You’ve probably dreamed more than once about being Batman, and the Arkham games even got us close to the feel of it. But the reality of wearing the suit is very different, Val Kilmer says in the new autobiographical documentary, Val, when discussing 1995’s Batman Forever (via The Hollywood Reporter).
The documentary, now on Amazon Prime, features a collection of interviews with Kilmer and home footage he’s shot over the years. The actor reportedly accepted the role of Batman script unseen, but later regretted it.
“Whatever boyhood excitement I had was crushed by the reality of the Batsuit,” Kilmer says in the documentary. “Yes, every boy wants to be Batman. They actually want to be him, not necessarily play him in a movie.”
The experience of wearing the Batman Forever suit was an isolating one, Kilmer explained.
“I couldn’t hear anything and after a while people stopped talking to me,” Kilmer explains. He says he envied Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey, who played Two-Face and the Riddler in the film, because they got to actually act for their roles.
“It made no difference what I was doing. I tried to be like an actor on a soap opera. When I would turn to Nicole… I couldn’t count how many times I put my hands on my hips.”
In a previous interview, Kilmer related a story about Warren Buffett’s grandchildren visiting the set of the film. According to Kilmer, the kids were more interested in playing with Batman’s gadgets and less about meeting Batman.
“That’s why it’s so easy to have five or six Batmans,” Kilmer said. “It’s not about Batman–there is no Batman.”
Or maybe Buffett’s grandkids were just weird, because meeting Batman would be the highlight of this writer’s entire life.
While Kilmer won’t be wearing the Batsuit again (and Michael Keaton almost certainly is), the actor is set to appear in Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick, reprising his role as rival Tom “Iceman” Kazansky. Top Gun: Maverick is scheduled to hit theaters on November 17, 2021.
