Val Kilmer shares what it was like filming ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ with Tom Cruise: ‘No time had passed at all’
Val Kilmer and Tom Cruise starred in the 1986 ‘Top Gun’
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Iceman and Maverick are reunited.
Val Kilmer recently shared what it was like to film "Top Gun: Maverick" with Tom Cruise nearly 30 years after the original "Top Gun" was released.
"It was like no time had passed at all," Kilmer shared with Entertainment Weekly on Thursday. "We blew a lot of takes laughing so much," he continued. "It was really fun … special."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Val Kilmer shared what it was like to work with Tom Cruise on "Top Gun: Maverick." (Getty Images)
Kilmer, 62, reprised his role of Tom "Iceman" Kazansky in the sequel. The actor revealed that even from a young age, all the stars shared a close bond.
"We were all so young during the making of the first movie, but even then there was a special bond between us all," Kilmer said. "Even after shooting we would laugh and dance the night away!"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Kilmer shared with the outlet how he received the news about starring in "Top Gun: Maverick."
Val Kilmer and Tom Cruise on the set of "Top Gun" directed by Tony Scott. (Photo by Paramount Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)
"Tom called me. I said yes immediately," he said.
In the newly released film, Cruise’s character, Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, is asked to return to train a new batch of pilots for the Top Gun program. The film’s director, Joseph Kosinski, shared with the outlet that he had to find a way to incorporate Kilmer’s character into the movie.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}‘TOP GUN: MAVERICK’ STAR DANNY RAMIREZ TALKS TOM CRUISE AS A MENTOR AND THE FILM'S ‘UNIQUE' TRAINING
"You had to figure out a way to bring Iceman in," he said. "We met with Val. He had the idea of how to integrate Iceman in a really authentic way."
Kilmer’s Iceman supports Maverick’s unique teaching skills as he battles with an illness that took his voice in the movie. This piece of the script resembles Kilmer’s personal life.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Top Gun", directed by Tony Scott. Tom Cruise as Lt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell and Val Kilmer as Lt. Tom 'Iceman' Kazansky in the background. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images)
In 2017, the actor shared that he was diagnosed with throat cancer and has since had trouble speaking. Like Iceman, Kilmer primarily communicates through writing.
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Both Kosinski and Cruise knew that Kilmer’s return to "Top Gun: Maverick" was vital. The scene where Iceman and Maverick reunite was the first time both actors have filmed together in nearly 30 years.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Obviously [we] spent a lot of time on that scene, writing it, getting ready," Kosinski said. "I wasn’t sure how it was going to work. … It’s a really beautiful scene. We shot it in Los Angeles in a really beautiful house up on a park. Very special to see not only Val and Tom, but Maverick and Iceman back on the screen together."
Tom Cruise attends the UK premiere of "Top Gun: Maverick" at Leicester Square on May 19, 2022, in London. (Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures)
Cruise earned the biggest movie launch of his career with "Top Gun: Maverick," bringing in a projected $151 million at the box office during Memorial Day weekend.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Paramount film, which was delayed multiple times due to the coronavirus pandemic, now holds the record for the second-best Memorial Day opening of all time behind Johnny Depp’s "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End," which earned $153 million when it was released in 2007.
Fox News' Tracy Wright contributed to this report.