Connelly on the new “Top Gun”: surprisingly tender

Something out of the ordinary – this is the image that the two actors give of the recordings of the new “Top-Gun” movie. The protagonist Tom Cruise, himself a passionate pilot with his own propeller plane (seen in a backlight scene), is also one of the film’s producers and had strong views on the importance of authenticity for the dangerous flight scenes to be convincing.

The text of the afterwords to various bodies within the US Navy is also very long. Miles Teller had already been told during the casting that the role of fighter pilot “Rooster” Bradshaw would mean that he would have to fly 600 miles per hour (about 965 kilometers per hour) and challenge the force of gravity without fainting. To complete the task, he had to take flying lessons.

– We got to train like anyone who has to get a pilot’s certificate. We started with simpler aircraft, but advanced and flew with a civilian group called the Patriots, they do demonstrations and fly in formations, says Miles Teller.

Miles Teller’s “Rooster” is the son of Maverick’s former co-pilot, “Goose”, who died in an accident in the first “Top Gun” movie. Press image.

Although he had a patriot pilot in the back seat, he also had a jet in the air above him and two on the sides. However, when it came time to record the action scenes in the US military’s fighter jet, he was allowed to sit in the back seat.

– But in the film we had to act as if we really were the ones who flew them, we needed a very deep understanding of what the fighter pilots did, says Miles Teller, whose tormented facial expression in the flight scenes is convincing.

Flight in particular did not become a new passion for him.

– I like to fly passenger planes, but I did not develop a “need for speed”. I became interested in boats.

Six in blue backlight

Miles Teller was born the year after the premiere of the first “Top Gun” movie in 1986 and saw it as a teenager. Although he thought the fighter pilots were “tough”, it is the blue-backed sex scenes that he mentions first: that is, when Tom Cruises’ Maverick kisses the female flight instructor Charlie, played by Kelly McGillis.

McGillis revealed in 2019 that she has never been relevant for a role in the new film: “I’m too old, and I’m fat, I look like a person my age. And that’s not what this whole scene is about,” said the 60-plus then.

But even Pete “Maverick” Mitchell has grown older, points out Jennifer Connelly who plays Penny Benjamin, bar owner, single mother and Maverick’s love in the new film.

– We meet Maverick at another time in his life, it is surprisingly tender and emotional. I thought it was very exciting, says Connelly.

She is also very fond of her own character Penny Benjamin who is already mentioned in the first “Top Gun” movie and who – you understand now – has had it together with Maverick before:

– I liked the way she navigates through it, with a playfulness and humor that says a lot about her nature. She is a person who moves towards happiness in life, she knows a lot about Maverick, but she knows where she is going and does not intend to let him get her off track.

All aspects

Oscar-winning Jennifer Connelly had never met Tom Cruise before and describes him as an actor who is passionately interested in all aspects of filmmaking, and who constantly turned and twisted every scene to make it better.

For her part, she did not have to learn to fly but was instead forced to take sailing lessons to record a stormy scene on a sailboat where her Penny puts Maverick in place. After a failed attempt in calm waters off San Diego, the film crew acquired a new boat to film outside the reliably windy San Francisco.

– It got pretty intense, but I loved it and I loved what Tom Cruise did in that scene. It was fun.

Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly and Miles Teller ahead of the world premiere of “Top Gun: Maverick” at the Cannes Film Festival.