The actor reveals the cast has a 'fire' text chain together.
After becoming a massive box office hit, Top Gun: Maverick, which stars Jay Ellis, Glen Powell, Miles Teller and others alongside Tom Cruise, scored six nominations for the 95th Academy Awards, including one for Best Picture.
"It's wild, man. It's wild," Ellis tells ET's Matt Cohen at the premiere of his new film, Somebody I Used to Know, explaining that when they all first started working on the sequel four years ago, "We just wanted people to go see it. We just wanted to work with Tom Cruise. We just wanted to work with [producer] Jerry Bruckheimer and [director] Joe Kosinski."
He adds, "This is a dream."
Since the film's release, the cast has stayed in touch by communicating on the same text thread.
"Usually most of the text chain is all my cast mates realizing and really commenting on how much I've enriched their lives and how much they love me and I've made them better people," Ellis jokes. "But every once in a while, some good news will come through, like the Oscar nominations… Our chat is on fire all the time."
While Ellis got to play a young fighter pilot in the Top Gun sequel, he's leaving high-flying missions behind for his latest project. In Somebody I Used to Know, which was directed by Dave Franco, the actor plays a guy who reunites with his ex-girlfriend (Allison Brie), who is questioning all of her life choices.
Ellis explains that what attracted him to the project was a chance to work with Franco and Brie, who previously made The Rental after getting married.
"I got to see the first film that they did together. I watched it and I was like, 'Oh my God, they're so great,'" he recalls. "And just, like, my first call with Dave was really just him sinking into his point of view and how they came up with the idea and how he wanted to create a family on set. He wanted it to be fun. And I feel like he achieved everything he wanted with this movie."
He adds that they were also "amazing" to work with. "Like, there's nothing better than seeing your bosses, like, love each other. You know what I'm saying?" the actor says.
Somebody I Used to Know premieres Feb. 10 on Prime Video.
The 95th Academy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, will be handed out live at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California, on March 12 starting at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on ABC. In the meantime, stay tuned to ETonline.com for complete Oscars coverage.
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