Val Kilmer in ‘Top Gun’. Photo:
CBS via Getty
Val Kilmer was not interested in playing Lt. Tom “Iceman” Kazanski in Top Gun.
The actor appeared alongside Tom Cruise and Meg Ryan in the 1986 blockbuster. He returned with Cruise to star in 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, which introduced Miles Teller, Glen Powell and more stars to the franchise.
Top Gun went down in history as one of the most iconic films of all time, and Kilmer’s participation is unforgettable. However, the late actor previously admitted that he did not want to star in the action film and was contractually forced into doing it.
Val Kilmer and Tom Cruise (from left) in ‘Top Gun’. Paramount Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty
“I didn’t want the part. I didn’t care about the film. The story didn’t interest me,” Kilmer admitted in his 2020 memoir I’m Your Huckleberry. “My agent, who also represented Tom Cruise, basically tortured me into at least meeting Tony Scott, saying he was one of the hottest directors in town.”
When it was time for his audition, Kilmer recalled in his book that he “showed up looking the fool” in a pair of “oversize gonky Australian shorts in nausea green.”
“I read the lines indifferently. And yet, amazingly, I was told I had the part. I felt more deflated than inflated. I had to get out of there.”
Kilmer noted in the text that he was chased out of his audition by Scott, who acknowledged that the script was “insufficient” but promised it would improve.
Kilmer ultimately was forced to accept the role due to studio contract obligations, as PEOPLE reported in a 2022 special issue.
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Val Kilmer in March 2010. Gary Miller/FilmMagic
In his 2021 documentary Val, Kilmer recalled thinking that the movie’s script was “silly” and said that he “disliked warmongering.” He added that he “didn’t really have a choice” about accepting the role though due to being “under contract with the studio.”
Kilmer also said that there was “very little” to the character of Iceman so he invited his own backstory.
“None of us knew at the time what a crazy commercial success the film would be,” Kilmer reflected. “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.”
Despite his initial reservations about appearing in the movie, he was over the moon to be included in the sequel. In 2022, he told PEOPLE that bring case was “like being reunited with a long-lost friend.”
“The characters never really go away. They live on in deep freeze. If you’ll pardon the pun,” he said about rediscovering Iceman.
Cruise was also moved to be working with Kilmer again. He recalled their teary reunion during a 2023 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
“I just want to say that was pretty emotional,” he recalled. “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.”
