The sequel to the acclaimed film Top Gun is being presented this week at the Cannes Film Festival, being one of the most anticipated films of the 75th edition of the festival. In Top Gun: Maverick, which will be released on May 26, Tom Cruise will return to play the iconic airline pilot who catapulted him to fame in the eighties.
However, Meg Ryan and Kelly McGillis will not participate in this film, who in the first Top Gun was Charlie, the main love interest of Lieutenant Pete Mitchell. Many, including the actress herself, think that this decision is due to her age. "I'm old, I'm fat, and I look my age. And the movie isn't about any of that," McGillis, 62, told ET.
In this installment, who will take on the role of Penelope Benjamin, Maverick's main love interest, will be 51-year-old Jennifer Connelly. The actress, who has appeared in Requiem for a Dream, Inside the Labyrinth and A Beautiful Mind, is 13 years younger than Tom Cruise.
Connelly's role is interesting considering how few times recently we've seen Cruise play love scenes. However, the actress, in an interview published last week in Variety, has stated that age has not been a problem for any of the actors when shooting sex scenes.
"We focus on the intimacy of how they fit into each other's lives. I think those characters have a very tender relationship, the way she understands it," Connelly said. "They share a moment in bed talking, and it says as much about their relationship as the scene that is the prelude to it," she continued.
"Clearly, they have some unresolved issues between them, and she handles it with humor and joy. I feel like she is someone who is positive and moving towards happiness," the actress added of her character. Waiting for all of us to see the return of the best-known aviation school in the cinema, including its love plot, in Hollywood the debate on the age of the actresses has already been reopened.
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