If there needed to be a prime example of what a true, juggernaut, feel-good, tear-jerker of a blockbuster would be…look no further than Top Gun: Maverick.

At the film’s press week in San Diego earlier this month, Shadow and Act spoke to cast members Miles Teller, Jon Hamm, Jennifer Connelly, Glen Powell, Danny Ramirez, Greg Tarzan Davis, Jay Ellis, Monica Barbaro, Lewis Pullman, Charles Parnell and Bashir Salahuddin, as well as director Joe Kosinski and executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

READ MORE: Tom Cruise, Greg Tarzan Davis, Jon Hamm, Jake Picking And More Talk ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ On The Red Carpet

The actors talked about the film being one of the first major ones to hit theaters since the pandemic first started.

“We’ve only really gotten to see movies at home, you know, I don’t think there’s a better movie that is a celebration of what cinema and the theatrical experience is about,” Powell told us during the press day, which shortly after the film had begun screening for press. “I’m so excited. I think we’re all still kind of absorbing what the beginning of the reactions are. But whenever somebody was like, ‘When’s it gonna come out?’ I was just like, ‘When it comes out in theaters, you will understand why it was waiting to come out in theaters.’ This is could not be a better example of the antithesis of a movie that should be put on streaming. This was born to be with full sound on a big screen and with a packed audience.”

You can view the full interviews below: