Top Gun: nonconformist was the blockbuster of the summer of 2022 and reached another pinnacle of recognition by garnering a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars. The movie is a good quick time, but it wouldn’t complete the sequel equation without the central romance between Tom Cruise and Jennifer Connelly’s characters. Now, director Joseph Kosinski has shared how his character relationships changed during filming to better fit the story Kosinski was going for.
They Forget the director sat down with vanity lounge to detail behind-the-scenes facts about the most difficult scenes to piece together Top Gun: nonconformist, and how the various relationships between the characters were established. The action director revealed that Cruise and Connelly’s relationship was addressed in a very different way than written in the original script and explained why changes were made during filming, revealing that creating a scene between their characters from the bars were just as difficult to somehow capture as high-flying stunts. In his words:
Without a doubt, the bar scene is just as complex, if not more, than any action scene. You introduce all these people, but you try to keep Maverick’s point of view. [view] in all of this. So all those stares, making sure you’re looking at him, looking at him, looking at all these people together. It’s probably the scene we spent the most time writing and rewriting, and probably the one that changed the most throughout the film. Because we really changed the Maverick-Penny story in between, and this is the scene that sets it all up.
It’s such an important scene in the film because it not only takes the audience into Penny and Mav’s relationship, but also into the different dynamics between the other characters, as well as Maverick’s internal battles about his past. The scene does a lot of work in terms of exposition, and was probably very difficult to pull off due to the shifting dynamic between the characters. Kosinski detailed how the central romance was changed during the production process by explaining:
Well originally Penny and Maverick hadn’t seen each other since 1985, so you ended up seeing a character she hasn’t seen since she was 18 or 19. And after shooting like that and putting the movie together, that relationship was too far from having not seen anyone in 36 years to where we wanted to be by the end of the movie. It was then that we realized that this had been an on-and-off-again relationship for decades, and Maverick and Penny would finally be ready to connect in a more meaningful way. The bar scene is where it started which is why it took so many tweaks to get there.
Romance is the beating heart of the film, giving Maverick additional emotional stakes and other plot elements that populate Top Gun: Maverick may not have worked as well without being handled properly. Kosinski clearly made the right decision in tailoring the dynamic between these two characters. Their romance is entirely believable as an on-and-off-again relationship that has spanned many years, and Cruise and Connelly’s chemistry has us rooting for them.
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The actors clearly support each other off screen as well. Connelly described Cruise as “remarkable” for her work throughout the film, saying he thought the megastar deserved an Oscar for her portrayal of her. Unfortunately, Cruise was passed over for the acting nomination, even though the film received multiple Academy Award nominations. Connelly sang Mission Impossible the star’s praise over and over again before and after the blockbuster hit theaters, and the experience was apparently great for the actress.
Cruise can be an intimidating actor to work with due to his unwavering commitment to intense action scenes, but Connelly seems to have held up well. Would she have been so excited if their story revolved around rebuilding chemistry after meeting for the first time in over 30 years? Impossible to say, and luckily we don’t have to worry about it.
Anyone who missed the action movie in theaters can stream it Top Gun: nonconformist now with a Paramount+ subscription. For more entertaining popcorn movies hitting theaters and streaming in the near future, be sure to check out 24 News Bulletin’s 2023 Movies Release Schedule.
Source: Cinemablend
