Besides Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer is the only actor from Top Gun (1986) to appear in the new Top Gun: Maverick. Despite losing his ability to speak, the 63-year-old actor still convinced the film crew to let him reprise his role as Iceman.
Val Kilmer makes an impressive comeback in Top Gun: Maverick 36 years after becoming famous on the big screen as Tom “Iceman” Kazansky in Top Gun. No longer the talented young pilot who always competed with Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise), Iceman is now a high-ranking commander in the US Navy and has retired from the scene.
With his reputation, he brings Maverick back to the Top Gun school to train outstanding young pilots before joining them on an unimaginable mission. Although he doesn’t appear much, Val Kilmer’s character makes longtime fans feel emotional when he reunites with Pete Mitchell.
Iceman, played by Val Kilmer (left), and Maverick, played by Tom Cruise in Top Gun (1986). They are two talented pilots who compete for the top spot in the training school but eventually become good friends.
Val Kilmer earnestly asked the producers to include him in the new installment as a guest star despite having lost his ability to speak due to throat cancer treatment a few years ago. In the film, Iceman communicates with Maverick by typing on a computer, and at the end of the meeting, the character tries to raise his voice to send his last message to his close friend.
The New York Post revealed that the production team sought the help of an AI (artificial intelligence) company to recreate Val’s voice through recordings of him throughout his career. Thanks to this audio data, experts created the 63-year-old actor’s rare lines and dubbed them into the above scene.
Val Kilmer was moved when his voice was recreated so faithfully that it was no different from the original. He confided: “I am grateful to the team of experts who restored my voice in a way that I never imagined possible.”
In an interview with The New York Post, Mercedes Kilmer – Val Kilmer’s daughter, shared that the role of this veteran actor in Top Gun: Maverick was very meaningful to him. The actress was present on the set to watch her father and Tom Cruise film the reunion scene between Iceman and Maverick. Mercedes called the moment of reunion between the two characters extraordinary. “It meant a lot to my father because he was so proud of the movie,” she added.
Tom Cruise himself was also happy to reunite with his senior. Recently, at the premiere of the new blockbuster in London (UK), the Hollywood action superstar shared with Metro: “You know, it took us 36 years to make this movie. There are so many moments that make the work special and very unique… He is an actor that I have always admired, so it is great that we are reuniting.” Last year, producer Jerry Bruckheimer also shared with People that Tom Cruise really wanted Val Kilmer to participate in Top Gun: Maverick. The filmmaker said: “Everyone wanted Val to come back and Tom was the one who was adamant that if we were going to make another Top Gun, Val had to be in it.”
Val Kilmer was born in 1959, he started acting in films in the early 1980s and is a familiar face on the Hollywood screen. The veteran actor was once famous for a series of works: The Doors, True Romance, The Ghost and the Darkness, Wonderland… In addition to Iceman of Top Gun, the 63-year-old star is also known to international audiences for his role as Batman in Batman Forever (1995). In 2017, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that the famous artist had been fighting nasopharyngeal cancer for 2 years. After undergoing tracheal surgery and chemotherapy, the actor lost his voice. He had to use a support device inserted in his trachea to be able to communicate, but everything was still very difficult.
Top Gun: Maverick with the return of Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer officially hit the big screen on May 27.