Top Gun: Maverick Star Jay Ellis' First Flight Left Glen Powell Sick As A Dog
"Top Gun: Maverick" meant different things to different people. To snarky Internet commenters, it was a slap in the mouth and a reminder that you never know when a seemingly ill-advised sequel is going to wind up being a record-breaking, once-in-a-generation event film. To Steven Spielberg, it was the motion picture that "saved Hollywood's ass," and we all owe Tom Cruise a thanks for saving the theater industry. To Glen Powell, it was a doctor's note for some prescription-grade motion sickness medication.
It should be no surprise that the film, starring and produced by human crash test dummy Cruise, put its cast through thrilling, adrenaline-saturated training, with an understandable focus on piloting military aircraft, and while Cruise might be accustomed to waking up, taping himself to the side of a passenger plane, and then getting a light lunch from craft services, other actors have a more difficult time with stuff like turbulence, bumps, and being flown around in a jet by a supporting actor on "The Game."
Jay Ellis gave his co-star a bumpy ride
"My first flight was actually with Glen Powell," Jay Ellis, who plays Lt. Reuben "Payback" Fitch in "Top Gun: Maverick," recalled in an appearance on an episode of "The Jennifer Hudson Show" that aired on February 17. "We flew in a Cessna together. I flew first; he was sitting in the back seat."
Now seems like a good time to interject and remind readers about how musical sensation Kenny Loggins once postulated that "you'll never say hello to you until you get it on the red line overload" and that "you'll never know what you can do until you get it up as high as you can go." It is, therefore, with a sense of sadness that we report that Powell, while riding in the back of a plane that was going very high and from the sounds of things, being pushed toward the red line overload, got super close to blowing chunks.
"He was so sick when we landed," Ellis continued. "You don't realize that it's like being in the back of a car. You know how it's bumpier when you sit in the back? I didn't realize I was tearing my man up. We landed, and he was like, 'I need a water break. I need a few minutes to just get my life back.'" And just like that, audiences have a whole new reason to rewatch "Top Gun: Maverick": the knowledge that at least one member of the ensemble cast was suffering from low-grade nausea.