Lewis Hamilton was offered a part in summer blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick - but Formula One commitments forced him to turn it down.
The Mercedes driver is close friends with Tom Cruise, who plays main character Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell in the franchise.
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Top Gun: Maverick was 36 years in the making and has taken almost $1.3 billion at the global box office since releasing in May.
It's officially the biggest movie of 2022 and Hamilton nearly had a small role in it. However, the F1 calendar forced him to politely decline.
"Basically I'm a friend of Tom [Cruise]," Hamilton recently told Vanity Fair.
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"One of the nicest people you'll ever meet. He invited me to his set years ago when he was doing Edge of Tomorrow, and then we just built a friendship over time.
"When I heard the second one was coming out, I was like, 'Oh, my God, I have to ask him'. I said 'I don't care what role it is. I'll even sweep something, be a cleaner in the back'."
The 37-year-old would've had a cameo as a fighter pilot but he quickly realised it'd clash with his preparations for races.
"I'm a perfectionist," the seven-time world champion said. "There just wasn't time."
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He then went on to claim turning the role down was 'the most upsetting call that I think I've ever had'.
Hamilton is yet to win a race in 2022 after dramatically losing out on the title to Max Verstappen last year.
His current contract expires in 2023 and retirement rumours have swirled for months.
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Despite that, he's happy with Mercedes and is already thinking about a new deal.
"I'll be lying if I said that I hadn't thought about extending," he continued.
"I'm still on the mission, I'm still loving driving, I'm still being challenged by it. So I don't really feel like I have to give it up anytime soon.
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"It doesn't make me think about my future, but it is a reminder that I am in that part of my career that people I came up with and have raced for so long will start to stop."
Topics: Lewis Hamilton
Daniel Marland