Marriage proposals are supposed to be beautiful, storybook moments, but they can also be incredibly stressful and complicated things to pull off. Often, they can be a team effort as family and friends support the person planning to propose. Such was the case when members of the cast of Top Gun: Maverick came to the aid of co-star Jay Ellis with his proposal, though not entirely through positive advice.
Ellis recently appeared on Today, where he relayed the story of his proposal to his now wife, actress and model Nina Senicar. Ellis calls his proposal “horrible” which is a bit harsh. The biggest issue was finding the right time and place for it. An initial plan to propose on New Year’s Eve in Bali fell through when both got sick. Ellis then had another idea, but his Maverick co-star Monica Barbaro talked him out of it. Ellis said:
Mine was horrible. It was … sorry, baby. But basically, I knew I was proposing. We were on vacation. We were in Bali. I had the ring with me. I took it everywhere with me. I kept it in my backpack, as we were like, adventuring around Bali, and I didn’t know what day I was going to do it. I decide, ‘Hey, we should go scuba diving, and I’ll propose underwater.’ Now I want to back up and say that I was in the middle of filming ‘Top Gun’ when this happened, and I had pitched this to my castmates and Monica Barbaro’s like, ‘That is the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard. The first thing people want to do when they engage is kiss! You’re going to be underwater. What are you going to do?’ She was right.
An underwater proposal is certainly a unique and memorable idea. I can see why Jay Ellis considered it, but Monica Barbaro is right on the money here. Plus, if Senicar isn’t expecting the proposal, there’s the possibility she might attempt to gasp or scream, which, underwater, just spells all sorts of problems.
With the underwater proposal nixed, Ellis then needed to figure out a new plan. Perhaps because he didn’t have any other ideas, he ended up proposing in a certainly surprising, but not particularly special way. However, the woman being proposed to informed him that she wasn’t going to accept a ring under less than ideal circumstances. He explained:
The next day, we’re at a coffee shop, and I’m actually sending some emails about something, doing some work stuff. And she’s like, ‘I just thought we were gonna have a trip without work. I thought we were just going to be here together. I thought it was just going to be me and you.’ And I reach in my backpack, and I’m like, ‘Is this what you want?’ And she goes, ‘No! You will not propose to me like this!’ So I stuffed … the ring back in the bag, and somehow, we have a beautiful day.
Proposals are supposed to be a surprise, but that doesn’t mean that a lot of women don’t see them coming. Whether she fully knew Ellis had a ring or not, it certainly appears that Nina Senicar wasn’t entirely shocked to see it in that coffee shop. She was also perfectly willing to undo that proposal and wait for something better.
Something better did come. The next day, Ellis and Senicar were on a beach together, something Ellis missed on the set of Top Gun: Maverick. The location had been specifically suggested by another Maverick co-star, Miles Teller. There, the right moment occurred, and Ellis finally proposed, and this one stuck. As he put it:
I’m just like panicking, freaking out and she turns and she like looks away to look at the sunset, and as she looks, I reach in my bag and I pull it out and she turns around and I say, ‘Can we do this again? Will you marry me?’ And that was it.
As somebody who also had a wild time trying to find the right time to propose on vacation, though mine was at Walt Disney World, to a woman who knew damn well a proposal was coming at some point, I adore this entire story. I’m glad it all worked out for the Top Gun: Maverick star. Ellis is as excited for the potential Top Gun 3 as anybody. If it happens, he should do something nice for the co-stars who helped him out.