Book review - “I’ll Be Your Huckleberry” by Val Kilmer

One minute Kilmer was everywhere, then he wasn’t. He became famous very quick... I was aware of him from the get go because he was the lead in the classic Top Secret, barely out of Julliard (which he calls THE Julliard in the book, too many times). There was Real Genius then a showy role in Top Gun, which made him a kind-of star. I actually don’t think he was ever a proper star - he was a character actor who had leading man looks, so Hollywood thought he was a star. But for a time his luck was very good: showy cameos in True Romance, showy actor-y roles in The Doors, showy character parts in Heat and Tombstone, a lead in Batman Forever. Then in the late 90s things wobbled with a series of, if not flops, then underwhelming works: The Saint, The Ghost and the Darkness, The Island of Dr Moreau, At First Sight.

To be honest I thought Kilmer would come back more than he did... every now and then it seemed he was “back”: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Spartan. He never quite did, either in a box office hit or a critical darling... his luck didn’t hold. He got chubby of course and never lost the weight... that beautiful young man thing left him, which doesn’t help.

Tales of his temperament flew thick and fast around the 90s but haven’t seemed to have dogged him in the last twenty years. I know lots of Aussies who tell stories of his time on Moreau and Red Planet (the latter not mentioned here). They would also be surprised to hear of his claim to not have been into drugs.

It’s an interesting read. Very art-y and full of talk of love. He writes with great affection for the women in his life, listing their famous names: Cher, Joanne Whaley, Darryl Hannah, Cindy Crawford, Mare Winningham, Ellen Barkin... Then adds he hasn’t had a girlfriend in more than fifteen years. You feel sorry for him at times. The career feels unfulfilled. But he's done some incredible things.