Top Gun Exposed: Onset Secrets They Didn’t Want Out

International Superstar

While on a 2014 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Kimmel asked Cruise about the first time he had traveled the world to promote a movie. Cruise said that it was during the foreign press junket tour for Top Gun, which he said took four months to complete, as he’d spend weeks in every city they visited in Italy, France, and Japan.

Cruise told Jimmy Kimmel at he was the one who came up with the idea of premiering films in other countries, though he said that, “It took me a few years to get it going.” Kimmel quipped, “So all these other actors must want to kill you.” Now international releases for movies are commonplace, requiring a lot of traveling for the actors involved.

Tom Cruise Barfs

It’s been known that Tom Cruise vomited when he did his first flight in the fighter jet. But recently he went on Jimmy Kimmel and told the story in more detail. “Anyway, we did all the training, and then came the day that we’ve got to fly,” he said. “We set up the cameras, and it wasn’t like today. It was really challenging—quite brilliant of Tony Scott, how he figured out how to do it. But the guy who flew me in the first flight, his name was Bozo. The pilot’s name was Bozo! So, I’m strapping in, we’re getting in there, and you just see the helmet go on that says ‘Bozo.’ I’m like, ‘Bozo?'” As Bozo was going through the check sheet, Cruise noticed the emergency lights were on, “And we were about to take off!” he recalled. “I remember saying, ‘Bozo, these lights…There’s a lot of red lights.’ He’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.’ He starts turning them off. I’m like, ‘OK.’ He’s like, ‘They don’t call me Bozo for nothing.'”

“My head was on the ground! I was pressed on the floor holding my vomit. I’m trying to press the talk button; it was on the foot. I kept going, ‘Bozo! Bozo! Bozo!’ I was choking, and he just kept pulling up and up and up,” he said. “Finally, he released and we were going straight ahead. I said, ‘Bozo, what’s the matter with you, man? Didn’t you see? You pulled up and my head was hitting the floor.'” But Bozo wasn’t bothered. According to the actor, Bozo responded, “‘Well, I told you they don’t call me Bozo for nothing.'”