Jennifer Connelly Explains How Her Fear Of Flying Got Worse After Her Daughter’s Health Scare: ‘I Struggled With Separation’
01.06.2022 - 20:07
/ etcanada.com
Jennifer Connelly may star in “Top Gun: Maverick”, but she’s only just got over her fear of flying not so long ago.
Connelly plays Penny Benjamin in the flick alongside Tom Cruise’s Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. Actors including Miles Teller, Val Kilmer, Bashir Salahuddin and Jon Hamm also make up the star-studded cast.
The actress told The Sunday Times of previously being a nervous flyer, “Fortunately right before doing this film I was having to commute a lot by plane and I thought, ‘This is just unsustainable, I have to work through this issue,’ so I just kind of found my angle.
“My armchair analysis of myself is that we’d had a health scare with our youngest child, Agnes, when she was very little. It wound up being nothing, sort of a false alarm, but it was enough to really frighten me.
“As a result I struggled with separation. I never loved flying, but it got worse the first time I travelled without her, that was the first time I had a real panic. I always knew it was something I could outthink because I was always better when I was coming home.”
READ MORE: Jennifer Connelly Says ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Co-Star Tom Cruise Is ‘Someone Who Doesn’t Take Anything For Granted’
Connelly explained how she’d never worked with or met Cruise before working with him on the flick.
She gushed of her on-screen former flame, “I just found him to be quite extraordinary. He is incredibly dedicated in everything he does.”
Cruise asked that all the younger actors join him on an intensive preparatory boot camp before playing fighter pilots in the much-talked about flick. However, Connelly did not have to attend.
READ MORE: Jennifer Connelly Reveals How Tom Cruise Helped Her To Get Over Her Fear Of Flying While Filming ‘Top Gun: