Speaking to Sight and Sound, Cruise – who is said to be romancing actress Ana de Armas – reflected on their moving reunion on screen.
He said: “To come back all those years later, and it was amazing being on set for Top Gun: Maverick 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’.”
“It was very special, to say the least, for me personally.
“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.”
Kilmer’s casting in the original Top Gun wasn’t straightforward.
Cruise recalled: “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.’ 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.”
