Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer’s surprise SNL connection revealed in heartbreaking report

Saturday Night Live writer Michael Schur has revealed that Tom Cruise was set to make a surprise appearance with Val Kilmer during one of latter's hosting stints on the comedy sketch series and the reason it did not take off is heartbreaking.

The revelation came through Seth Meyers during an episode of The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast, where a voice note from Schur was played by co-host Meyers which detailed how the almost-cameo by Cruise came about.

The comedy writer began by describing Kilmer as “very intense but very nice” during his hosting gig on the show in December 2000.

Before going on to describe how the sketch was envisioned, saying, “It was 25 years after the events of ‘Top Gun’ and Iceman (Kilmer) had retired from the Navy and was now flying very boring commercial flights for Delta.”

While the sketch was being performed during the telecast, Cruise, who was also present nearby at the time, was approached to make an appearance during its live taping.

Schur revealed that the Mission: Impossible star was “standing eight feet away watching this sketch and just enjoying it a great deal.”

Meanwhile, veteran SNL producer, Marci Klein came over to me while the sketch was airing and was like, ‘Tom Cruise is here, should we get him to like walk on?’ I was like, ‘Yes of course, we should.’ And she was like, ‘What should he do?’”

By the time the Parks and Recreation co-creator and showrunner finalised the material for the superstar cameo and went to inform him, the sketch had ended.

“The sketch ended and the applause was cued and Val got whisked away to run to change. We missed it by like eight seconds,” he reminisced, while also adding, “We missed a Tom Cruise walk-on into the sketch, which would have just, ‘30 Rock’ would have crumbled to the ground.”

Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer first co-starred in the 1986 blockbuster, Top Gun in roles they reprised for its 2022's sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, and were known to be lifelong friends in the industry before Kilmer’s passing on April 2 this year.