TV-MOVIES
Why Tom Cruise And Val Kilmer Kept Their Distance While Filming Top Gun
By PATRICK PHILLIPS
"Top Gun" launched Tom Cruise to the top of Hollywood's action movie A-list, but the film also made a star of Val Kilmer. His memoir, "I'm Your Huckleberry,” offers insight into the making of "Top Gun,” including why he and Cruise mostly kept their distance from each other during the shoot.
Kilmer claims that the "Top Gun" cast splintered into two factions, and Tom Cruise “refrained from our revelry.” However, Kilmer admires Cruise’s work ethic, because he was “laser-focused on a singular goal: to become the greatest action hero in the history of film."
Kilmer does note that he and Cruise had at least a little fun while working on "Top Gun." The actor writes, "My favorite moment between us was a small prank in which I gave him an extremely expensive bottle of champagne but placed it in the middle of a giant field and made him follow scavenger-hunt-style clues to find it."