The Acolyte star Manny Jacinto says he wasn’t surprised by Top Gun cutting all his lines

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Manny Jacinto has reflected on his scenes being cut from Top Gun: Maverick, saying while he appreciated fans being upset, he wasn’t surprised when it happened.

Jacinto, who started out in acting with roles on TV shows like The Good Place and Nine Perfect Strangers, has achieved wide popularity by playing Qimir on Disney+’s Star Wars series The Acolyte.

He was cast in Top Gun: Maverick as Lt Billy “Fritz” Avalone, but ended up with most of his speaking scenes cut. The hit film gave a fillip to the careers of Glen Powell and Miles Teller, who were also part of the film.

His brief screen time baffled many, but Jacinto said he expected it to happen based on his experience filming.

“It’s flattering that there was a little bit of an outcry, but it wasn’t shocking to me,” Jacinto told GQ magazine.

“There was this sense of where the film was going, like I can see them focusing the camera more on these guys and not taking so much time on our scenes.”

Still, Jacinto said, his time on Maverick was educational. “Fortunately, it still was a great experience. You get to see this huge machine at work, see how Tom Cruise works, and you get to be a small part of this huge franchise,” he said.

“It kind of fuels you because at the end of the day Tom Cruise is writing stories for Tom Cruise. It’s up to us, Asian Americans, people of colour, to be that. We cannot wait for somebody else to do it. If we want bigger stories out there, we have to make them for ourselves.”

It was reported a month ago that Jacinto had been cast in the sequel Freaky Friday 2, with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan reportedly reprising their roles.

The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey gave Maverick four stars, calling it “the kind of edge-of-your-seat, fist-pumping spectacular that can unite an entire room full of strangers sitting in the dark and leave them with a wistful tear in their eye”.

The Acolyte is streaming on Disney+. The Independent has reached out to the Top Gun team for a comment.