Towards the end of his life, Val Kilmer was able to visit one of his most famous roles: Tom “Iceman” in Kazansky in Top gun: Maverick. It was a character that he initially had no interest in playing.
Kilmer died of pneumonia on April 1 at the age of 65, his daughter, Mercedes, told The Associated Press. The actor was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, which required an emergency tracheotomy. Kilmer’s voice was influenced and he said he had to come up with a new way to communicate.
In 2022s ExcessIceman – Rival Aviator of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell from Tom Cruise became Loyal Comrade – was terminally ill and used a computer to help him communicate. Filmmakers changed and digitally went the real voice of Kilmer when he spoke in the scene.
The reunion of the characters was a highlight of the well-received film and one cruise said he “drove hard”. For Kilmer, playing Iceman again felt like a reunion “with a long -lost friend.”
Cruise said no Excess Without kilmer
Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced Excess And the original from 1986 said that cruise insisted that Kilmer repeated his role.
“He said,” I don’t make this movie without falling, “said Bruckheimer de Hollywood Reporter.
Bruckheimer called Cruise “the floating force” to make it happen. ‘We all wanted [Val]But Tom was really determined that if he is going to make another Top gunVal had to be in it, “he told people.
Kilmer and Cruise on the set of Top gun. (Paramount Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty images)
Cruise had “some ideas” about how the reunion scene should play, Bruckheimer said the Hollywood Reporter: “And we loved it.” When they filmed: “It was a very emotional day, who had falls there and saw him work with Tom after 35 years. These two brilliant actors went on, and it was really a one -off experience.”
On the set Kilmer was ‘a perfect professional’, Bruckheimer told Yahoo Entertainment. “He works so hard. He is a brilliant actor, and you can see it in his performance in this film. It is really sincere for me. And I also think for the audience.”
Cruise told Entertainment Tonight that he “was really hard for [Val] To make the film. The kind of talent he has, and you see that scene, it’s very special. “
Cruise said that shooting the scene brought him into tears.
“For him to come back and play that character,” he said Jimmy Kimmel Live. ‘[Val’s] Such a powerful actor that he immediately became that character again. You look at Iceman. I cried … I became emotional. “
Kilmer’s daughter, Mercedes, who produced the Prime Video -Documentary 2021 Fallsaid she was on the set to witness the reunion.
“I saw it live and it was extraordinary,” she said. It means a lot to my father, because he is very proud of that film. It was trippy and very special that my father was on the set with all his friends who made this movie when they were my age. “
Glen Powell played one of the young naval pilots in the future, and his character, Jake “Hangman” Seresin, had hints from Iceman – with confidence for days. He said, however, that he did not try to model his character to the original because he would shoot at the moon.
“I can’t exceed what falls did in the first,” Powell told USA Today. “I tried to leave hangman alone.”
Director Joseph Kosinski told the Hollywood reporter that he was “a bit nervous” that Kilmer showed the completed scene for the first time “because we really wanted him to like it. But his answer was beautiful. He was so happy and so moved that it might really be good and that we might have done it well.”
Kosinski explained the process and said that Kilmer and Cruise performed their scene “and then we improved Val’s voice by mixing it with another, usually for clarity, more than anything.”
When Excess Came out, Kilmer still shared the reunion with cruise and wrote: “36 years later … I am still your Wingman” with a heart.
In a rare interview with people, Kilmer said that repetition of the role of Iceman was: “As if you were reunited with a long -lost friend. The characters never really go away. They live further in deep freezing. If you perish the pun.”
Kilmer was almost no Iceman
The actor trained by Julliard initially had no interest in playing the character in 1986 Top gun.
“I didn’t want the part. I didn’t care about the film. I didn’t care,” Kilmer wrote in his Memoir from 2020, I am Huckleberry. “My agent, who also represented Tom Cruise, actually tortured me in at least meeting [director] Tony Scott, who said he was one of the most popular directors in the city. ‘
Kilmer said during the audition that he was acting as if he did not want the role, “the fool” in “Overssize Gonky Australian Shorts in Missea Green” appeared and read his lines ‘indifferent’.
Later: “Amazing, I was told that I had it part,” he wrote in his memoirs. “I felt more emptied than blown up.” Scott told Kilmer that the “insufficient” script would be improved.
In FallKilmer said: “I thought the script was stupid and I didn’t like hotgunning in films. But I had a contract with the studio, so I didn’t really have a choice” when taking the role.
While making the film, his’ most important joy was the Cameraadschap of the cast, [producers] Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, together with the incredible, inexplicable enthusiasm by Tony Scott and Tom Cruise, “Kilmer told People.
Said Kilmer in Fall That he would “play the rivalry between the character of Tom and the mine screen”, avoided Cruise and Anthony Edwards in a method of actor style.
He said that his crew was Rick Rossovich, who played slider, whom he called the “funniest strong man in show business then”, and Barry Tubb, who was Wolfman.
“Oh, we all laughed until we fell from the hot, spiked crab grass in the Holiday Inn in San Diego,” said Kilmer.
And while it was’ fun to play the rivalry in between [Iceman and Maverick]”Kilmer said:” In reality, I always thought of Tom as a friend – and we have always supported each other. “
