Recently, Filipino-American actor Manny Jacinto has been gaining attention for his impressive performance in the TV project ‘The Good Place’. This has also led to a lot of discussion, when in the previous movie ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, many opinions said that he was so pale that he did not have any lines, compared to Tom Cruise.
In response to the above comments, Manny Jacinto said that his role was cut simply because Top Gun: Maverick is a project of Tom Cruise, and the actor will of course take up most of the film’s running time.
In that work, Jacinto – who recently appeared in the Star Wars spin-off series The Acolyte – was cast as one of the fighter pilots in training along with Miles Teller, Glen Powell and Lewis Pullman.
He shared that he himself went through a training course like in a “superhero” movie, but when he watched the movie, all the dialogue was cut and only appeared in a few background scenes.
Jacinto said in an interview with GQ magazine: “It would be noisy if I spoke out against it, but honestly, this was not too shocking to me. I had a hunch, because when I got to the set, it was clear that the film crew would focus more on the main character, and not spend much time with us. But anyway, participating in this work was a great experience, seeing how the ‘giant machine’ of the film industry works. In addition, I got to see how Tom Cruise works, and more than that, I got to participate in this giant series”.
He also admitted that this disappointment motivated him to participate more in other aspects in the future, not just in the acting aspect. “It’s energizing for us, because at the end of the day, Tom Cruise is just writing his own stories,” Jacinto said. “We, Asian Americans, people of color, have to speak up for ourselves. We can’t wait for someone else to do it. If we want bigger stories, we have to create them ourselves.”
Last year, a study found that the number of Asian characters in the top 100 films and series on streaming platforms increased by 13% from 2007 to 2022, but only 6% of them were lead roles.
Top Gun: Maverick grossed $1.5 billion worldwide and helped propel the career of Powell, who recently starred in the much-talked-about disaster film Twisters, directed by Lee Issac Chung, who was previously best known for his Oscar-nominated Minari.