Val Kilmer has enjoyed a very eccentric career trajectory. The ultimate arrogant guy of the late 80s – thanks to his brilliant portrayal of Tom Kazansky in the 1986 classic Top Gun – became a heartthrob in the 90s after leading The Doors as legendary musician Jim Morrison and Batman Forever as Batman.
At the turn of the century, he retained his stardom but fell out of favor with some directors who didn’t take his attitude too well. And when he finally returned to the big screen with a high-profile project in 2005, Kilmer made sure to do so by staying true to his eccentric style.
His much-hyped comeback film, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang saw him star opposite Robert Downey Jr. as Gay Perry – perhaps the most off-beat detective Hollywood has ever seen.
Batman Star Val Kilmer Explains Why He Altered the Script of Robert Downey Jr.’s Film
The plot of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang mainly revolves around Robert Downey Jr.‘s character, Harry Lockhart, a thief who’s mistaken for an actor and subsequently sent to Hollywood to train under a private eye – Gay Perry – for a potential movie role. After meeting with another struggling actress (Michelle Monaghan), they end up being embroiled in a murder mystery.
However, Gay Perry wasn’t always homosexual. After reading the script, Val Kilmer talked to director Shane Black to make a few changes in his character. At the time, Downey Jr. had been finalized for his part, and the Heat actor had some interesting suggestions involving his co-star.
Speaking to The Guardian in 2005, Kilmer said: “Before I’d even finished it I called up and said ‘Love to be in it!’ He wasn’t gay when I read it. I insisted. I said ‘Shane, we gotta get a little colour in here. We gotta juice it up a little. I think I should be gay. I think I should kiss Robert Downey in the middle of the film. Maybe even earlier. Several times.'”
The 63-year-old added with a delectable half-smirk that some people observed that maybe Gay Perry wasn’t his first gay role. Maybe that was Top Gun’s cocky aviator, Tom.
How true the theories about Iceman’s s*xuality are remains unclear, but one thing is certain, many women and some men really liked the famous volleyball sequence in Top Gun.
Robert Downey Jr. Shares His Experience of Working With Val Kilmer in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Kissing the Iron Man actor (and that too several times) might have been Kilmer’s idea, but that doesn’t mean Downey Jr. didn’t enjoy the filming of the movie. The Oppenheimer star told Vanity Fair,
“I just found it so delightful to be staying up all night with Val Kilmer shooting these ridiculous scenes about these two oddballs that are chasing this kind of a my case and your case.”
The early reactions the movie got, especially at The Cannes Film Festival, indicated even critics and fans enjoyed the pair’s chemistry. However, down the road, it only managed to gross just over $15 million at the box office, globally.
Source: The Guardian, Vanity Fair
