Top Gun actor Manny Jacinto says his scenes were edited out as 'Tom Cruise is writing for Tom Cruise'

Tom Cruise is at the receiving end of his Top Gun: Maverick co-star Manny Jacinto's statements about how his scenes were edited out from the film. Manny played LT Billy ‘Fritz’ Avalone in the film and has claimed almost all his scenes were edited out. While talking to GQ magazine, Manny said that "Tom Cruise is writing for Tom Cruise" and so the cameras were focused more on the "main guys".

Manny said that he trained for months for the film, but in the end, almost all his scenes were removed from the film on the editing table. He says that as a result, he appeared only briefly in the film. 

Manny didn't launch a direct attack on Cruise, but stated that "at the end of the day, Tom Cruise is writing stories for Tom Cruise."

He added, "I can see them focusing the camera more on these [other] guys and not taking so much time on our scenes."

Manny, who is in the news for his work in The Acolyte, said that actors like him need to start doing the same for themselves and not wait for others to give them a chance.

"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," he said.

Manny added, "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]."

Also Read: Bella Hadid becomes face of Adidas retro 1972 Olympic sneakers, Israel calls it 'egregious error’

Manny loved seeing how Tom Cruise works

However, Manny is happy to have been a part of Top Gun. "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," he said. 

Top Gun: Maverick was directed by Joseph Kosinski, and saw Cruise reprise his role as LT Pete "Maverick" Mitchell after 36 years. Released in May 2022, the film collected over $1 billion worldwide. 

Meanwhile, Manny Jacinto is best known for his role as Jason Mendoza on the NBC sitcom The Good Place. He portrayed Qimir in the Star Wars series The Acolyte.