It may have been delayed from the summer to Christmas, but Top Gun 2 is still arriving 34 years after the original hit cinemas. Tom Cruise is back for Top Gun: Maverick, as is his title character’s nemesis Iceman, played by Val Kilmer. However, the 60-year-old has revealed he had to beg Cruise and producers to be included in the long-awaited sequel.

Kilmer made the reveal in his new autobiography, I’m Your Huckleberry.

According to USA Today, the Iceman actor wrote: “As The Temptations sang in the heyday of Motown soul, ‘ain’t too proud to beg.’”

Kilmer reached out to producers, creating “heartrending scenes with Iceman.”

And boy did it pay off.

READ MORE: Top Gun 2 Maverick: Tom Cruise teases an ‘EMOTIONAL, hard’ sequel

In his memoir, Kilmer wrote: “I didn’t want the part.

“I didn’t care about the film. The story didn’t interest me.”

After being pressured by his agent to audition, he said: “I showed up looking the fool, or the goon.

“I wore oversize gonky Australian shorts in nausea green.”

Kilmer added: “I read the lines indifferently.

“And yet, amazingly, I was told I had the part.

“I felt more deflated than inflated.”

Top Gun: Maverick is released in UK cinemas on December 23, 2020.