Jon Hamm, Glen Powell Joke About New Call Signs for 'Top Gun' Characters: 'Glen from 'Scream Queens'

"Cyclone" and "Hangman"? The stars of Top Gun: Maverick have other ideas.

In the sequel to 1986's Top Gun, now playing, Jon Hamm and Glen Powell take on the characters of Beau "Cyclone" Simpson and Jake "Hangman" Seresin. And during Thursday night's screening of Top Gun: Maverick hosted by PEOPLE and Entertainment Weekly, the two joked around about funny alternatives to their characters' "call signs."

Costar Danny Ramirez, who plays Mickey "Fanboy" Garcia in the film, admitted that when he first met Powell, 33, he thought of him as "Glen from Scream Queens," due to the actor's appearance on the Ryan Murphy series.

"I'm a big fan of Scream Queens, so I was like, 'Glen from Scream Queens. This is an honor to be here with you,' " Ramirez remembered.

Hamm, 51, got a kick out of Ramirez's association, quipping to Powell, " 'Glen from Scream Queens' is now officially what you're going in my phone as."

During a Q&A moderated by PEOPLE's Editor-in-Chief Liz Vaccariello, Hamm joked about the toll the role took on his body — as one of the film's stars that did not get into an actual fighter jet during filming.

"My training program was much briefer," the Mad Men alum said. "It involved going to a spray-tanning place."

"Shout out Chocolate Sun," said Ramirez, 29.

"Which is how you're going to go in my phone," Powell chimed in.

Later in the conversation, the joke went on and Powell referred to Hamm as "Chocolate Sun."

"Chocolate Sun. Scream Queen. If that was your call sign, that [would] have been so good," Hamm said.

During the Q&A session, the actors also talked about the training involved in preparing for their roles in the film.

For the movie, Tom Cruise insisted on filming inside F-18 fighter jets, while doing the flying for real rather than using cutaway cockpits in a soundstage in Burbank, California — as was the case for the first movie.

To accomplish this, the actors went through the "Cruise School of Aviation," as described by Powell, who would go on to get his pilot's license after all the hours he put in on set.

"There's no CGI here," Powell said Thursday. "I mean, it's like everybody put their body on the line to give you guys the thrill of a lifetime. And I think that's what you're about to see."

The actors were tasked with delivering in-flight performances without blacking out from intense gravitational force or vomiting mid-scene.

Fortunately, acting under conditions normally experienced only by fighter pilots is something Cruise, 59, was uniquely qualified to teach. (Cruise will tell you with some pride that he hasn't hurled in a plane since his first ride in an F-14 jet at the start of making Top Gun.)

"I had to teach them how to first fly in a single engine Cessna. Then I put them in an airplane where they could do some aerobatics," Cruise previously told PEOPLE. "Then a jet where they could pull serious Gs and feel what it's like with an ejector seat."

He added, "The first day they're in the F-18, they're filming."

When it came time to film the in-flight scenes, a pilot would sit in the front seat with the actor in the back mimicking their moves.

Though Hamm's training might not have been as grueling as his costars', as his character remains grounded throughout the film, he still raved about his time on set.

"Well, the fun part about being in a movie with Tom is just being in a movie with Tom," he said Thursday. "I mean, he is one of the last movie stars that we have. I think you've highlighted excellently in the special edition, you just see the length and breadth of his career. And he just loves making movies. He loves his job, and that energy is incredibly infectious."

Hamm said when he realized many of his scenes would be acting across from Cruise, he knew it would be a "fun" time.

"Tom is the biggest cheerleader, as the guys can attest to, of everybody else too," Hamm said. "He just wants everybody to be excellent. And when you bring that excellence to him, he's even more enthusiastic."

Top Gun: Maverick is now playing in theaters.