It has been twenty-five years since Tom Cruise was one of the contenders for the coveted Best Actor Academy Award. However, the high-flying movie star hopes to make a comeback in that Oscar category this year thanks to Top Gun: Maverick, which is now dominating the box office. Glen Powell, Cruise’s co-star in the film Maverick, has already submitted his vote while Academy members are still voting their ballots.
“I think Tom deserves a Best Actor nomination for sure,” the breakout star of both of last year’s premiere aviation-themed dramas — Top Gun: Maverick and Devotion — tells Yahoo Entertainment. “I watched Tom deliver a completely authentic, heartbreaking and layered performance in that movie. And in addition to that, he was producing, coaching all the other actors how to act in planes and sleeping in the editing room! I mean, this guy does it all. If there’s one person that deserves his due on the movie, it’s Tom and I really hope that Academy sees that. The movie is impressive on so many levels, but it all starts and ends with Tom.”
We’ll have to wait until nominations are announced on Jan. 24 to see whether the Academy at large agrees with Powell. But the beleaguered Golden Globes have already weighed in, passing Cruise over for a Best Actor nomination, while still awarding Maverick two nominations for Best Motion Picture, Drama and Best Original Song. Powell confirms he’ll be cheering the movie on from the Beverly Hilton ballroom when the Globes return to the airwaves on Jan. 10. “It’s my first time getting to sit in the ballroom,” he says with a laugh. “I tried to sneak in years ago and got kicked out pretty quickly, so I’m glad I’ve got a ticket this time.”
Devotion may have missed out on awards recognition so far, but J.D. Dillard’s period war movie is soaring onto Paramount+ on Jan. 8 on a wave of strong reviews for both Powell and co-star Jonathan Majors, who has been attracting his own Best Actor buzz. (The film will also be available for purchase on Digital services on Jan. 8) The duo respectively portray real-life U.S. Navy pilots, Lt. Tom Hudner and Ensign Jesse Brown, who made history as the first Black pilot to complete the Navy’s flight training program. Hudner and Brown flew multiple Korean War missions together, including the 1950 Battle of the Chosin Reservoir during which Brown’s plane was shot down, and he crash-landed in territory that is now part of North Korea.
Hudner crashed his own aircraft in an effort to save Brown after realizing that he was trapped in the debris. However, as night fell and enemy forces drew near, the lieutenant was compelled to abandon his colleague, and Brown later passed away from his wounds. His remains have never been found, and they are still missing. Hudner visited North Korea in 2013 to meet with Kim Jong-un in an effort to bring Brown home at last, but he was unsuccessful in this endeavor before passing away in 2017.
Powell, though, asserts that his organization is carrying on the late lieutenant’s goal by coordinating with the White House to retrieve Brown’s remains from North Korea and inter them at Arlington National Cemetery. He explains, “We have a team formed in Washington D.C. right now working to get Jesse home,” adding that the group also consists of the kids and grandkids of Brown and Hudner. “They know exactly where he is thanks to satellites, and they have a strategy for getting him back. The question, in my opinion, is simply how the geopolitical factors surrounding his return home and interment at Arlington would play out.”
At one point, Powell even intended join the team on a new trip to North Korea to search for Brown’s remains, but the country’s torrential monsoon season scuttled those plans. “I’m hoping they and the White House can get him home, because it would be beautiful closure for an American hero,” he says, adding that he visited South Korea and the carefully-policed demilitarized zone that divides the two countries while preparing to film Devotion. That visit cast into stark relief the way in which the Korean War’s legacy is felt at home and abroad.
Jonathan Majors and Glen Powell as real-life Korean War aviators Jesse Brown and Tom Hudner in the new drama, Devotion. (Photo: Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection)
“A lot of folks here in the United States don’t know much about the Korean War — it really is the forgotten war,” Powell notes. “But going to South Korea and visiting the museums and battlefields, it’s clear that the Korean War is not over. The South Korean people have never forgotten and it’s a beautiful thing to go there and be reminded of how grateful they are for a country that came to their aid when they needed it most. I’m proud that this movie showed a portrait of what that war was.”
In a wide-ranging interview, Powell reveals how he discovered that he’s the biggest star at the Pentagon; why Elizabeth Taylor — and an actual wig worn by the late Hollywood icon — makes a cameo in Devotion; what Tom Cruise taught him about movie stardom; and when he hopes to dye his own hair green to play his favorite superhero, Captain Planet.
