FLYING high

'By some beautiful twist of fate, I've landed in this vocation that demands that I feel and helps me to learn.' Some 20 years after Jennifer Connelly's Oscar acceptance speech, her words still ring true for her today.

- CHARIS TORRANCE

Since making her acting debut at the age of 11, Jennifer Connelly has commanded our attention in every role she's taken on. Most recently, she starred in the most anticipated movie of 2022: Top Gun: Maverick, the hit sequel to the 1986 blockbuster. 'Everything about this movie has been kind of extraordinary,' she says. When the original premiered, she was 15, making a name for herself alongside David Bowie in Labyrinth. "The flying blew me away in Top Gun. Another thing that really stood out was just Tom Cruise in that jacket and on the motorcycle. It was iconic; it has nostalgic memories."

Set more than 30 years after the events of the first film, Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell returns to the Top Gun institute to train a group of graduates for a special mission. In the film, the 51-year-old-actress plays Penny Benjamin, a bar owner and single mother who'd had a relationship with Maverick in the past. Fans of the original film were understandably upset (to put it mildly) that Maverick's old flame Charlotte 'Charlie' Blackwood (Kelly McGillis) wasn't coming back, but Penny had actually been there all along - she's referenced in the original Top Gun as the daughter of an admiral that Maverick got into some sort of romantic hot water with.

'She has a real zest for life,' Jennifer says of her character. To prepare for the role, she took sailing lessons and even found herself airborne in a P-51 Mustang fighter plane with Tom. 'She has an adventurous spirit; there's a reason they keep cycling in and out of each other's lives.

'One of the things I love about making movies is spending time with characters who have very different lives and maybe make very different choices than I would make. I find that really interesting. With Penny, I like how optimistic and warm she is. I think she's a deeply kind person... somebody who wants to be happy and live a good life.'