Tom Cruise 'sets the bar really high' in 'Top Gun: Maverick', co-star Jennifer Connelly says
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Tom Cruise always brings his A-game when it comes to his work, according to his "Top Gun: Maverick" co-star Jennifer Connelly.
The 49-year-old actress opened up to Entertainment Tonight about what fans can expect from the highly anticipated sequel -- and Cruise himself, saying the actor "sets the bar really high."
"Having seen some of the footage of the flying sequences, it’s unreal,” Connelly told the outlet on Thursday, adding that her fellow castmembers "were all really presented with quite a challenge and it’s pretty extraordinary what they did."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Of Cruise, 57, specifically, Connelly said: "What I observed was that he’s someone who is really passionate about just doing the best that he can possibly do and making the best thing he can possibly make in every moment."
"He doesn’t let any opportunity go by," the "Snowpiercer" star added.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In the upcoming movie -- which has been pushed back to Dec. 23 due to the coronavirus pandemic -- Cruise’s character, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, return to the skies in order to train a new, younger crop of U.S. Navy fighter pilot cadets. Connelly plays the new love interest of Maverick.
Along with Connelly, newcomers Miles Teller, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell and Monica Barbaro feature in the movie. Meanwhile, Val Kilmer, who played Iceman in the original film, will also be returning, producer Jerry Bruckheimer recently revealed.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Despite keeping Kilmer's role a secret, Bruckheimer told Yahoo Entertainment on Wednesday: “No spoilers, but he’s in the movie.”
Kilmer, 60, has also previously voiced similar sentiments like Connelly's about Cruise.
Jennifer Connelly plays the new love interest of Tom Cruise's Maverick in the upcoming 'Top Gun' sequel. (Getty)
In his memoir, “I’m Your Huckleberry," Kilmer takes a deep dive into the characteristics he said were prevalent while on the set of the 1986 movie "Top Gun" -- and explained a faction-type dichotomy where he was the leader of the “party boys” as Cruise displayed “laser-like” focus on his way to becoming “greatest action hero in the history of film.”
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“Tom refrained from our revelry, with good reason,” he said, according to the excerpts obtained by the Daily Beast. “From day one, he was laser-focused on a singular goal: to become the greatest action hero in the history of film. He was up nights learning lines; he spent every waking hour perfecting his stunts. His dedication was admirable. Of course, even more admirable is the fact that he achieved his goal.”
Fox News' Julius Young contributed to this report