The Good Place actor speaks out about the ‘flattering’ outcry over his role being reduced to non-speaking

Manny Jacinto at the premiere for the film The Acolyte on 28 May 2024 in London. Photograph: Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP

The Good Place actor Manny Jacinto has spoken about his Top Gun: Maverick dialogue being cut, explaining that “Tom Cruise is writing stories for Tom Cruise.”

Jacinto, recently seen in Star Wars spin-off series The Acolyte, was cast as one of the fighter pilots in training in the big-budget sequel alongside Miles Teller, Glen Powell and Lewis Pullman. The Filipino-Canadian actor underwent “superhero” training but when he watched the film, he found that all of his dialogue had been cut and he was reduced to a few background scenes.

“It’s flattering that there was a little bit of an outcry, but it wasn’t shocking to me,” Jacinto said in an interview with GQ. “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.”

He admitted that the disappointment has spurred him to take a more integral part behind the scenes in the future.

“It kind of fuels you, because at the end of the day, Tom Cruise is writing stories for Tom Cruise,” he said. “It’s up to us – Asian Americans, people of color – 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.”

Last year a study showed that while the number of Asian characters in the top 100 films and series on streaming platforms has seen an increase of 13% from 2007 to 2022, only 6% of those roles were leading.

Top Gun: Maverick went onto make $1.5bn worldwide and helped to propel the career of Powell who can be seen headlining this week’s disaster sequel Twisters before taking on the lead in Edgar Wright’s remake of The Running Man. The film was also nominated for six Oscars.

Jacinto, whose previous credits also include Nine Perfect Strangers and Bad Times at El Royale, will next be seen alongside Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis in Freaky Friday 2 and fencing thriller Balestra.