The Actors Who Played Coyote and Fanboy Describe How 'Top Gun: Maverick' Changed Their Lives

FacebookXPinterestEmailEmailEmailShare
Greg Tarzan Davis Danny Ramirez Top Gun Maverick
Greg Tarzan Davis and Danny Ramirez star in "Top Gun Maverick." (Paramount)

Over the past 2½ years, Military.com has enjoyed a few opportunities to speak with actors Greg Tarzan Davis and Danny Ramirez, who play Lt. Javy "Coyote" Machado and Lt. Mickey "Fanboy" Garcia, respectively.

Back when we first met in early 2020, the actors were looking forward to an early summer release and everyone obviously believed they'd made a special movie. Flash forward to August 2022 and a whole lot has changed.

"Top Gun: Maverick" is one of the most successful movies of all time and the first film to be No. 1 at the box office on both the Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends. Sure, that Labor Day return to the top of the charts was aided by a special $3 day that theaters held on Saturday, but that increase in box office happened while the movie was a strong No. 1 on the home video charts.

Yep, "Top Gun: Maverick" led the theatrical box office on a weekend where everyone could have stayed home to watch it.

Davis and Ramirez did one last round of "Top Gun: Maverick" interviews to celebrate that home video release, and they were eager to tell us how much the movie has changed their lives and talked about what they learned from working with Tom Cruise and director Joseph Kosinski.

    Both men give a sense that the actors bonded over the experience of making the movie, and now that it's such a huge success, they've got the confidence to take what they learned from the experience and apply those ideas of how to make a movie to their own projects.

    Of course, we'll get a first look at one of those post-"Maverick" movies with the November release of the Korean War movie "Devotion," which stars and was produced by Glen Powell, who played Lt. Jake "Hangman" Seresin.

    Ramirez will next be seen in "Stars at Noon," the thriller from French director Claire Denis that won the Grand Prix award at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. He appears alongside John C. Reilly ("Stepbrothers"), Margaret Qualley ("Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood"), Joe Alwyn ("Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk") and Benny Safdie ("Licorice Pizza").

    Davis appeared in 11 episodes of "Grey's Anatomy" in the 2021-2022 season and will star alongside Cruise in the upcoming 2023 release, "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning - Part 1."

    Keep Up With the Best in Military Entertainment

    Whether you're looking for news and entertainment, thinking of joining the military or keeping up with military life and benefits, Military.com has you covered. Subscribe to the Military.com newsletter to have military news, updates and resources delivered straight to your inbox.

    Story Continues