\n<\/p>\n
Val Kilmer doesn\u2019t even need to appear onscreen as Iceman in \u201cTop Gun: Maverick\u201d (2022) for the audience to feel his presence.<\/p>\n
Early on, Tom Cruise\u2019s \u201cMaverick\u201d Mitchell is texting with his old rival, Iceman, but even though he\u2019s just represented by words on a screen, you know exactly who that is, the joy of Kilmer\u2019s boisterously cocky performance in the original 1986 film echoing through your memory.<\/p>\n
It makes the moment Kilmer actually shows up, late in the film, all the more powerful. Maverick has come to him for counsel. Kilmer still projects a regal energy, only now his character has earned his haughtiness, which presents as wisdom. Time has softened him a little, but Kilmer does not play Iceman as humbled. Instead, he\u2019s more confident than ever, a sage of sorts even if the years have taken away his voice, as they did with Kilmer himself, who suffered from throat cancer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
It seemed like everyone involved knew that the scene in \u201cMaverick\u201d would serve as a swan song for Kilmer, who died Tuesday at the age of 65<\/a> from pneumonia. But as brief as the sequence is, it is a reminder of just what kind of actor Kilmer was, one who thrived on unexpected choices and was constantly eager to surprise, no matter what the context.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In his youth, Kilmer looked like the ideal movie star, with smoldering good looks that were punctuated by naturally pouting, kissable lips. That classically beautiful appearance could have led him down a different path, and, sure, Hollywood occasionally tried to make a traditional leading man out of him. Most notably he was constrained as the vigilante in the cowl in Joel Schumacher\u2019s \u201cBatman Forever<\/a>\u201d (1995). But he thrived more as a character actor, bringing a bit of weirdo spice to the screen.<\/p>\n His friend Robert Downey Jr. called him \u201cchronically eccentric.\u201d<\/a> That eccentricity is in part what contributed to reports throughout his career that he was difficult on set. It\u2019s also what made him compulsively fascinating to watch. He chose and performed roles eccentrically. It wasn\u2019t that he was over the top, it was that he was perpetually unique.<\/p>\n He could have been pigeonholed a number of times. He made his debut as a rock star in the spoof \u201cTop Secret!\u201d<\/a> (1984), leaning into a silliness that belied his training at Juilliard. Iceman, just two years later, also could have been an archetype that Kilmer returned to throughout his career. But while Kilmer\u2019s characters often exuded an arrogance that could be self-defeating, he was never interested in repeating himself. He arguably didn\u2019t get enough credit for how much he transformed from part to part.<\/p>\n As Doc Holliday, that legendary figure of the American West, in \u201cTombstone\u201d (1993)<\/a>, Kilmer affected a syrupy way of speaking that was seductive but also vaguely threatening. Holliday is suffering from tuberculosis and often drunk, but instead of wobbling with intoxication and disease, Kilmer is oddly still. It makes him entrancing and also somehow unnerving.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n His dedication could make him seem overly intense. In the 2021 documentary about his life, \u201cVal,\u201d<\/a> he explains that for \u201cTombstone,\u201d he had the art department fill his bed with ice for his final scene with Kurt Russell\u2019s Wyatt Earp: He wanted to feel his character\u2019s pain as the two part for the final time. The result is innately soulful.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n That same soul can be seen in Michael Mann\u2019s \u201cHeat\u201d (1995), in which he plays Chris Shiherlis, a member of Robert De Niro\u2019s band of robbers. Kilmer makes Chris a gleefully maniacal criminal, but at the same time, he is more than just brutality. Most crucially, he is a tender romantic whose entire worldview is shaped by his dedication to his wife, Charlene (Ashley Judd). The smile he gives her<\/a>, just before she quietly signals that the cops are onto him, is genuine and sweet. When the smile fades as he realizes he has to leave her behind to save his own hide, the result is heartbreaking.<\/p>\n But Kilmer could also be fun to watch onscreen, sometimes despite himself. He said in a 2014 interview about \u201cTop Secret!\u201d<\/a> that the directors, Jim Abrahams and David and Jerry Zucker, \u201calways wanted me to have more fun, but I wanted to be good and I took it all way too seriously.\u201d Eventually, he seemed to learn to lean into goofiness while still maintaining his meticulousness.<\/p>\n His turn in Shane Black\u2019s chatty Hollywood neo-noir, \u201cKiss Kiss Bang Bang\u201d<\/a> (2005), is a perfect example of that. Opposite Downey Jr. as a thief-turned-accidental actor, he plays the private investigator Perry van Shrike, also known as Gay Perry, because, in fact, the character is gay. Kilmer said he had been the one who wanted Perry to be gay. \u201cI insisted,\u201d he told The Guardian<\/a>. \u201cI said, \u2018Shane, we gotta get a little color in here. We gotta juice it up a little.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But while that could have resulted in offensive stereotypes, Kilmer just makes a meal of Black\u2019s rapid-fire dialogue. His frustration with Downey\u2019s character, who becomes his de facto partner, is almost charmingly exasperated as he yells about the $2,000 ceramic gun his mother got him as a \u201cspecial gift.\u201d<\/p>\n Later, Kilmer would allow himself to seem even more ridiculous, playing the conniving and intentionally stupid villain Dieter Von Cunth in \u201cMacGruber\u201d (2010), based on the \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d sketch. Kilmer told The Wall Street Journal:<\/a> \u201cI\u2019m proud of how bad this film is.\u201d<\/p>\n Sometimes the story of Kilmer\u2019s career is told in terms of what he didn\u2019t do. He didn\u2019t appear in Francis Ford Coppola\u2019s \u201cThe Outsiders,\u201d<\/a> opting to star on Broadway instead. He declined to make David Lynch\u2019s \u201cBlue Velvet.\u201d<\/a> He only did one Batman movie<\/a>.<\/p>\n But for all the paths he didn\u2019t take, Kilmer emerged with a body of work that was almost defiantly his own. He was a shape-shifter who committed to heart, tragedy and absurdity in equal measure.<\/p>\n You can feel the weight of his legacy in the \u201cMaverick\u201d moment. Before letting Maverick go, he says, \u201cOne last thing \u2014 who\u2019s the better pilot, you or me?\u201d Maverick responds: \u201cThis is a nice moment. Let\u2019s not ruin it.\u201d That Kilmer smile flashes as he chuckles, reminding you of his thoroughly unconventional presence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n