Val Kilmer recalled his Batman role in the final video he shared before his death, aged 65.
The Hollywood star, who died of pneumonia, appeared in films including Top Gun, playing Iceman, The Doors, playing Jim Morrison, and – and in 1995, played Bruce Wayne in Batman Forever.
Kilmer starred in the Joel Schumacher film alongside Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman, Tommy Lee Jones and Chris O’Donnell, who played Robin. He only starred in the one Batman film, succeeding Michael Keaton in the role. George Clooney replaced him for Batman & Robin two years later.
Kilmer recalled his one-time Batman performance in what would be one of his final few Instagram posts.
The video was published on 23 February and showed the actor, who died of pneumonia, alongside a piece of art he’d made dedicated to the caped crusader.
In the clip, he can be heard telling his followers while holding the makeshift mask over his face: “I’m ready.” He adds: “It’s been a while.”
Kilmer’s death follows his diagnosis of throat cancer in 2014, which he recovered from. He documented his health issues in 2021 documentary Val.
The actor’s Batman experience was mired in controversy after the actor signed up to starring in the film “without reading the script”.
“Everything was different about this job than I’d experienced before. The size of the character and how strange it was that Michael Keaton had decided not to do it – I just said yes, without reading the script,” he told Entertainment Tonight ahead of its release in 1995.
However, the on-set problems, which Kilmer increasingly became known for in the 1990s, soon became apparent.
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While Schumacher reportedly said he believed “Val Kilmer was the best Batman”, he also said: “Val is the most psychologically troubled human being I’ve ever worked with. The tools I used working with him – tools of communication, of patience and understanding – were the tools I use on my 5-year-old godson. Val is not just high-strung. I think he needs help.”
In a Reddit Q&A Kilmer did in 2017, he tried to explain his reputation for being “difficult to work with”, writing: “I didn’t do enough hand holding and flattering and reassuring to the financier. I only cared about the acting and that didn’t translate to caring about the film or all that money.
“I like to take risks and this often gave the impression I was willing to risk their money not being returned, which was foolish of me. I understand that now. And sometimes when you are the head of a project and the lead actor is usually the reason a film is being made, unless it’s a superstar director, then only fair to make people feel good and happy they are at work. I was often unhappy trying to make pictures better.”
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