Photo: Sebastien Nogier/Shutterstock. inset: getty
Val Kilmer’s passion for expressing himself creatively has never wavered, even after battling throat cancer in 2015 which required chemotherapy, radiation and a tracheostomy that damaged his vocal cords and permanently altered his speaking voice.
“My dad’s been crazy prolific since he was diagnosed with cancer, sometimes against his better judgment,” says his sonJack, 26, in this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
The actor, now cancer-free and on this week’s cover of PEOPLE, showcases some never-before-seen artistic (and vulnerable) sides in his revealing Prime Video documentaryVal, which Kilmer, his son, anddaughter Mercedes, 29, produced.
Jack and Mercedes tell PEOPLE they hope audiences enjoy seeing a softer and sillier side of their dad, despite some of the more serious scenes.
“When he was first diagnosed, the prognosis did not look very good,” says Mercedes. “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.”
For much more on Val Kilmer, Jack and Mercedes, pick up the cover story on newsstands Friday
Poo tells PEOPLE watching Mercedes and Jack view the film at Cannes with a live audience was almost as great as the standing ovation it received.
“Jack had seen a lot of the film, and Mercedes had seen scenes, but she’d never seen the whole thing together, and so we had a little bit of a nervousness around it,” recalls Poo. “But she was the best audience member. She was laughing, clapping loudly during it, and I think that was the best part of the whole experience.”
Jack says that although their dad has a positive attitude about healing, Kilmer is still recovering from the havoc his cancer treatments wreaked on his body.
Tom Stratton
“There are things we do every day to soothe the vocal cords and to repair them, but they’re very damaged,” he says of his dad’s raspier, changed voice. “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.”
He adds: “It’s hard, but that’s life. We appreciate every day we get to see him and be around him.”
Kilmer hasn’t stopped creating. In 2020, he costarred with Mercedes in the thrillerPaydirt. TheTop Gunstar also paints almost daily and spends a lot of time and energy on cultivating his HelMel Studios, a gallery/artist incubator in Los Angeles.
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“At his best, he’s the most intelligent, vocal, super witty, funny and all of the good things about speaking,” says Mercedes. “His worst is he loves a good argument. [The damage to his voice] really profoundly altered how he’s had to communicate, but he’s so smart that he finds ways to communicate outside of it.”
Adds Jack: “He’s a guy who wants to go out there and just be the best that he can be and he doesn’t have time to think about how vulnerable he is because he’s thinking about the next smash-box-office hit. He has crazy energy. He can’t be stopped.”
Valis now streaming on Prime Video.
source: people.com
