Tom Cruise will be part of the 2022 Cannes film festival in France ahead of the special screening of “Top Gun: Maverick” but will be leaving early to be part of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
The 59-year-old actor will be at the Palais on Wednesday, May 18, but there will be no afterparty planned with a “Top Gun” theme for the highly-anticipated sequel to the 1986 blockbuster hit, reported the Hollywood Reporter.
The outlet reported that there’s no big party planned because the “Jack Reacher” star is headed to the United Kingdom for several public events. The actor is to “play a starring role” in the monarch’s continuing observances to mark her 70 years on the throne.
Exactly what role the “Mission Impossible” star will play is unclear. He is also supposed to join Prince William and Kate Middleton on the red carpet on Thursday for the U.K. premiere of his upcoming “Top Gun” sequel at London’s Leicester Square.
On Sunday, Cruise was part of the ongoing Platinum Jubilee celebrations when he took the stage at Windsor Castle at a four-day horse show.
Britain's Queen Elizabeth attended the finale of a four-day horse show that celebrated her 70 years on the throne and drew a star-studded cast including Hollywood actor Tom Cruise and British actor Helen Mirren https://t.co/BvEEXlifOY pic.twitter.com/G1ZgjAFq92
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 16, 2022
In an interview about his surprise appearance, Cruise called it “a real honor and privilege” and said what the head of the royal family “has accomplished is historic,” reported the Daily Mail.
“She has met presidents, world leaders, people from all walks of life,” Cruise explained. “Not just Americans, but the world knows the dignity, devotion and kindness, that is what I have always felt about her. Someone that understands her position and has held it through a history that’s just been extraordinary the past 70 years.”
The 2022 Cannes Film Festival kicks off Tuesday, May 17 in France, and will continue through Saturday, May 28. It is the first time the festival will be back in all its glory after the pandemic shut down the world in March 2020. The 2021 event was scaled way back due to the ongoing COVID-19 transmission.