Jennifer Connelly on Entering the 'Danger Zone' in 'Top Gun: Maverick'

Oscar winner and onetime Yalie, Jennifer Connelly co-stars with afterburners, sky duels, and Tom Cruise in the year’s raddest reboot, Top Gun: Maverick. The actress talks flying a vintage fighter aircraft,

 

 

The Basic principles

• Age: 51
• Hometown: Brooklyn
• Social media: ”I’m not on it. I choose to be the place I am.”
• Put up-pandemic dream: “Big team dinners with close friends.”
• Put up-pandemic place: “Any the place.”

You star in a person of the most predicted sequels at any time, Top Gun: Maverick, which hits theaters on Nov. 19. What was it like to be section of a blockbuster film franchise?

Large octane. I seasoned factors I in no way had before—motorcycles and sailboats. And I flew in a vintage Planet War II fighter aircraft with Tom Cruise that he piloted. Tom requested if I’d at any time finished any aerobatic flying. I mentioned, “No…am I heading to?” He mentioned we’re just heading to do some effortless rolls and ignited the motor. Flames burst out, which evidently is ordinary, but I unquestionably was not anticipating that.

Following the first Top Gun arrived out in 1986, the Navy claimed enlistment went up 500 %. Did flying with Cruise peak an curiosity in naval aviation for you?

No. In actuality, when I made this film, I had only just lately talked myself out of a huge panic of flying. Full-on sweating, crying all through turbulence—it was torture. I determined my panic was unsustainable for the reason that I have to journey for my occupation. I worked on obtaining about that pressure just in time to make Top Gun: Maverick. My spouse and children thought the timing was fairly funny.

You’d in no way fulfilled Tom Cruise right before on this film. What was it like doing the job with an actor whose official bio describes him as “a world wide cultural icon”?

I have in no way occur throughout everyone with that diploma of enthusiasm for each single shot. Tom places everything he has into everything that he does. For instance, we have a sequence on a boat. Tom seemed at it and mentioned, “This just is not amazing enough. How can we make it far more thrilling for audiences?” We did the shot yet again with a a lot quicker boat in much better wind. Now you see it and—it’s powerful. We’re soaring throughout the sea.

Seems like you went to your personal “danger zone.”

So numerous factors about Top Gun experience so emblematic of a time, and the tune “Danger Zone” is a person of them. I would say I stood on the edge of the threat zone. I walked the perimeter.

Inform us about your character, Penny Benjamin, who was not in the first film. Did you get a nickname like Ice Man or Goose?

Penny’s an independent, optimistic, glass-half-comprehensive form of female. She’s someone who’s regarded Maverick for a when. They have a heritage jointly. But no nickname. Only pilots get nicknames, and she functions in a bar.

“I STOOD ON THE EDGE OF THE Threat ZONE. I WALKED THE PERIMETER.”

We have been trapped inside of for a year. Here’s to hoping we can see Top Gun: Maverick in an genuine motion picture theater.

I had the excellent fortune of viewing a screening in a theater with my spouse and children. No a person else was there, so I skipped that group expertise. But there was a enormous IMAX screen, not just our tv. My nine-year-previous daughter, Agnes, was bouncing in her seat the complete time. We had been all saying afterward, “Wow, we skipped the theater expertise so considerably.”

Go-to concession stand acquire?

Truthfully, I’m not a enormous motion picture snacker. I never know how to make this a far more appealing reply. I’m a compulsive confessor. And I’m lousy at bullshitting. So, no…I’m not a major popcorn eater.

You and your spouse, Paul Bettany, who stars in WandaVision, seem to be hitting the 2021 zeitgeist sweet location.

We experience privileged to do the employment we do and liked the time invested doing the job on these assignments. If audiences appreciate them, that’s gilding the lily.