Tom Cruise might have swooped in on a helicopter to direct a scene of Shawn Levy‘s forthcoming Star Wars: Starfighter, but star Ryan Gosling wasn’t around to witness it.
During a conversation with Josh Horowitz on his Happy Sad Confused podcast, the Project Hail Mary star hilariously recalled the incident — and how he missed it on his one day off during the production shoot.
“I wasn’t there! It’s the one day I’m not there,” he said. “I worked on that movie the whole time, I get one day off … and Shawn sends me a picture of him and Tom Cruise and [star] Flynn [Gray]. They’re, like, in the mud. I was like, ‘What?’”
The three-time Oscar-nominated actor continued, “Tom Cruise flew his helicopter onto set. They were just shooting, and they heard a helicopter, they had to cut. And it was Tom Cruise. He lands in the middle of set. He takes a camera, and he just starts shooting the action scene.”
“It was an incredible moment, and I don’t know why he waited for the one day I wasn’t there. I’m gonna hope that was an accident,” he concluded, looking warily at the camera.
Levy previously spoke about the impromptu movie moment during an interview with the New York Times. In November, when Cruise dropped down onto the set, Levy jokingly suggested he operate the camera during a lightsaber duel scene. The Mission: Impossible star, perennially hands-on, took him up on the challenge and waded into a muddy pond to film the bit. “Now when you see the movie, you’ll know that part of it was shot by Tom,” he said. “I mean, how cool is that?”
Set five years after the events of Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker, which concluded the Skywalker saga, the movie also stars Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman, Daniel Ings and Amy Adams. The film, penned by Jonathan Tropper, will bow on May 28, 2027.