1 day Ago By Niamh Spence
Tom Cruise reunited with iconic actor Val Kilmer who starred alongside him in Top Gun just months before his death. Kilmer , who was famed for his roles in Top Gun and Batman, passed away at the age of 65 from pneumonia at his Los Angeles home on Tuesday, April 1, as confirmed by his daughter. T he actor had previously battled throat cancer after being diagnosed in 2014, a health struggle that left him speechless and largely out of the public eye for several years before he recovered.
One of Kilmer's most iconic roles saw him play Lt. Tom “Iceman” Kazansky in the hit 1986 film alongside Top Gun, and he reprised the role in the 2022 sequel. An interview from 2023 has seen Cruise speaking about being reunited with his co-star in what he called an 'emotional' reunion.
Cruise told TV host Jimmy Kimmel on Jimmy Kimmel Live that being able to work with Kilmer again after his throat cancer diagnosis and recovery was a memorable moment. Cruise said: "I just want to say that was pretty emotional." He added: "I've known Val for decades, and for him to come back and play that character.
.. he's such a powerful actor that he instantly became that character again.
" "I was crying, I was crying. I got emotional," Cruise admitted, after Kimmel asked whether he cried while filming the scene. "He's such a brilliant actor, I love his work.
" The follow up Top Gun film, released in 2022 was a box office hit, with Cruise revealing it meant so much for him to work with Kilmer again. He told PEOPLE at the time: "I've always admired his work, his talent. We get together.
.. we just start laughing.
It was special to have him back. It meant a lot to me." Kilmer has previously revealed in his autobiography that he nearly didn't take on the iconic Top Gun role.
Writing in his 2020 memoir 'I'm Your Huckleberry' he told readers: "I didn’t want the part. I didn’t care about the film. The story didn’t interest me.
" He added that he only did it because his agent "tortured me into at least meeting Tony Scott, saying he was one of the hottest directors in town." He also spoke about playing the role in his 2021 documentary Val, where he discussed how Iceman had little backstory so he came up with his own. He explained: "All of a sudden I was being catapulted into the celebrity stratosphere, and for the rest of my life I would be called Iceman by every pilot at every airport I went to.
" Discussing returning to the role in the 2022 sequel, Kilmer told PEOPLE it was "like being reunited with a long-lost friend ." He added: "The characters never really go away. They live on in deep freeze.
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