I confess that I always had a certain weakness for Val Kilmer. Perhaps because he was one of the first figures in my formative years as a cinephile through films like Super secret Top Gun either Willow in the land of enchantment, either because I maintain the feeling that he never enjoyed the recognition he deserved. And even today, when he has been away from blockbusters for a long time, I still keep him on my radar through his personal and jokey posts on Instagram.
Because Val Kilmer reached the top of Hollywood in the ’90s, cashing checks of up to 10 million dollars (iMDB) and leaving in his wake such relevant characters as Jim Morrison (The Doors), the Batman with the most sex appeal of the screen and the legendary Simon Templar of The Saint, among others. Because he was one of the most present faces among those of us who grew up with the cinema of the ’80s and ’90s and, even so, His story is that of someone who had to face several challenges in life.
The ups and downs of Hollywood
When I think of Val Kilmer, my childhood obsession with eighties parodies comes to mind, where there was that humorous version of a kind of Elvis Presley turned spy in Top secret. Or how much Joel Schumacher manipulated me with the lights on his face in batman forever falling in love with the bat hero in my teens, or that version of The Saint created by Leslie Charteris that I would have loved to have had a sequel. That’s right, Val Kilmer was one of the actors most present in my visits to the cinema in those years.
But after a successful career, where had the luxury of rejecting David Lynch, the role of Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing and refused to return as Batman, suffered the drastic turn that comes with box office failures. After spending several years accumulating successes that led him to earn $7 million per batman forever (1995) and $9 million for At first sight (1999), the box office suddenly began to turn its back on him.
The Saint in 1997 was his last blockbuster as a protagonist to fall into the sack of failures as a result of the failure of Red planet (2000).
Since then his filmography began to be filled with supporting roles, and despite receiving critical acclaim as was the case with his work in Between kisses and shots (2005) alongside his friend Robert Downey Jr. or his role in Deja vu (2006), his star no longer shone in the firmament of the industry’s protagonists. Theater and television were some of the homes where she found refuge while she expanded her most artistic side with her solo work. Citizen Twain, He gave talks and emphasized his humanitarian work through different campaigns.
And while the doors of the big projects were closing, he had to live a difficult time that he chose to keep silent.
The ‘other’ battle of Val Kilmer
In 2015, rumors emerged that he had been diagnosed with some type of tumor after being hospitalized without explanation. And because Michael Douglas had no better idea than to say at an event in 2016 that Kilmer suffered from “the same thing he had had”: throat cancer. He denied it for a long time, and even Douglas issued an apology, and two years later he finally confirmed that he had spent two years battling throat cancer in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. And with the misfortune that a procedure on the trachea had changed his voice completely.
He underwent chemotherapy and two tracheostomies, and although in 2020 he gave the good news of being free of the disease, that struggle also left him with a trachea so sensitive that he must be fed through a tube connected to the stomach (via Newsweek).
I remember the looks that we journalists exchanged at a press screening of the film The Snowman in 2017. And not only because of how terribly bad she was (which is also true), but because although her battle against cancer had not yet been confirmed, that day many of us took the rumor as true. Val Kilmer had a very small role in the film but in the few moments of dialogue, the production had chosen to dub him with a terrible voice. So terrible that it made the problem even more evident. And just a couple of months after the premiere he confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter his battle against the disease.
Suddenly, this man who loves to do theater, the owner of a highly successful solo work and who dedicated decades of his life to acting in front of the camera, was left without his voice. The same one that she wrote poems to Michelle Pfeiffer in her early days and that many of her colleagues have applauded for the delivery and dedication that she always gave to her characters. And Kilmer likes to prepare her characters meticulously. So much so that to play Jim Morrison she dressed like him for a year and frequented the places the singer often visited.
But life presented him with a challenge that would change everything forever. He can no longer talk like before or chew food and yet, he resists being a Hollywood sob story.
In 2020 he published his memoirs, where he confessed his Christian faith and devotion to believing that his healing could be a miracle; She accompanied her daughter Mercedes Kilmer in her first film as an actress, Paydirt, and maintains his ongoing support of the art community through his own art studio, HelMel Studios, in Los Angeles. And from time to time he captures his good humor on social networks, laughing at himself and remembering his career with joy.
Three years ago she revealed her new voice to the world through an interview while promoting the film with her daughter. “I’m very good, I feel much better than I sound,” she said without ever losing her smile. Good Morning America. ““You have to find a way to communicate that’s no different than any other challenge in acting, but it’s just a very unique set of circumstances,” he added.
Even though he’s thinner and changed, and life has dealt him a major blow, he keeps going. In 2022 he made the most nostalgic heartbeat with his reappearance as ‘Iceman’ in Top Gun: Maverick. It was an iconic moment, returning a charismatic and overwhelming character who served as the perfect counterpart to Tom Cruise in the 1986 classic, but paying homage to Val Kilmer at the same time.
Because the film transferred the actor’s real story to his character, telling that Iceman also suffered from laryngeal cancer and, in this way, communicated with Tom Cruise through a computer. It was an implicit tribute that did not go unnoticed.
At 64 years old, Val Kilmer seems to be focused on his family life and his passion for art. After publishing his memoirs in 2021, I’m Your Huckleberry: A Memoir, usually promotes his paintings and exhibitions on social networks, while frequently remembering his past as a Hollywood star, between jokes and tributes. A role that is in the past but that many of us still remember.
This article was written exclusively for Yahoo en Español by Cine54.
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