By Lexie Cartwright

Copyright news

The Top Gun: Maverick actor, 36, can be seen rocking exaggerated prosthetic muscles on the latest cover of GQ, as well as posing for a series of campy photos, including one which showed him dressed as a politician and glossed to resemble a plastic Ken doll.

It appears dozens of users aren’t quite getting the innuendo, with Powell’s unorthodox shoot going viral online.

“What the heck,” one wrote.

“What are the aim of these images?,” another questioned.

“This shoot is so random,” a third wrote, while a fourth questioned if it was “real”.

Sharing the post on Instagram, GQ explained the October mag was profiling a ‘New Masculinity’ theme, adding the issue was “a special report on the state of the American male in 2025.”

Indeed, the photos are an exaggerated spoof on American male culture, with Powell – who has shot to notoriety in recent years for playing cocky dudes in his films – making the candid admission he finds it “cool and tough to be open and vulnerable.”

“Anybody that you’ll meet that knows me from elementary school, middle school, like high school, I was not Mr. Cool,” Powell told GQ.

“I’ve never been Mr. Cool. And what’s funny is you start getting cast in certain things — like Hangman [from Top Gun: Maverick] is not me, right? I’m not that guy.

He continued, “I feel like vulnerability is the greatest sense of masculinity. Not acting like nothing hurts and not trying to act like that journey is painless.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Powell broke his silence after his split from ex-girlfriend, model Gigi Paris, in 2023, amid a tabloid frenzy he was dating his Anyone But You co-star Sydney Sweeney.

Powell and Sweeney both later admitted to leaning into romance rumours to promote their rom-com.

After two years of silence, Paris addressed the breakdown of their relationship in June on the Too Much Podcast, saying she was uncomfortable Powell didn’t publicly back his relationship at the time.

“Where are you when you just need to stand up and say, ‘No, I would never cheat on my girlfriend. I wouldn’t do that.’ That’s all that needed to be said. And that wasn’t said. Never once,” Paris said.

“I have heard so many different sides of the story. I have no confirmation of what actually happened. I just know what my standards are. And for me, it just wasn’t OK the way it was handled, period.”

Powell doubled down to GQ about his efforts to promote his movie, though didn’t entirely agree with Paris’ “narrative”.

“I will always have nothing but love for her and respect for her,” he said.

“Everybody’s always going to have their own narrative on things and all that. And she’s welcome to it.

“Relationships are really hard. And when two people break up, they each go to their own brunch and they will each tell their own narrative.”