Tom Cruise gushed about making Top Gun with late star Val Kilmer in a new interview with Deadline’s Isabel Stevens.
Cruise recalled how Kilmer, who died on April 1, was far from keen about starring in a supporting role. He refused at first and had to be convinced to play he role of Tom Kazansky.
“I felt so grateful that he decided to make the film. We did a lot to get him in the movie,” said the Mission: Impossible star.
He revealed: “Originally, he just didn’t want to make the movie, ‘I don’t want to be a supporting, I want to star in films.’ I was calling his agent, and Tony Scott was hunting him down and meeting in an elevator with Val, and he was like, ‘Please, Val, please.’”
Praising the Heat stars’ work in the film, Cruise continued: “You just see what a great actor, charismatic guy he was. And in that scene, what I love about what he did and how he played it, he just knew that tone to hit. He had to play it so you wanted these guys to be friends in the end. Do you know what I’m saying? And I remember those scenes like they were yesterday, acting with him, where he did the bite thing.”
“You know when you’re acting with somebody and you just see they’re just on fire. It’s exhilarating. I love when the scene just goes to a different place. If you look at Top Gun, I think he’s in the movie maybe ten minutes. That’s the impact of an artist like that,” the 62-year-old added, praising Kilmer.
Further hailing Kilmer’s acting prowess, he talked about how the actor “became” his character in Top Gun: Maverick.
“And to come back all those years later, and it was amazing being on set for Top Gun: Maverick [Joseph Kosinski, 2022] because it was like time had not passed. We were laughing and it was joyous. And then we started acting and it’s just, you see it… he became Iceman. The power that this guy has, even not saying anything, to become that character. You see how even the sniff that he gave. He was Iceman,” he said.
“And you saw the dynamic between these friends. It was very special, to say the least, for me personally. I just tell people… you take Iceman from the first film and you look at it here, that whole journey, he became Iceman. And he didn’t even have to speak. That’s what he’s able to do. Beautiful, really beautiful. A gift that he had and that he shared with all of us,” concluded Tom Cruise.
