Monica Barbaro Survived ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Thanks to Ballet and a ‘High Pain Tolerance’ (2024)

When Monica Barbaro first learned she’d booked a role in Top Gun: Maverick, a pipe burst in her family home. “All hell was breaking loose,” Barbaro tells me over Zoom from Toronto, where she’s filming an upcoming Netflix spy series. “I was like, ‘Mom, I got the part and she’s not a love interest, she’s a pilot!’ We were both tearing up and she’s like, ‘I need to call the plumber.’”

Four years after receiving that call and almost three since filming wrapped in June 2019, the highly anticipated sequel to Tom Cruise’s 1986 classic is finally here, introducing a new group of elite naval aviators. Among the adrenaline junkies vying for a spot on a dangerous mission led by Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Cruise) is the franchise’s first female fighter pilot, Lieutenant Natasha “Phoenix” Trace.

While Barbaro’s costars include major Hollywood players like Glen Powell, Miles Teller, and Jay Ellis, the lesser-known actor had a secret advantage going into hours of grueling flight and water survival training. Now 31 years old, the San Francisco native graduated from NYU’s BFA dance program in 2010 before moving back to California to pursue a career in acting. Little did she know, years of ballet would provide the tools and “high pain tolerance” needed to remain conscious while performing aerial maneuvers in actual F-18 fighter jets.

“There was a funny moment where a couple of the guys were saying they hated going upside down, and I was like, ‘I’ve been going upside down forever,’” Barbaro says with a laugh. “I would do handstands before flights…. It helped me control some of the weird feelings of blood rushing to spaces you don’t usually want it to.” For this reason, Barbaro is one of the few actors on set who did not throw up while filming her intense flight sequences.

She may not have arrived on the set of Top Gun with a stacked IMDB profile, but that’s about to change. Aside from starring alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the aforementioned spy thriller, Barbaro is signed on for another TV series and two more films in various stages of filming and post-production. In Glamour’s latest installment of New Here, Monica Barbaro opens up about the inspiration behind her Top Gun character, breaking the rules on set, and what it’s like having a Barbie designed in your image.

Glamour: How did this role come about for you?

An email came in with a project called Island Plaza, and my reps were immediately like, “This is the Top Gun sequel.” I had to do a self-tape first because I was not a heavy hitter. They were like, ‘I guess she can self-tape.’ [Laughs.] I gave it everything. Then I got called back and got to meet director Joe Kosinski. He wanted to double-check that I wasn’t afraid of flying because we would be flying jets in this movie. And then he’s like, “Can you swim?” I was like, “Yeah.” He was like, “You’re a comfortable swimmer?” I was like, “Yeah.” You know, lying.

I had to put a flight suit on for a camera test, and that was pretty funny. I recently heard that Robert Pattinson took a selfie in the Batman suit, just in case he didn’t get it. I fully did that too. Then I auditioned again and got it.

One of the most refreshing things about Phoenix is that despite being the only woman in the group of fighter pilots, she didn’t get placed into a love interest role and was never forced to go out of her way to prove herself to her teammates or fight for respect. How did that compare to your own experience on set with such a male-dominated cast?

Phoenix was modeled after a lot of amazing women that I got to meet and that I got to fly with in this movie. They are awesome, and when they were speaking, people would listen. I know, it’s not always been like that for women in aviation. I’m sure there’ve been times when they were disrespected, which was represented somewhat by Hangman’s (Powell’s) personality. But they’re badass fighter pilots and they held their own.

As for filming, there was a lot of art imitating life. Tom Cruise developed this intense training program, and we all became really bonded because we realized that nobody really understood what we were going through. It wasn’t like anything any other actor had ever experienced.

How many hours of training did you go through?

Well, we did somewhere around 40 hours of flight training and a fair amount of ground school for flying. Everyone did a ton of swim training in case you have to eject over water. It’s not just swimming; you get pushed off this high-rise and have to fall in the pool and unstrap your parachute. There’s one drill where the wind is pulling the parachute and pulling you across the water. I did extra swimming because I was really nervous about that.

Is that fun or terrifying?

A little bit of both. I’ve come to realize I’m not an adrenaline junkie, but it was really fun. You just feel so purposeful training for those things and doing those things. I think we all had to overcome some big fears at different times.

If you had an on-set superlative, what would it be?

Everyone loves to talk about the fact that I didn’t throw up. So, least likely to throw up would be cool.

Who threw up?

A lot of people. Honestly, my hat goes off to them because the idea of throwing up regularly and then continuing this job is just insane to me. I mean, this movie was intense on the ground, let alone in the air. On top of that, they had to throw up and recover and keep filming. Jay Ellis and I were basically the ones who didn’t.

How does it feel to have your own official Barbie doll?

It’s the only thing I refuse to be humble about. It’s insane. It allows me a little bit of separation in that it’s Phoenix. My name is nowhere on that box, so it’s about the cool character that I got to play and I can be unabashedly proud of it. If there were a Monica Barbaro Barbie, I think I would just panic. My friends did a whole photo shoot in Central Park with me. I haven’t posted any of the pictures yet.

The great thing about the whole situation is that Paramount and Mattel really included me in the conversation. I did get to say, “Let’s do a little less makeup.” She started out with a totally different skin tone than me—she was a lot lighter than me—and had a different figure. They very quickly molded her to more of the way I look. Which I thought was really cool. She’s sitting on my shelf at home.

Speaking of Barbies and makeup, are there any products you discovered on set that you can’t live without?

My makeup artist on Top Gun used the Chanel Vitalumiére Aqua foundation. It’s this incredible foundation that just evens out your skin tone without completely covering all your freckles and things. She used it on the guys in this movie too.

What did you buy with your first big acting check?

I am trying to locate it right now, which is freaking me out. I really wanted this Elsa Peretti Tiffany necklace, which is on a very, very thin gold chain with just a little diamond. My grandma used to have jewelry that my grandpa would buy her at different times, and she would remember exactly where they were or why he bought it, and I thought, “I’m gonna buy myself jewelry when I book work.” That was the first thing when I booked UnReal years ago and then I immediately panicked that I spent way too much money on this thing. I love it and I usually wear it all the time. I took it off, it got tangled, and now I have to find it but I’m not even at home so I can’t go looking for it right now.

What’s the greatest lesson you learned on the set of Top Gun?

I think one of the greatest lessons I learned was I really am capable of so much more than I ever thought I was. The fun lesson I learned from the cast is to be more of an ask-for-forgiveness person, instead of being an ask-for-permission person. In this industry, there’s a lot of fun to be had. I think I was toeing the line and protecting the rules in a way that I don’t really need to.

What’s a rule the cast decided to break?

Taking a lot of behind-the-scenes photos. We were definitely told not to a thousand times, and then we were told to delete them because we weren’t supposed to have them. And I was like, I’m not going to delete them. Now we’re all just waiting for when can we post our behind-the-scenes stuff and not have to ask.

You can see Top Gun: Maverick in theaters now. Emily Tannenbaum is an entertainment editor, critic, and screenwriter living in Los Angeles.