Tom Cruise 'I'M LIVING MY DREAM'

Hollywood's biggest actor, 59, talks the ‘daunting' Top Gun sequel, his adoration for Lady Gaga and why he never takes a day off work...

There's been talk of a Top Gun sequel for years - why is now the time?

It was really now or never. I was always thinking of the technology, how it would evolve to be able to give the audience that kind of experience. And everywhere around the world they wanted to see this movie. So finally, the story came together and it was something that I thought, "OK, well, if we're going to go in, we're going to go in now."

You put your actors through training like no other star, we know you demand authenticity. Tell us about what you wanted to bring to the aerial fighting scenes that we'd never seen before

The cast just rose to the occasion. I sat down with them each and said, "Look, this is what we're going to do." And then I showed them what we were going to do [laughs]. But I got them to a point where, by the time it's their turn to be in the F-18, they were running the show. And I just sat back. They were in control. And they knew their characters, they knew the story and that's what I want. And they were amazing each one of them.