‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Star Monica Barbaro Discusses Female Aviators 

‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Star Monica Barbaro Discusses Female Aviators Who Helped Hone Character and Shares How She Cemented Her Call Sign

In 1998, Becky Calder became the first woman pilot to graduate from

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TOPGUN, so in keeping with their commitment to verisimilitude,

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Top Gun: Maverick’s brain trust knew that their film needed to follow suit.

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That’s where Monica Barbaro enters the picture as she plays Lt. Natasha “Phoenix”

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Trace, whose skills and reliability made her an easy choice for the film’s climactic mission.

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Barbaro admits that the character changed a lot throughout

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the entire process, and looking back, she’s relieved that she didn’t

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become a love interest to Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller) as originally rumored.

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“When I first booked the role, there was a rumor going around that I was playing Miles’ love interest,

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