Jon Hamm has revealed whether he felt any competition with Tom Cruise while the two actors were filming “Top Gun: Maverick.” 


Jon Hamm and Tom Cruise.Jon Hamm has revealed if he felt “competition” with Tom Cruise.AP

During his appearance on Friday’s episode of “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” (now streaming on Max), Hamm, 52, said, “What I really learned was that I loved every bit of working with Tom.”

“He is the consummate professional. He pushes himself to a level that almost seems superhuman and then invites you,” he continued. “It’s not a competition with him. He wants everybody to succeed.”

Hamm co-starred in “Top Gun: Maverick” as Beau “Cyclone” Simpson, a strict admiral who has assembled a group of students (played by Miles Teller and Glen Powell) that U.S. Navy Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Cruise, 61) trains.

The 2022 movie was the long-awaited sequel to 1986’s action hit “Top Gun.”

Tom Cruise smirking.
Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick.”©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection

Jon Hamm presenting at the Emmys in a tux onstage.
Jon Hamm called Tom Cruise a “superhuman.”REUTERS
“The amount of times on set where he was cheerleading everybody else including me, like how, ‘That was great. This is going to be so good that’s in the trailer.’

You know, things like that. He’s just so — he’s so amped up about how the potential of this thing,” said Hamm.

Hamm, who married for the first time in 2023 to actress Anna Osceola, 35, has previously confirmed that he is on the list to receive the famous “Tom Cruise” cake. 

Along with a slew of other celebs — including “Top Gun: Maverick” co-star Powell — Hamm receives an annual $125 coconut cake during the holiday season.

The poster for "Top Gun: Maverick."
“Top Gun: Maverick” resurrected movie theaters after 2020.©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection

Jon Ham in sunglasses.
Jon Hamm as Beau “Cyclone” Simpson in “Top Gun: Maverick.”AP
“Top Gun: Maverick” has largely been credited with saving the movie theater industry, which took a hard hit during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. “Top Gun: Maverick” snared $1.5 billion at the box office in 2022.

“We finished this movie in 2019 or late ’19, early ’20 and then lockdown happens.

It was supposed to come out summer of 2020. And Tom went to Paramount and said, ‘This can’t come out on the platform.

This can’t come out on streaming. This has to be seen in movies,’” said Hamm.

“And we waited two whole years.”

Wallace interjected to comment that it was the first movie he’d seen in theaters in two years.

"Top Gun: Maverick" stars Glen Powell, Miles Teller, Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly and Jon Hamm smiling on a red carpet.
“Top Gun: Maverick” stars Glen Powell, Miles Teller, Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly and Jon Hamm.Getty Images for Paramount Pictures

Tom Cruise smiling on a red carpet.
Jon Hamm said Tom Cruise was a “cheerleader” on set.Getty Images for Paramount Pictures

Christopher McQuarrie, Jerry Bruckheimer, Danny Ramirez, Glen Powell, Miles Teller, Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Jay Ellis, Lewis Pullman, Greg Tarzan Davis, Joseph Kosinski, and David Ellison at the UK Premiere and Royal Film of "Top Gun: Maverick."
Christopher McQuarrie, Jerry Bruckheimer, Danny Ramirez, Glen Powell, Miles Teller, Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Jay Ellis, Lewis Pullman, Greg Tarzan Davis, Joseph Kosinski and David Ellison at the UK Premiere and Royal Film Performance of “Top Gun: Maverick.”Getty Images
“First movie a lot of people saw,” said Hamm.

“And I think that that was the big, ‘Welcome back to the movie theaters.’

And it was exactly the thing that people wanted to see. You know, they talk about four quadrant movies. This is a perfect example of that.

Young, old, female, male — everybody wanted to see this movie, and everybody did.”