Quick Links
Given all her career accomplishments, it would be rather out of place to say that this has been a comeback year for Jennifer Connelly. After all, the Academy Award-winning actress has still been actively working in the years just preceding 2022.
Most recently, she played a leading role in TNT’s post-apocalyptic drama series Snowpiercer. Although she was absent for most of the show’s second and third seasons, she is strongly rumored to make a comeback in the already confirmed, upcoming Season 4.
In January this year, however, Connelly became somewhat of an internet sensation, after a fan-made music video featuring the actress hit social media.
The 51-year-old has also now had the distinct honor of featuring in the best domestically performing movie of the year so far: Top Gun: Maverick. Connelly played a supporting role in the film, but her performance has earned her plaudits from fans and critics.
Before the picture hit screens around the world, it was accorded the special recognition of a Royal Premiere.
For Connelly, however, it was the second time she was attending the rarefied event. The first time around was 1986, and she got to meet Princess Diana.
What Is A Royal Premiere?
Known officially as The Royal Film Performance, a royal premiere is an event trademarked by The Film and TV Charity in the UK. It simply involves a premiere event for a major motion picture, and is usually attended by members of the Royal Family.
The event is usually designated as an annual event, although circumstances sometimes mean that some years are skipped.
There was no royal premiere for any films between 2016 and 2018, for instance, as the host charity organization underwent a process of restructuring. The global COVID pandemic also forced the event to be disbanded in 2020 and 2021.
The Royal Film Performance was first held in 1946, where a fantasy romance film titled A Matter of Life and Death screened. In the last two decades, movies like Die Another Day, Casino Royale, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom were all given a royal premiere.
One day before Top Gun: Maverick had its moment of glory at Leicester Square in London, the movie had also received a five-minute-long standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival in France.
How Does Jennifer Connelly Feel About Meeting Princess Diana?
When Jennifer Connelly was last at a Royal Film Performance event, it was as a cast member of the 1986 musical fantasy film by Jim Henson and George Lucas, Labyrinth.
According to IMDb, the movie tells the story of ‘16-year-old Sarah, [who] is given 13 hours to solve a labyrinth and rescue her baby brother Toby when her wish for him to be taken away is granted by the Goblin King Jareth.’
Connelly starred in the main role as Sarah, featuring in the cast alongside legendary British artist David Bowie as the Goblin King Jareth.
When she attended the royal premiere and met Princess Diana later that year, she was a few days shy of her 17th birthday. Still, she remembers the occasion quite fondly, not least thanks to the princess’ charm.
In a recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Connelly reminisced about that encounter, and referred to Princess Diana as ‘impeccable.’
Although Diana was sadly not there to welcome Connelly this year, the actress did get to meet with her son Prince William, and his wife Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge.
Was Jennifer Connelly In The Original ‘Top Gun’?
Top Gun: Maverick is a sequel to Tom Cruise’s classic action drama Top Gun, which was in fact released in the same year as Labyrinth, and when a 16-year-old Jennifer Connelly met Princess Diana.
Maverick saw the return of some of the main cast members from the original film, but there was also a good number of stars from the 1986 picture who did not make the cut.
Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer were the two big stars from the first movie who also featured in the sequel, although it has since come to light that Cruise was initially against the idea of making a Top Gun sequel.
In the opening sequence of that first movie, Cruise’s character, test pilot Pete Mitchell is reprimanded by a superior for ‘a history of high-speed passes over five air-control towers and one admiral's daughter.’
His partner Goose whispers to him: “Penny Benjamin?” That was the first mention of the character that would come to be portrayed by Connelly in the Top Gun franchise. However, it wasn’t until Maverick that Penny physically appeared on-screen.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTErZ%2Bippeoe6S7zGiuoZmkYrWivM%2BepZ6cXZeytcPEnqVmopWju6qyxKtknKeeo7KtuNhmmKecXaW%2FqrrCnqqsZZSerq%2Btjg%3D%3D