That’s a Dick Move, Tom Cruise

Before today, I admittedly didn’t know much about Glen Powell except that I really disliked Anybody But You and that he appears to be having his big Hollywood moment right now. (Happy for him!) But now that I’ve read his latest interview with GQ, I know that his second-grade school project was on “Steven Spielberg’s use of practical effects” (I need some evidence of this), that he nearly landed Josh Hartnett’s role in Oppenheimer, and that he should stop hanging out with Tom Cruise.

The two became “good friends,” with Tom becoming sort of a mentor, on the set of Top Gun: Maverick. Powell plays Hangman in the film after he lost out on the role of Rooster to Miles Teller, and after he told Cruise and director Joseph Kosinski that he’d “cut him [Hangman] out immediately” if he were editing the film. “Perhaps this is what Cruise and Kosinski saw in him,” GQ writes of Powell nearly turning down the role that finally launched his career. “A preternatural understanding of high-stakes cinema, and the confidence to pull it off.” Sure!

Anyway, since the two are such besties, the magazine writes that Powell has a “slew of Tom Cruise anecdotes.” Among them is when Cruise—who was flying Powell to London from Maverick reshoots in Pinewood—pretended their helicopter was about to crash. “Tom goes ‘oh no, oh no,’ and he starts dropping the helicopter over London,” Powell told GQ. The fuck???????? “I was like, ‘Am I about to be the unnamed guy that dies with Tom in a smoking hole in the middle of London?’”

I love jokes! But making your “good friend” believe you’re both about to die in one of the worst ways imaginable is not a great joke. I don’t care how many of your own stunts you do, or how many airplanes you’ve flown outside of. It’s actually kind of giving me Tom and Greg from Succession vibes—except Tom making Greg think they’re about to die would actually be funny. Maybe now that Glen’s getting more famous he can find some less insane friends to hang out with.

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• Shania Twain said her ex-husband, who cheated on her with her best friend for years, deserves “empathy and understanding.” Couldn’t be me! [People]
• At her concert in Birmingham U.K., Nicki Minaj held a moment of silence for her “dear friend”…Princess Diana?? [Vulture]
• I am getting very excited for Knives Out 3!!!!! [A.V. Club]
• Dua Lipa does what every celebrity should be doing: Calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. [Pop Crave]
• Here’s a great example of a funny prank between co-stars. Courtesy of Penn Badgley and Blake Lively. [Entertaiment Weekly]