liked on camera. And in a movie like this, where you know there’s going to be a lot of eyes on it, you don’t want to be Draco Malfoy… But Tom gave me this advice: ‘For the ending to work, you have to completely lean into that. Everybody else in the movie is questioning their own ability. You’re the only guy that’s not questioning it. So if there’s any sort of apology in anything you say, the movie doesn’t work. Lean into the douchebaggery of it all.’”
Tom Cruise apparently understands the “you-love-to-hate-them character.” Powell recalls another crucial piece of advice Cruise gave him on set:
“It’s not that I need people to root for you, but I need them to love watching you… We need that sort of swagger. We need that fun, that unapologetic ego in this movie.”
Glen Powell also reveals that he was initially hesitant to take the role, seeing Hangman as a one-dimensional character. But, looking back, he says he’s glad he signed on:
“He was there to add conflict to Rooster’s character, which is a good thing, but he wasn’t three-dimensional and he had no pay off. I didn’t know why he existed… It was a leap of faith. In hindsight, I’m like, ‘God, I can’t imagine if I missed out on this one,’ but it wasn’t so obvious.”
Related: Glen Powell: Getting the Credit He Deserves
Top Gun: Maverick Returns to Theaters, Gets Paramount+ Streaming Date
Paramount Pictures
Top Gun: Maverick was a hit and remains the highest-grossing film of 2022. It returned to theaters for a limited run this month, so you might get a chance to watch it on the big screen if you missed it last spring. However, if you prefer to watch from home, it will be available for streaming on Paramount+ later this month on Dec. 22.
Top Gun: Maverick isn’t Glen Powell’s only flick as a flyboy. He acts alongside Jonathan Majors in Devotion, a film about the first African-American navy pilot who served in the Korean War. Here, Powell plays a much more amiable type of character who strikes up a friendship with Majors’s character. Devotion hit theaters on Nov. 23, 2022.
Top Gun: Maverick stars Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Ed Harris, and Val Kilmer. It was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Joseph Kosinski, with Paramount Pictures distributing the film. It released in theaters on May 27, 2022.
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