Jennifer Connelly calls for Tom Cruise to receive Oscar nomination for Top Gun: Maverick

Jennifer Connelly believes her Top Gun: Maverick co-star Tom Cruise deserves an Oscar nomination for his "extraordinary" work in the movie.

The actress, who played Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell's love interest Penelope Benjamin in the long-awaited sequel, believes her co-star "absolutely deserves" a nomination for both his emotional work and his jaw-dropping flying stunts.

The film premiered at CinemaCon in April 2022 and was released in May 2022 by Paramount Pictures in the United States.

The film grossed over $1.4 billion (£1.2 billion) worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 2022 and the highest-grossing film of Tom's career.

"He's extraordinary," Connelly told Variety. "He does an amazing job in the movie. He's extraordinary as a person and fantastic as an actor, and I think that he is just perfect. He embodies that character so beautifully, and I think he absolutely deserves it."

She continued, "I think that the film is a really well made film and it's really hard to make a film like that."

Connelly added, "Also, thinking about Tom's work, think of the things that he did for that role. Besides all the stuff on the ground and how wonderful he is in those scenes and creating those relationships."

The 52-year-old went on to say she thought "the relationship he has with Miles' character is so beautiful and moving" but "the work he did to accomplish those flying sequences, it's something else."

In the action movie, the follow-up to 1986's Top Gun, Miles Teller plays Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw, the son of Maverick's late flying partner Goose.

Cruise was nominated for Best Actor at the Critics Choice Awards but was beaten by Brendan Fraser for The Whale.

The Academy Award nominations will be announced on Tuesday.