Val Kilmer Isn’t Afraid To Admit How The Iceman Came Back For ‘Top Gun: Maverick’

Val Kilmer is following in the grand tradition of publishing a revealing memoir about his wild adventures in Hollywood, and man, does the prolific actor have some stories to tell.

Titled I’m Your Huckleberry, a reference to his scene-stealing role as Doc Holliday to Kurt Russell’s Wyatt Earp in 1993’s Tombstone, Kilmer’s memoirs are filled with a laundry list of celebrity lost loves, behind-the-scenes drama, an arduous battle with throat cancer, and a candid admission about the current state of his career. Despite making headlines with the news that he’ll be reprising the role of Iceman in Top Gun: Maverick, Kilmer doesn’t hold back on the truth that he actually had to beg Tom Cruise and the producers to return, which was a stunning reversal, given how indifferent he was about starring in the original Top Gun. Kilmer’s agent practically had to force him to take the now-iconic Iceman part. Via USA Today:

Decades later, when the sequel starring Tom Cruise was announced, the tables were turned; Kilmer initially wasn’t tapped to reprise his role as Iceman in “Top Gun: Maverick.” But, Kilmer writes, “as the Temptations sang in the heyday of Motown soul, ‘ain’t too proud to beg.’” And his begging worked. “The producers went for it. Cruise went for it. Cruise couldn’t have been cooler… Tom and I took up where we left off. The reunion felt great.” But don’t turn to Kilmer’s book looking for spoilers. “As far as the film’s plot goes,” Kilmer writes, “I’m sworn to secrecy.”

On top of Top Gun anecdotes and tales of romantic flings with Angelina Jolie and Cindy Crawford, Kilmer’s memoir also includes a passage detailing his life as a devout Christian Scientist, which he attributes to healing his throat cancer and not the medical treatments that Cher helped pay for. (Kilmer famously dated Cher early in his career, and the two have remained close friends ever since.) As part of his faith, Kilmer also believes that an angel once physically replaced his heart:

On a trip to New Mexico when he was 24, Kilmer awoke to an “amorphous black figure.” He writes, “It will ruin the absolute gravity of this moment but in truth this dark angel looked very like Darth Vader, though without the helmet.”

Kilmer claims the angel reached into his body and extracted his heart to replace it with a bigger one. “At first I thought it was the Angel of Death before realizing it was the Angel of Life. I wish I could elucidate the experience more than I have already done, but I can’t. It simply happened,” Kilmer writes. “I have nothing else to say about this, except that I am grateful for the new heart. It has served me well. And I’ve only just begun to use it.”

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Fortunately, I’m Your Huckleberry<em> is available for purchase now, so if you want to take a journey through Kilmer’s unorthodox and star-studded life while self-isolated, there’s nothing holding you back.