Lewis Hamilton pulls back the curtain on the moment when he 'was crying a bit inside'
Lewis Hamilton opened up about the moment he was "crying" a bit inside. The Ferrari driver in his latest interview with Time, revealed that his missed, rather rejected opportunity to work with Tom Cruise in the Top Gun: Maverick movie turned out to be a huge deal for him later on, and an enormous blow for him, mentally.
The idea of taking Hamilton in the movie first started off with Cruise, who connected the F1 driver with the movie's director, Joseph Kosinski. While the project seemed enthralling, it was hard for Hamilton to take time out from his busy racing schedule and take up acting.
The reason? Hamilton was competing for the 2021 F1 championship against Max Verstappen. The movie didn't wait, and it was released globally in 2022, grossing a whopping 1.5 billion. Hamilton, who was also a part of the special screening in London by Tom Cruise, watched the movie, heard about the record and sighed.
He said with grief:
“I was crying a bit inside. Ah, that could have been me!” (as per Time.com)
The Tom Cruise starrer Top Gun: Maverick received a rating of 8.2 out of 10 on IMDB and 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. It also became the highest-grossing Hollywood movie in 2022. As for the seven-time world champion, he missed out on both frontiers that season. Hamilton not only failed to commit to the movie but also lost the championship in the very last lap of the very last race.
Lewis Hamilton was gunning for his 8th world championship, but the British driver had to go to the off-season with a broken heart as Verstappen emerged victorious (his first world title) in a controversial yet fairytale ending in Abu Dhabi.
Lewis Hamilton predicts huge Box Office success for upcoming F1 movie
In his recent interview with Time, Lewis Hamilton touched upon the upcoming Formula 1-related movie, F1, and predicted huge box office success for the movie. Even though he admitted how Netflix's Drive to Survive helped the sport grow globally, especially in the United States, Hamilton reckons that the upcoming movie could open up a different horizon.
"It’s going to blow away anything that’s ever been done in Formula One before," Hamilton said. "Netflix has been huge. This is going to be even bigger, on more of a global scale.”
Following this, he added on the goal of the movie:
"The goal is to make people feel good, to bring people in, to inspire people. We want you to leave the cinema and be like, ‘Wow, that was freaking wicked.’”
Top Gun: Maverick's director Joseph Kosinski has directed the movie, and renowned music director Hans Zimmer (Interstellar, Dune fame) worked with producers Brad Pitt, Lewis Hamilton and many more for the movie. F1 is set to be released in the United States on June 27, 2025.