Tom Cruise is, in a word, intense. So it’s no surprise that basically any story coming from the set of Top Gun: Maverick has framed the enigmatic actor as laser-focused and maybe, uh, a little weird.
The latest story comes from Maverick co-star Miles Teller, who appeared on Late Night With Seth Meyers on Wednesday night. As was well-documented, Cruise had very specific guidelines for the filming of Top Gun and insisted that actors got in the cockpits themselves to make movie magic happen. But for Teller, that resulted in him getting very sick.
As he detailed to Meyers, Teller actually broke out in hives and went to see doctors after falling ill during filming of the long-awaited sequel to the 1986 military propaganda classic.
“I’m just like, ‘I’m not feeling too good,’” Teller said on Wednesday. “And I was really hot and I just started itching like crazy. So I get out of the jet, and I’m just covered in hives, like, head to toe.”
Doctors took a look at Teller, and even got his blood tested. Which is when they realized he was having an allergic reaction to the jet fuel powering the multi-million dollar planes.
“My bloodwork comes back,” Teller said. “And I have flame-retardant, pesticides, and jet fuel in my blood.” Teller said. Thankfully production didn’t suffer too much, as Teller got treatment and was allowed to return to filming. And when he got back to set and told Cruise about his illness, well, he didn’t get much sympathy from the original film’s star.
“I go to set the next day, and Tom’s like, ‘So, how did it go, Miles what did they find?’” Teller said. “I was like, ‘Well, Tom: it turns out I have jet fuel in my blood.’ And without even skipping a beat, Tom just goes, ‘Yeah, I was born with it, kid.’”
It’s a pretty great line from Cruise, who I’m sure was actually worried about his film’s co-star falling ill, at least for a little bit. But it certainly adds to the lore of the film, and is yet another example of just how weirdly intense Cruise can be when it comes to stunts, fast cars and even faster airplanes.