If you spent your whole life chasing greatness, would you recognize it when you finally caught it?

This week we pay respect to the strange, tragic, and ultimately inspiring career of Val Kilmer—the Juilliard-trained actor who became a Hollywood heartthrob, but never stopped chasing the deeper meaning in his work. We’ll start by delving into the autobiographical documentary Val, which Kilmer made about his own life. This documentary serves as both a scrapbook of his time as an actor, and a heartbreaking goodbye letter.

Then, we’ll talk about some of the early career setbacks that pushed Val into becoming more serious and “method” about the roles he took, like losing the lead to Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn, or being cast as Batman—a role he famously hated.

Finally, we’ll talk about the work ethic that made him so great as an artist, but also made him insufferable as a co-worker. We’ll discuss the Val behind the cameras, who was both difficult and deeply self-aware, obsessed with greatness yet filled with regret. And we’ll ask ourselves; did his commitment to art sabotage his career, or was it the only thing keeping him honest in a business built on compromise?

Links:

https://www.amazon.com/Val-Kilmer/dp/B09888KKZK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLUG_hSwOnQ&t=11s&ab_channel=LarryKing

https://valkilmer.com/citizen-twain-by-val-kilmer/