Manny Jacinto, who played LT Billy ‘Fritz’ Avalone in Tom Cruise-starrer Top Gun: Maverick claimed that all of his scenes from the film were edited out.
Manny Jacinto is addressing his short role in the final cut in Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick. The star, who is gaining attention for his work in The Acolyte, talked to GQ magazine and said that he trained for months to do Top Gun, only to see that all of his scenes were left out in the edit room, and his character Fritz appeared briefly in the background only for a few scenes.
‘It still was a great experience’
Manny said, “It’s flattering that there was a little bit of an outcry, but it wasn’t shocking to me. There was this sense of where the film was going [on set], like I can see them focusing the camera more on these [other] guys and not taking so much time on our scenes. Fortunately, it still was a great experience — you get to see this huge machine at work, see how Tom Cruise works, and you get to be a small part of this huge franchise.”
He added, “At the end of the day, Tom Cruise is writing stories for Tom Cruise. It’s up to us — Asian Americans, people of color — to be that [for ourselves]. We can’t wait for somebody else to do it. If we want bigger stories out there, we have to make them for ourselves.”
About Top Gun Maverick
Directed by Joseph Kosinski, Top Gun Maverick saw Tom reprise his iconic role after 36 years while training a new batch of recruits. It starred Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, and Ed Harris. The film released in May 27, 2022, to positive reviews and went on to collect over $1 billion worldwide.