Manny Jacinto slams ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ for cutting his lines: ‘Tom Cruise is writing stories for Tom Cruise’
nypost.comManny Jacinto, 36, is speaking out about “Top Gun: Maverick” cutting down his part. “It’s flattering that there was a little bit of an outcry, but it wasn’t shocking to me,” Jacinto told GQ in an interview published Wednesday.
Jacinto, who is Filipino-Canadian and is married to “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” actress Dianne Doan, 33, added, “It kind of fuels you, because at the end of the day, Tom Cruise is writing stories for Tom Cruise.” He continued, “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.”In the $1.5 billion box office hit, “Top Gun: Maverick,” which has been credited with saving the box office after the dismal pandemic year of 2020, Jacinto played LT Billy “Fritz” Avalone.But, he said, after months of training and gym sessions, all his lines were cut, and his character had hardly any screen time in the finished product. “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,” said Jacinto.
The movie catapulted Glen Powell and Miles Teller to higher levels of fame. But it hardly boosted Jacinto’s spotlight. Jacinto, who was also in “Nine Perfect Strangers” with Nicole Kidman, is best known for playing Jason, the goofy amateur DJ in “The Good Place” alongside Kristen Bell and Jameela Jamil.
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