Tom Cruise Admits To Tears When Working Once Again With Val Kilmer On ‘Top Gun: Maverick’

Even combat veterans can cry.

After more than three decades, Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer reunited on-screen in Top Gun: Maverick, the long-awaited sequel to the 1986 Top Gun movie.

“I just want to say that was pretty emotional, I’ve known Val for decades,” Cruise said during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (segment starts at 9:56 above).

“For him to come back and play that character…he’s such a powerful actor, that he instantly became that character again…you’re looking at Iceman.”

Cruise admitted he was in tears.

“I was crying, I got emotional,” he told Kimmel. “He’s such a brilliant actor, and I love his work.”

Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2015 and has been limited in work ever since because of a tracheostomy.

Later in the Kimmel interview, Cruise said he has enjoyed seeing his friends and colleagues again after the pandemic years of isolation.

“[With] COVID… I haven’t been able to see my friends for many, many years.”

Kimmel noted that Cruise evoked emotions in his colleagues that are reserved only for meeting the likes of Santa Claus and perhaps Oprah Winfrey, trotting out some two-shot pictures of delighted famous actors with Cruise.