“Top Gun ”Inspired Glen Powell to Do “Blue Angels” Doc: 'You Never Look at the Skies the Same' (Exclusive)

The actor is a producer behind the new documentary 'The Blue Angels'

Glen Powell is living out his childhood dreams with The Blue Angels.

The documentary produced by Powell and J.J. Abrams follows a year in the life of the Navy’s elite Flight Demonstration Squadron, taking fans into the cockpit for an extraordinary viewing experience.

Powell tells PEOPLE he had an early introduction to the squadron, who left him and the adults around him in awe.

“I remember as a kid going to this air show,” Powell says. “It's an amazing thing to have your mind blown as a kid. But it's even more incredible to be like, ‘This is insane,’ and then to look at an adult and they are looking at the sky with that same level of awe.” 

After having Blue Angels posters on his wall growing up, Powell says it was a full-circle moment to get to interact with the pilots on a personal level for the film.

“These are people that aren't only representing the Navy, but these are people that are serving their country,” he says. “It was this really inspirational and aspirational thing where you could be extraordinary at a thing, and also be a really, really great person that represented all the best things about the Navy and all the best things about America.”

Related: Glen Powell Jokes of His Future in Top Gun Franchise: 'That Is All Classified'

While Powell already had a personal connection to the Blue Angels, he adds that filming the 2022 blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick alongside costar Tom Cruise further instilled his love of aviation.

“When it comes to Top Gun, it's pretty impossible to leave that experience and not feel completely inspired by the world of aviation,” Powell says.

“I mean, Tom makes it look pretty damn cool. When we were shooting that movie, we were getting to live on real naval bases and were getting to fly with the best pilots. The folks of the Navy made that movie possible and became our friends and our family.”

In fact, flying with the Blue Angels is what inspired Cruise to do the original 1986 film. Powell says he certainly leaned on the actor for advice when preparing for the documentary.

“Tom is such a cheerleader for everyone around him,” Powell says. “His love of aviation became my love of aviation. Once you're on a tarmac with Cruise, nothing's really ever the same. You never really look at the skies the same.”

From working with his childhood heroes like Cruise and Abrams — whom Powell says he’s “idolized” his entire career — to recently getting inducted in to the Texas Film Hall of Fame, the Texas native notes that this moment in his career feels “pretty surreal.”

“I've been doing this job since I was 10 years old,” Powell says, noting that having his family by his side for his recent successes has really put everything “into perspective.”

“To have your family next to you who remembers all the failure on the way — all the auditions that you didn't get, all the heartache and a lot of those really tough years — to have them next to me right now is pretty incredible, because all the failure along the way makes the wins feel a lot brighter.”

He jokes his parents also keep him grounded, like pranking him at his own movie premiere. “If I act out, they'll slap me around, so I'm not really worried,” he says.

Though Powell notes that being a person in the spotlight can be “really disorienting” at times, what makes it all worthwhile is his love for film. “At the end of the day, I really love this job,” he says. “If you don't love this business, it throws a lot of things at you that are unexpected. It can be a whirlwind.”

“For the first time, that sort of vision board [for my life], those bucket-list items are actually arriving at my door,” the Hit Man and Twisters actor adds. “I'm just taking it all in and taking it moment by moment. There's plenty of bucket-list items to go. I'm hoping this is the beginning of the ride, not the end.”

The Blue Angels is currently playing in IMAX theaters and will be available to stream on Prime Video May 23.

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