When we see a major franchise like Star Wars return to the big screen, we hear countless stories of actors and other celebrities looking for a way to appear in a franchise they grew up loving. It seems that something similar happened in the case of Top Gun: Maverick as a Formula One racer was actually set to appear in the upcoming sequel, unfortunately, the day job got in the way.
Lewis Hamilton makes his living as a Formula One race car driver, but the racer has Hollywood ambitions. He's appeared as a voice in Cars movies and also had a cameo in Zoolander 2, but Hamilton told ESPN that he had a role in Top Gun: Maverick all locked up, but the schedule did not allow for him to actually film it.
I was trying to get in Top Gun because I'm a massive fan of Top Gun, but I didn't have time to do any filming. But I had an opportunity to do it and I couldn't do it.
It's probably little shock that a professional race car driver loves a movie whose most famous line of dialogue revolves around "the need for speed." Lewis Hamilton admits that he has gone after other Hollywood roles in the past that he did not get, but his comments here indicate that the role in the Top Gun sequel was his, the only problem was that he didn't have the time to show up and do the part.
While Lewis Hamilton apparently has Hollywood ambitions, it looks like his desire to act is colliding with his racing schedule. It's not just that he's too busy racing to act. The man still wants time for himself, so filling up the few breaks he does have with movies roles isn't really what he's looking for.
I definitely don't have time for movies [right now], I would take up my whole winter, so I wouldn't get a break, so that's the difficult thing that I'm struggling with right now.
It seems likely that if Lewis Hamilton really wants to act, he may need to take time away from racing to do it. Of course, when that's the thing you make your living doing, it's potentially tough to just walk away and try your hand at an entirely new career. There's certainly no guarantee that Hamilton will have roles lined up for him, even if he had the time.
Hamilton himself even accepts that acting may not really be in his future. He knows how much work he would have to put in to be great at it. Still, he plans to give it a shot at some point.
I don't know if I am ever going to be good at movies, but I'll give it a try. You look at a lot of people that do it and they are not really good ... and I know how hard it is for any craft, because it's taken me years to master what I do.
It's too bad that Lewis Hamilton had to give up on being in the new Top Gun. Instead, he'll just have to sit in the theater and enjoy it with the rest of us when the film arrives next year.
