‘Top Gun’s Val Kilmer Almost Rejected the Role of Iceman Until Tom Cruise Stepped In

convinced him to star in the 1986 movie.

As Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, Kilmer gave one of the performances that he continues to be best known for, and one that led directly to his involvement in Top Gun: Maverick in 2022. IN a recent interview, though, Cruise recalled how his co-star and friend did not originally want to be part of the movie, and took some convincing to do so. Cruise told Sight & Sound:

“I felt so grateful that he decided to make the film. We did a lot to get him in the movie. 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.’

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“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.”

‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Became an Emotional Coda to Kilmer’s Career

Paramount Pictures

When Top Gun: Maverick finally arrived in cinemas after a lengthy wait for fans thanks to the Covid pandemic, it blew away all box office projections to become the highest-grossing movie of the year. One thing that helped elevate the film to a whole new level was the small but incredibly emotional appearance by Kilmer as Kazansky.

The film managed to incorporate Kilmer’s own battle with cancer into the storyline of his character, and while the movie was not a success because of his appearance alone, audience reactions to the moment Iceman and Maverick came face to face certainly gave some a reason to want to see the movie more than once on the big screen, and others a reason to want to see it for the first time.

Since its debut on Paramount+ months later, the film has rarely been out of the streamer’s Top 10 movies, and even now, three years later, is back at the top of the chart after almost 800 days on the platform. For anyone who has not seen the movie yet, there could be no better time to jump on board, and with the original movie also on Paramount+, why not make it a double feature in Kilmer’s memory?

Source: Sight & Sound Magazine

Top Gun

Release Date

May 16, 1986

Runtime

110 minutes

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