"My name is Val Kilmer. I'm an actor. I've lived a magical life."
So begins the trailer for legendary actor Val Kilmer's recent documentary Val, which was released earlier this year on Amazon Prime. The film chronicles the actor's life both in front of and behind the camera with incredible footage from Kilmer's many projects. The 61-year-old actor is perhaps best known for his roles in films such as Top Gun, The Doors, and Batman Forever, but his personal life has also made headlines - he dated bombshells such as Cher, Cindy Crawford, Daryl Hannah, Ellen Baskin and Michelle Pfeiffer, and was rumored to be difficult to work with.
Kilmer's film Val, which was directed by Leo Scott and Ting Poo and narrated by his son Jack Kilmer, also documented his battle with throat cancer, which has left him with shortness of breath and a hoarse, weakened voice. He is also only able to eat with the help of a feeding tube. Kilmer revealed his diagnosis in 2017, and recently announced he'd been cancer-free for 4 years.
Here's what we know about the actor's struggles and recovery in 2021.
6 Val Kilmer Did Not Make His Diagnosis Public At First
Val Kilmer's career stalled in in the early 2000's, with a series of Direct-to-Video releases, but the actor made it back into in the headlines in 2016 when he was forced to deny fellow actor Michael Douglas' claims that he was battling throat cancer.
During a Q & A in London, Douglas stated "Things don’t look too good for him [Kilmer]. My prayers are with him. That's why you haven't heard too much from Val lately."
"I love Michael Douglas, but he is misinformed," Kilmer wrote in a lenghthy Facebook post in 2016. "The last time I spoke to him was almost two years ago, when I asked him for a referral for a specialist to get a diagnosis for a lump in my throat, which prevented me from continuing a tour of my play CITIZEN TWAIN. I ended up using a team at UCLA and have no cancer whatsoever. I still have a swollen tongue and am rehabbing steadily."
5 Val Kilmer Confirmed His Cancer Battle In A Reddit AMA
After years of speculation about Val Kilmer's health, the actor revealed his diagnosis in a Reddit AMA when a fan submitted the question “A while ago, Michael Douglas claimed you had terminal cancer. What was the story behind that?”
In his first public admission that he had been battling cancer, Kilmer responded "He was probably trying to help me cause press probably asked where I was these days, and I did have a healing of cancer, but my tongue is still swollen although healing all the time. Because I don’t sound my normal self yet people think I may still be under the weather.”
Kilmer later revealed to the New York Times that he was hesitant to receive medical care due to his lifelong commitment to the Christian Scientist religion, though he later agreed to surgery after hearing his children's concerns about his health and future.
4 Val Kilmer Told His Story In A Documentary
In 2020, Val Kilmer paired up with directors Leo Scott and Ting Poo to create Val, a documentary covering his extensive 40-year career, ranging from home movies he and his brother shot as kids, to behind the scenes footage he shot on movie sets (including cameos from Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, and Marlon Brando).
The documentary also covers elements of Kilmer's personal life, such as his relationship with his fater, and his marriage to British actress Joanne Whalley, the mother of his children. Kilmer and Whalley divorced in 1995.
Critics and audiences alike praised Val - it currently has a 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with reviews describing Val as "vibrant, quick, and alive," and "an affecting and fascinating look at an extraordinary career."
3 Val Kilmer's Kids Spoke About His Battle With Cancer
Val Kilmer has two children with ex-wife Joanne Whalley, Jack and Mercedes Kilmer, and both have worked with their famous father in some capacity. Both Kilmer children were heavily featured in Val, and are also listed as associate producers. Jack also provided the narration for the film, which covers his father's health struggles, as Kilmer's voice has been altered significantly by his cancer treatment.
"There are things we do every day to soothe the vocal cords and to repair them, but they're very damaged," said Jack. "It's funny I don't notice it anymore. I'm so familiar with his voice that maybe I hear his old voice when I'm talking to him. But he doesn't seem like he's in pain when he speaks. Sometimes you can't shut him up."
"The recovery process is just as grueling as the actual disease," Kilmer's daughter Mercedes revealed during the press tour for Val, though she added her father was recovering and doing well.
"When he was first diagnosed, the prognosis did not look very good," Mercedes added. "But he's always been very physically resilient. The way he's related to his illness has definitely been very inspiring. He has such a sense of humor. Even in the hospital he'd be cracking jokes and making all of the doctors laugh. But, of course, it's really difficult to go through that with a parent and also to go through it with someone in the public eye."
2 Val Kilmer Released A Memoir In 2020
In 2020, Val Kilmer released a collection of poems, essays and anecdotes called I'm Your Huckleberry. In the memoir, which perhaps gave Kilmer the inspiration to make a documentary about his 40-year career, the actor discusses his childhood, his notorious reputation for being difficult to work with, and his most famous roles, such as playing Iceman, the antagonist in Top Gun.
As it turns out, Kilmer wanted nothing to do with the movie, writing "I didn’t want the part. I didn’t care about the film. The story didn’t interest me. I read the lines indifferently and yet, amazingly, I was told I had the part,” he added. “I felt more deflated than inflated.”
Kilmer also touches on his headline-making relationships with and crushes on stars such as Cindy Crawford, Daryl Hannah, and Angelina Jolie. In fact, Kilmer reveals he still has feelings for Hannah, writing "I know I would love her with my whole heart forever and that love has lost none of its strength. I am still in love with Daryl."
It's through relationship anecdotes that Kilmer also describes his cancer symptoms, revealing that he was staying in ex-girlfriend Cher's guesthouse when he began vomiting blood and had to be taken to the hospital via an ambulance. “We laughed out loud before they finished my vitals and shut me up with an oxygen mask,” he writes about Cher accompanying him to the hospital.
1 Val Kilmer Has Been Acting Again In 2021
"My dad's been crazy prolific since he was diagnosed with cancer, sometimes against his better judgment," Jack Kilmer recently said about his father. Though he was forced to slow down after his diagnosis, Val Kilmer appears to be re-emerging stronger than ever.
On top of his memoir (which made the New York Times bestseller list) and his documentary, Kilmer filmed five roles in 2020, including a Top Gun sequel and the action thriller Paydirt, which also stars his daughter Mercedes. A quick glance at the actor's Instagram profile also reveals he is an art connoisseur, and has even been selling some of his artwork on his website.
“I feel like I could not possibly be in a better place for attracting better and better roles,” Kilmer stated. “If an actor is fortunate enough to do so, to steer their own course and own their own material, they control their own destiny, creating their own products.”
