'You've got to work': Tom Cruise felt it was necessary to put the Top Gun sequel cast through rigorous training

Tom Cruise had no issues with pushing the cast of Top Gun: Maverick to the limit with flying sequences.

The 59-year-old actor reprised his role as Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell in the long-awaited sequel to Top Gun and felt it was necessary to put his co-stars through rigorous training for the blockbuster.

Asked if he considered easing the workload, Tom told Screen Rant: "No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. Listen, the whole point of making films and the beauty of it is that you get to travel the world and see other cultures and be part of communities. To look and walk in someone else's shoes and feel what they are feeling."

The Mission: Impossible star continued: "Making movies, you're constantly learning; you have to constantly work to become more and more competent in many different fields.

"And I want to tell them, that's the beauty of making movies. That's why I've always pushed my films to go international, around the world and in different communities. And to be part of that right from the beginning. It was my dream.

"You've got to work. It's not a bunch of parties and doing that, and that's what I love."

The movie sees Cruise's alter ego reunite with Val Kilmer's Tom 'Iceman' Kazansky and the actor has urged audiences to watch Kilmer's performance in the film.

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Tom said: "I think people just have to see it; I don't even want to try. He's such a fine actor, and you see what he brings to this movie; the power that he has.

"And I think that relationship and the structure of the story, where it works, I don't want to talk about. I just want people to experience it."