(CNN) Tom Cruise continues to outdo himself.
The ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ actor won Best Performance in a Motion Picture for his role in the 2022 film at the MTV Movie & TV Awards on Sunday, and delivered his acceptance speech in a pre-recorded video that showed him piloting an airplane.
With the golden popcorn statuette strapped to the plane’s passenger seat, Cruise thanked viewers for voting for him and said, “I love you, I love entertaining you.”
To be completely clear, Cruise was indeed flying the plane himself, a Paramount rep confirmed to CNN on Sunday. She added that the plane Cruise was flying was his own, and the same P-51 Mustang he piloted in “Top Gun: Maverick.”
Cruise is known for doing his own stunts and even thanked moviegoers for supporting the blockbuster sequel in a video posted to his verified Instagram last year that showed the actor plummeting from an airplane.
Dubbed the savior of cinema by Steven Spielberg himself, Cruise concluded his speech Sunday by saying, “See you at the cinema.”
‘Top Gun: Maverick’, the sequel to 1986 blockbuster ‘Top Gun’, was the highest-grossing film of 2022 after years of pandemic-induced theater turmoil, and stands as Cruise’s first film to reach the billion-dollar milestone.
Overall, Cruise piloting a plane to accept an award gives new meaning to the “Top Gun: Maverick” character Rooster (Miles Teller) saying in the film, “It’s not the plane, it’s the pilot.”