Contractually, Kilmer was already committed to play the lead in The Saint, so he wouldn't have been able to meet the quick turnaround Warner Bros. However, he would reject the part outright because of two important factors. Val Kilmer was absolutely approached to star in what would eventually become Batman and Robin, as the actor also discloses in Val. And if acting in the suit wasn't such a chore, we might have gotten another Val Kilmer Batman movie. By the time the film was released, critics panned it, and audiences had their own notes- but Batman Forever was a box office smash. Much like the James Bond franchise, Val Kilmer was selected as the next face in an iconic, big ticket franchise that was shaping up to potentially live up to the third film’s name.

The first of Joel Schumacher’s two Batman films, 1995’s Batman Forever was the next step in the Warner Bros. It was a struggle for me to get a performance past the suit, and it was frustrating until I realized that my role in the film was just to show up and stand where I was told to. You also can't hear anything and after a while people stop talking to you. When you're in it, you can barely move and people have to help you stand up and sit down. I took the part without even reading the script.But whatever boyish excitement I had going in was crushed by the reality of the Batsuit. And when it came to his role in Batman Forever, his iconic costume ended up being more isolating than anything else:īy Hollywood standards Batman is the ultimate leading role and a dream come true. Through both instances of his own voice, and his son Jack’s narration of his stories, everything from Val Kilmer’s Top Gun days to the present day is shown. In the recent documentary on his life and career, Prime Video’s Val, the actor reflects on his life and career with extreme candor.

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