Chapter 296: The Cast and Two Charlies
Not-yet Superstar, pre-Scientologist, or budding Adrenalinist. Tom Cruise was quite the character to get to know.
The future superstar was interesting but he wasn't the only one to get acquainted with. After all, Top Gun had a variety of characters and a variety of actors that play them
Pete "Maverick" Mitchell was the undisputed star of the show but there are other supporting characters that complement him in his star status.
Alexander did go down the cast list and had already done his run-down on all of them.
It wasn't anything different than what he had done during the BttF production visitation.
Still, it was fun to get a somewhat full breakdown of all of them.
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Maverick's RIO and supportive best friend would be Nick "Goose" Bradshaw. A character that is taken up by actor Anthony Edwards.
In Alexander's opinion, the actor did not have many accolades to note except being Goose. He may have played some other character in some other show... maybe in ER and that was it.
It was just interesting for him to take up his neck-breaking role again and be mourned by people.
On the other hand, Goose did have a wife named Carole Bradshaw and a considerable embellishment to make his loss more impactful.
Unlike the relative obscurity of actor Anthony Edwards' future, the actress that played his wife was Meg Ryan. She was not obscure at all.
As of now, she was just an actress taking up such a supporting role but it was only a matter of time before she skyrockets into popularity.
Her current wife character may not be rocketing to the sky but her future roles will.
She was still a pre-Nora Ephron actress but when she does eventually meet her fated director, the lead roles in works such as 'Sleepless in Seattle', 'When Harry Met Sally', and 'You've Got Mail' will be hers.
The Ryan and Ephron duo was an interesting pair but they were just potential entertainment properties to plunder.
With that, Alexander eventually did consider the cast as reminders for films that he could have Creed Pictures make. Of course, not a lot could really be gained from all the other cast members.
Moving on, after the husband and wife, they did have a son but the boy who played it should be inconsequential. In fact, the Bradshaw child is pretty inconsequential to the whole film.
Alexander did have ideas about a sequel involving the kid but that was something to be considered much later.
After the little Bradshaw trio of a family, it was the other cast and characters from there.
Mike "Viper" Metcalf. The acclaimed TopGun instructor is to be played by actor Tom Skerritt. This guy seems to hang around Un-Ratty Pettigrew a lot since he was literally taking up the man's call sign. A Viper-Viper combo.
Then, there's the other TopGun instructor, Rick "Jester" Heatherly. The guy is played by Michael Ironside. This was the fellow that would be known by the phrase "Jester's Dead... Yee-haw!".
The other aviator characters are what followed after that with call signs such as Cougar, Merlin, Iceman, Slider, Wolfman, Sundown, Hollywood, Stinger, and the rest.
Most of them were considerably bland characters and the actors designated to them seem to share that blandness.
If they didn't have cool aviator call signs, Alexander would have just relegated them to Sactors 1, Sactors 2, and so forth. 'Sactors' is even from Supporting Actors and an indication of something to truly not waste much time on. Or maybe just SA to fit with VAs.
Of course, Merlin and Iceman were the fellas that were considerably noteworthy to talk about.
Merlin is a RIO character from the first act and just a replacement RIO in the last act. However, it was actor Tim Robbins that acted in it, so he was relatively special.
Shawshank Redemption was a good movie but what Alexander put more attention to... is the fact that Tim Robbins is actually not on the set anymore as he seems to be job-hopping in-between Top Gun and the 'Howard the Duck' production.
Over there, Robbins will be meeting up with Lea Thompson, a fellow Creed Pictures actress.
Alexander singled this out because 'Howard the Duck' was just way too special. It was a Marvel film but it was technically the first Marvel film that the Creed creator was watching out for.
Well, that was a matter for 1986 and Tim Robbins' set absence aside, Iceman played by Val Kilmer was another thing to take note of.
Like Cruise, Ryan, and Robbins, Kilmer has a considerably successful Hollywood career, being Batman and whatnot. Creed Picture clearly had a batch of Hollywood potentials in this one.
What's more noteworthy at the moment about Val Kilmer though... is the fact that he is considered as the most antagonistic person on set.
From the past timeline, Alexander had even read about Maverick and Iceman's rivalry extending to Cruise and Kilmer as well.
It was an interesting piece of gossip for Top Gun fans but the truth could not be any more clear when you are on this filming set.
The problem essentially boils down to "method acting".
Alexander has seen this happen in Back to the Future before and it was Eric Stoltz then and it was Val Kilmer now.
These deep 'method actors' are just annoying, especially when they play the "rival" or opposing role.
Unfortunately, it's hard to get rid of them and they're actually special gems in the eyes of Hollywood. Hollywood the industry and not Hollywood the call sign of the pilot character.
In any case, it just made Kilmer into a dedicated perfectionist. Iceman is a dedicated perfectionist as well... so everything may have just fit into place.
The cast list is mostly covered with that and the rest of the unmentioned are considerably unconsiderable.
That bald USS Enterprise guy was somebody but that's it. The rest of the filmed military men are just crowding stand-ins or true military men that were Bactors(background actors) to Sactors.
It was just important to note that the retention rate between the old Top Gun cast and the Creed-version Top Gun is quite good.
The old Top Gun started as soon as summer but this Creed Top Gun started around fall.
For something that started way later than it should have been, it was impressive for these folks to still make it back to the role that they had.
Fate or something must have been at play again.
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Of course, some abrupt changes in the cast list could be seen here and there... but not as obvious as the leading lady herself.
Kelly McGillis was Charlie no more as Courteney Cox took up her role.
Alexander had to commend Cocky Cox for this one. She really shifted from supposedly being a super-powered teen girl in a TV show into a mature career lady in a feature-length film.
She even ditched her usual brunette hair to become a blondie.
"That's dedication." Alexander praised. It was just a few months but a lot had changed.
"Well, you drew and designed the character to be blonde and Old Mr. Creed is very loyal to your picture book." Courteney explained as she fiddled with her now-blond and wavy locks. She was still accusatory though. "You just said that I had to be mature and instructor-like, you didn't exactly tell me that Charlie had a different hair color than mine."
Milla, by the side, was surprised. "I thought your character's name was Charlotte Blackwood?"
"I got duped by that too. That black in Blackwood is so not black at all." Courteney learned that belatedly.
"I'm not talking about that." Milica corrected. "I'm talking about Charlie."
"What about it? It's just a military nickname of sorts." Courteney was confused but then she remembered something as she looked at the little girl. "Wait! Isn't your special comic character also named Charlie too?"
The two girls realized something as they turned to Alexander for answers.
"That can't be a coincidence, right?"
"Would you believe me if I say it is?" Alexander countered. He really didn't plan this.
Too bad, the girl's eyes just reflected suspicion.
Two Charlie characters and they happened to be given to his two girl acquaintances. Something was really fishy about this.
As it turns out, after BttF's 'Three Einsteins' thing, Top Gun actually has a 'Two Charlies' matter as well. It may even jump to 'Three Charlies' when you consider that there may be a military craft in Base Miramar that has a Charlie designation.
What was this supposed to be... some reverse Charlie's Angels nonsense?
It made one wonder what other coincidence would stand out in future Creed Pictures projects?