RIP Val Kilmer
Val Kilmer in Top Gun (1986)
Sad news about Val Kilmer. RIP (December 31, 1959 - April 1, 2025)
From Interview Magazine, March 2011
KILMER: …I was forced to confront death sooner than the average kid from the San Fernando Valley. And being an artist and my religious background and point of view basically showed me how to view life as never-ending.
UKLANSKI: Do you think about the moment of not being, like, Val Kilmer anymore?
KILMER: I don’t believe in death.
UKLANSKI: So do you believe in life after death?
KILMER: Yes. I think death is just a transition to another state of consciousness.
UKLANSKI: You don’t fear death.
KILMER: No.
Also from the same interview:
“…I worked for many years where I was only interested in a very personal, subjective idea, and I was very lucky that acting enabled that. I could live a fantasy lifestyle and travel the world and have a lot of adventures. I would take on jobs where it was exclusively some aspect of acting that I was interested in, not really any regard for a career, and so I got mislabeled as someone who was not fun to work with, something negative, or being a professional, but never by any of the great directors I’ve worked…
I don’t think you can find any good director that has anything negative to say. But I think it’s partly because I never lived in Hollywood, I didn’t cultivate a personality. What I did was put together this really spectacular ranch in New Mexico, and in many ways I sacrificed the integrity of my career for the integrity of the land. And it’s such a big project, which I am very proud of. It’s enabled me to continue this kind of quality in my career. Even Top Gun, for example, even though it’s a very commercial film, there’s something memorable about the role I played in relation to other roles because it’s very specific and an indication of something that I was doing right.”
I also learned about this quote by him, which I’m sure will come in handy soon.
“As you know, I have a reputation for being difficult. But only with stupid people.”