Why Val Kilmer Almost Passed on ‘Top Gun’

Top Gun turned Val Kilmer into a star, but the late actor wasn’t so sure about playing Lt. Tom "Iceman" Kazansky. Right from the start of his career, Kilmer built a reputation for not being desperate. In the early ‘80s, he declined a role in Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders because he had prior theater commitments. Many young actors would have jumped at the opportunity to work with the director of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, but Kilmer valued the Broadway stage more than a movie set.