An interview with Val Kilmer's daughter revealed that he used a special voice AI to bring Iceman to life in Top Gun: Maverick.
was released in 1986, Val Kilmer and Tom Cruise’s chemistry on-screen as Iceman and Maverick was an instant hit. Revisiting that story without Kilmer’s Iceman would have been disappointing for a lot of fans, and even for Kilmer himself.
Following a very difficult battle with throat cancer, which ultimately lost him without much of his voice, the possibility of Kilmer returning to the role of Iceman might have seemed impossible. But, thanks to a special voice AI program, Kilmer was able to revisit his role, and catch up with his old friend Maverick. Val Kilmer’s voice in Top Gun: Maverick was actually created by an AI.developed the voice AI that Kilmer uses.
Of course, like any voice AI, there are ways to tell that it isn’t a human voice talking. However, with things like background noise, the filmmakers were able to dub the voice over Kilmer’s acting. This allowed them to bring his voice to life within the movie.yet, then I highly recommend experiencing it for yourself. If you can’t go just yet, you can hear Kilmer’s voice AI in a promotional video from 2021 that I’ve embedded above.