Manny Jacinto admitted that his reduced role in Top Gun: Maverick motivated him. (Photo Credit: Instagram)
Before joining the Star Wars universe, Manny Jacinto had a blink and miss appearance in Tom Cruise’ Top Gun: Maverick as LT Billy ‘Fritz’ Avalone.
Manny Jacinto, best known for his roles in The Good Place and Nine Perfect Strangers, is currently garnering attention as Qimir in Star Wars series The Acolyte. Although the new role is giving Jacinto a much deserved boost to his career, it’s not his first big franchise. Before joining the Star Wars universe, Jacinto had a brief appearance in Tom Cruise’ Top Gun: Maverick as LT Billy “Fritz” Avalone. Despite going through intense training with fighter jets and gym workouts for months, Jacinto recently made an eye opening revelation that his lines were cut from the film.
While Maverick provided fame to Glen Powell and Miles Teller, the Filipino born actor ended up in the background of a few scenes. In a conversation with GQ, Jacinto star 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.”
Instead of being upset, Manny Jacinto admitted that the disappointment actually motivated him even more. He shared, “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 colour, 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.”
While Jacinto isn’t too bothered about his role being cut from Maverick, especially now that he’s getting more attention for his part in The Acolyte. In the same interview, he joked about the past incident by appreciating the growing diversity in the Star Wars universe. He pointed out that more people of colour will be able to see themselves in this iconic series. Ahead of the release, when he saw a rough cut of the series, Jacinto joked about enjoying the process from the sidelines and compared it with “studying for an exam and actually doing well.” The actor also speculated that he might still get cut from the series.
In Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise reprised his role as Pete Mitchell and the film became the second highest grossing movie of 2022. It was nominated for six Academy Awards and won an award in the Best Sound category.
