Miles Teller has always been hot but it’s taken the world a minute to think so. ‘He’s a surprisingly ordinary-looking baby-faced guy who charmed his way out of the manatee-infested Confederate backwater of Citrus Country, Florida,’ was the verdict from Vulture in 2014. ‘I know that there’s nothing handsome about me,’ Teller told Italian Vogue{
But Teller is sexy whether he thinks so or not - and the internet is ready to tell him so after his latest role as Lieutenant Bradley Bradshaw in Top Gun: Maverick. Specifically, thousands of TikTok users are lusting after one scene where Teller - oiled up with glistening golden abs - dances across the beach topless.
With its action-led plot line and unabashed US patriotism, you might stereotype that Top Gun: Maverick is a sequel aimed at the original’s cult following – but you’d be wrong. As one Twitter user pointed out after laying their eyes on Teller’s topless moment: ‘Old men think Top Gun is meant for them, but it is catering to the female gaze.’
Coined by the theorist Laura Mulvey, the ‘male gaze’ explains that classical Hollywood films make viewers, regardless of gender, align with an active male viewpoint. In recent years, the ‘female gaze’ has directly subverted the male perspective as the camera evokes female desire (sensuality opposed to straight objectification) and allows women to adopt an active role.
'Old men think Top Gun is meant for them, but it is catering to the female gaze.’
This is not to say that Hollywood should replace one gender essentialism with another (films like Portrait Of A Lady On Fire and shows like Fleabag has been praised for their female vantage point) nor that the female gaze can only be achieved by women. Top Gun: Maverick, notably, was directed by Joseph Kosinski.
But the perspective Kosinski has shot from, during the lust-filled scenes and beyond, positions women as participants in the action rather than passive spectators. ‘I just wanna thank the Top Gun crew for catering to the female gaze with that one,’ added another Twitter user. ‘I’ll be seeing it in theatres because of that [Miles Teller] scene and that scene alone.’
Yet, Teller has played sexy characters for years. A firefighter, a rom-com heartthrob, a Fantastic Four Marvel superhero and the best he’s been offered by the way of a compliment is ‘ugly hot’. His appearance has been slated with fervour (he previously told reporters he regularly reads Tweets comparing his face to a ‘foot’). And suddenly he’s a sex symbol, catching eyes over Tom Cruise or Glen Powell, all because the way the camera is looking at him has fundamentally changed. Which suggests beauty is in the eye of the beholder - or in this case, whoever’s behind the camera lens.
Showing him glistening with sweat and rotating his hips in slow motion, TikTok edits of Teller’s topless scene depict women passing out on cinema floors while Take My Breath Away by Berlin from the original movie’s soundtrack blasts out in the background. This moment feels like more than a passing lust – but a cultural reset that began sometime around Connel’s Normal People chain in 2020 and continued through to Bridgerton’s spoon-licking months later.
Finding a space for women's lust and sexual expression on screen, as Top Gun: Maverick has done, still feels fun and new precisely because it is. It's refreshing and reactionary to inject these moments of desire into cinema when female sexuality is so often shown as passive and joyless. Simply put, we’re looking at Teller, Teller is looking at us – and everybody is having a really great time. More of this, please.