'Top Gun: Maverick' director says Glen Powell hurt himself during the first take of beach football scene

• "Top Gun: Maverick" director Joseph Kosinski spoke about filming the movie's beach football scene.
• The director said that Glen Powell put "110%" effort into performing in that scene.

"Top Gun: Maverick" director Joseph Kosinski said that Glen Powell hurt himself during the movie's now-famous beach football scene by putting too much effort into the game.

One of the fan-favorite moments from the blockbuster sequel is when Maverick (Tom Cruise) plays a game of football with his fellow US Navy pilots on the beach. This was a homage to the iconic volleyball scene from the first "Top Gun" movie.

In an interview with IndieWire on the red carpet at the Critics' Choice Awards Sunday night, Kosinski said that shooting the scene was one of his most memorable days on set.

"One that I get asked about a lot, which was a very memorable day, was when we shot the beach football scene," Kosinski said. "The actors were in a very kind of stressed-out state, they'd all been working so hard to get ready for that scene. They were under the pressure, the weight of the original scene being so iconic. I remember Glen went out 110 percent on the first play and hurt himself, but he was able to recover quickly and we were able to get a great version of it."

The director continued: "It was pretty easy because that scene's all about teamwork and seeing a group of people enjoy hanging out with each other. And at that point, our cast had gelled so well in real life. That was not a hard thing for them to do."

Last week, Kosinski revealed more behind-the-scene secrets from the film, such as when he got to visit secret US Navy bases.

The "Oblivion" director told Deadline that in his "quest for authenticity," he photographed something he wasn't supposed to see.

"So, I got to live that dream of being in the Navy for a couple years," Kosinski said. "I got to go to places that civilians don't get to go to. I got to see things that no civilian would get to see. I had my camera confiscated at one point. Wiped clean. I took some pictures and maybe captured something I wasn't supposed to capture, and my camera was quickly returned to me without any photos on it."