Glen Powell Rick Kern/Getty Pictures for Netflix
For Glen Powell, being part of The Blue Angels documentary after starring within the blockbuster Prime Gun: Maverick was a real full-circle second.
“I keep in mind as a child going with my grandfather, my mother and my aunts and my cousins and all of us had the identical kind of expertise,” Powell, 35, completely recalled to Us Weekly. “From all ages group, all people was trying on the sky with that very same kind of reverence.”
Powell known as the pilots, who took photos and signed autographs after they got here again to the bottom, “actual meta” characters who “represented the most effective of the Navy and the most effective [of] the US.”
“It’s virtually not possible to observe a Blue Angels present and never be simply utterly awestruck by what’s taking place and the way it’s even doable,” he advised Us.
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Powell famous that The Blue Angels, which is the elite naval flight demonstration squadron, are an “entry-point” for a lot of of these fascinated with aviation. Powell speaks from firsthand expertise — he saved a poster of the squadron in his bed room till he left for faculty.
“I simply felt like they’re simply such an inspirational and aspirational group,” Powell stated. “For me, clearly, attending to develop up with that on my bed room wall is one factor, however to additionally make Prime Gun and to make Devotion and fly with the Blues and really feel just like the aviation neighborhood has actually been such an necessary a part of my life.”
After starring in 2022’s Prime Gun: Maverick as Lt. Jake “Hangman” Seresin and 2022’s Devotion as Tom Hudner, each of whom had been fictional pilots, Powell ventured into nonfiction. He produced the brand new IMAX documentary The Blue Angels alongside J.J. Abrams and others. The doc follows the Navy and Marine Corps flight squadron by means of a 12 months of coaching with never-before-seen footage filmed particularly for IMAX, the place it began completely enjoying on Friday, Might 17.
“I simply really feel prefer it was such a privilege to kind of put these heroes on the display on this,” Powell stated, including that the Blue Angels are “an excellent staff.” He famous that there’s a “degree of belief between these guys that’s so extraordinary.”
Powell — who was just lately on the large display within the blockbuster romcom Anybody However You — even had an opportunity to fly in a Blue Angels present within the No. 4 airplane, which he known as a “actually loopy dynamic place.” Whereas Powell thought issues went “excellent,” he returned to the bottom and there was nonetheless extra work to do.
“They broke down the whole present when it comes to footage and errors they made and the way there was room for enchancment, and it at all times reminds you, similar to with an excellent sports activities staff, within the pursuit of perfection, it’s by no means finished,” he stated. “There was this kind of humility in these nice athletes.”
He famous that “these guys are pushing their our bodies to the brink” and but they’re “by no means happy with the established order.”
“They’re at all times pushing to be higher and that’s what it takes to maintain one another secure up there, by no means getting complacent,” he stated. “So to actually get a way the human factor in that airplane was a extremely cool a part of this that I feel makes this documentary actually totally different.”
The Blue Angels is completely in IMAX theaters by means of Might 22 and can begin streaming Thursday, Might 23, on Prime Video.
With reporting by Andrea Simpson