The actor spoke with ET and dished on some of the hotly anticipated sequel's most powerful scenes.
After several delays, the long-awaited Top Gun: Maverick is finally set to soar into theaters, and fans can look forward to some particularly powerful moments packed with both action and heart.
ET's Nischelle Turner sat down with star Miles Teller during a press event on Tuesday, on board the famed USS Midway aircraft carrier, and the 35-year-old actor opened up about what fans can look forward to -- including a particularly hyped scene between original cast members Val Kilmer and Tom Cruise.
"It's a really sensitive scene. Its a sensitive kind of narrative, when you're bringing Val back and having a scene with [his character], Iceman," said Teller, trying hard not to give too much away about one of the film's key moments. "There’s one particular scene between Val and Tom that just, man, [hits you] right in the feels."
While Kilmer's involvement in the project was obfuscated back when the film was originally supposed to be released in July 2019, it's since been established that Kilmer's Iceman and Cruise's eponymous Maverick would be sharing the screen once again.
According to Teller -- who stars as Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw, the son of Maverick's late friend, Nick "Goose" Bradshaw, who died in the first film -- Kilmer wasn't just around when it was time to shoot his own scenes.
"He would be on set even if he wasn’t in the scene. Val was on set and actually a lot of the guys from the original would kind of pop in and out from time to time," Teller recalled. "And that just adds to the glee factor."
"He's such a positive energy," Teller added of Kilmer. "He's so full of life and to see him on set and chat with him was good."
Teller had similar praise for Cruise, whom he shares the screen with a great deal, calling him an "incredible actor and person."
"I mean, we really did, we bonded, you know? And with the cast as well, just this flight training and everything we had to do was so intense," Teller said, recalling the amount of training the cast all had to go through during production. "I think nothing bonds you quicker with strangers than collective suffering and that's honestly, like, we got put through the ringer. So that was really that was a really good bonding experience for us."
Ultimately, it was all in service of creating a classic as indelible and timeless as the original.
"Tom would say, 'We’re trying to hit a bullet with a bullet.' That's how precise we needed to be to make this film what it needs to be, and to really just hit that sweet spot," Teller shared. "And I think we did it."
Haven't seen the OG film? ET has you covered on how to watch the original Top Gun ahead of the highly anticipated sequel, which hits theaters May 27.
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