As of late, fans of the the latest Star Wars series have not been able to look away from Manny Jacinto. The actor known best for his role in The Good Place has been deemed the franchise’s latest sexy villain on The Acolyte, and fans have been losing their minds over his scenes. Now that Jacinto is gaining acclaim for the gig, it’s time to talk about that time he was in Top Gun: Maverick without uttering a single line in the summer blockbuster.
That’s right, Manny Jacinto was in the Top Gun: Maverick cast alongside Tom Cruise, Glen Powell, Miles Teller and more, but we don’t blame anyone for not catching that. Even though he endured months of intense training with the other cast members, including being in actual fighter jets and becoming a major gym rat, when it came to the theatrical release, he could only be seen in the background of shots in the movie. Here’s what Jacinto recently shared about his Maverick role:
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.
In a new interview with GQ, Jacinto shared that he was not surprised when he could barely be found in Maverick in the summer of 2022 because he got a sense of that on the set of the big-budget film. Despite some disappointment, Jacinto is grateful for the unique experience associated with working closely with Cruise on the most high-profile movie of his career yet. However, for fans of the actor, who saw that he'd been cast as a character named “Fritz” back in 2018, there was some frustration over what happened to his role.
i will never forgive top gun maverick for including manny jacinto but cutting his scenes or blurring him in the bg like??? pic.twitter.com/egSokyKgDiMarch 13, 2023
Prior to the movie’s release, Jacinto spoke about the excitement he felt to “represent” the many Filipino people in the Air Force with his role. However, he was reduced to a background actor in the movie itself, with all his dialogue being left out of it. Manny Jacinto also had this to say about barely being in Maverick:
It kind of fuels you, because 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.
There was certainly a diverse group of Top Gun pilots in Maverick, between Monica Barbaro’s Natasha ‘Phoenix’ Trace, Jay Ellis’ Reuben ‘Payback’ Fitch, Danny Ramirez’s Mickey ‘Fanboy’ Garcia alongside Jacinto’s Billy ‘Fritz’ Avalone, but all the other actors at least had a few lines to make them memorable parts of the crew. The Good Place actor was sidelined more than any of the main stars, which is particularly a shame given he was part of a lead cast of a major network show beforehand.
Perhaps this can be redeemed in the rumored Top Gun 3? You can hunt for Manny Jacinto in Top Gun: Maverick, now streaming with a Paramount+ subscription.
