Ryan Gosling Shares a Memorable Moment When Tom Cruise Landed a Helicopter on the Set of ‘Star Wars: Starfighter’—”The One Day I Missed”
Tom Cruise made a dramatic entrance on the set of Shawn Levy’s upcoming film Star Wars: Starfighter, arriving by helicopter; however, lead actor Ryan Gosling was absent during the spectacle.
In a recent appearance on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, Gosling humorously recounted the surprise visit and how fate played a role in his absence on what happened to be his day off.
“I wasn’t there! It’s the one day I’m not there,” Gosling said, reflecting on the timing. “I worked on that movie the whole time, I get one day off … and Shawn sends me a picture of him and Tom Cruise and [star] Flynn [Gray]. They’re, like, in the mud. I was like, ‘What?’”
Gosling continued, “Tom Cruise flew his helicopter onto set. They were just shooting, and they heard a helicopter, they had to cut. And it was Tom Cruise. He lands in the middle of set. He takes a camera, and he just starts shooting the action scene.”
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“It was an incredible moment, and I don’t know why he waited for the one day I wasn’t there. I’m gonna hope that was an accident,” he concluded, casting a playful glance at the camera.
Levy had previously discussed this unexpected moment with the New York Times. When Cruise arrived on set in November, Levy jokingly suggested that Cruise operate the camera for a lightsaber duel scene. The Mission: Impossible star took on the challenge, wading into a muddy pond to film the sequence. “Now when you see the movie, you’ll know that part of it was shot by Tom,” Levy stated. “I mean, how cool is that?”
Set five years after the events of Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker, which concluded the Skywalker saga, the film also features actors Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman, Daniel Ings, and Amy Adams. The screenplay is written by Jonathan Tropper, and the film is scheduled for release on May 28, 2027.
