Val Kilmer's 2 Kids: All About Mercedes and Jack

Val Kilmer, who famously played Tom Kazansky, aka Iceman in Top GunHe is the father of a son, Jack Kilmer, and a daughter, Mercedes Kilmer. The actor shares his children with ex-wife Joanne Whalley.

Speaking with Vanity Fair In 2012, the father of two recalled that he refused “10 really great directors just because I was trying to be responsible to my family or my marriage.” He said, “I just wasn’t paying attention to work. I can’t be a responsible parent and only be there three or four months a year.”

In late 2017, Val opened for The Hollywood Reporter about his two-year battle with throat cancer in an interview with his children. The Batman forever star called his two children “truly brilliant”.

“They just give me wild, wild fun,” Val later said in an interview with PEOPLE in 2020. “My only gripe is that I never see enough of them, so I never get enough of the wild fun that everyone else gets, but they’re really, really, really fun.”

Although dealing with Val’s health has been challenging, Mercedes noted that “so many good things have come out of it.”

She shared, “We all spend so much time together. Even just meeting all my dad’s friends from before I was born — there are so many beautiful things that happen when you need people’s help.”

Val then added that his family really “did everything to keep my health as usual”.

Here’s everything you need to know about Val Kilmer’s kids: Mercedes and Jack.

Mercedes Kilmer, 33

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Val and ex-wife Whalley, who married in 1988, welcomed their first child together on October 29, 1991. According to Los Angeles Timesthe couple’s daughter was born in Sante Fe, New Mexico.

Mercedes admitted The Hollywood Reporter 2017 that she couldn’t “remember not being aware” of her parents’ fame. “It was about navigating how other people perceive us, not about any kind of showdown,” she said.

Not long after her dad was diagnosed with cancer, a Mercedes was hit by a car. We were in the same hospital at the same time, she said THR.

Mercedes has a close relationship with her father, whom she calls “her good friend”. “My dad is such a smart and creative person that I love hanging out with him, even if he’s not my dad,” she told PEOPLE in 2020.

Not only is he a friend, but Val was also her partner. Mercedes made her feature film debut in the 2020s paydirt, in which she played the on-screen daddy’s daughter.

“The producer called me and asked me if I would play this part, and I said, ‘I don’t know if you’ve found anyone to play my daughter yet, but I might have someone for you. Her name is Mercedes Kilmer, and you might be interested in meeting her. with her,” Val recalled in an interview with PEOPLE. “Mercedes and the producer met and everyone had fun.

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Working on the project with her father proved to be a learning opportunity for Mercedes.

“Obviously, my father’s speech is compromised, and so this whole experience revealed a personal effort that I put into working with actors with disabilities, which I hadn’t done before,” she told PEOPLE.

“It revealed how much I could gain from working with people who have different abilities,” Mercedes continued. “My dad is able to work around the limitations of his speech very skillfully, so I learned so much from watching him communicate physically. He taught me so much about acting that he expanded what I thought acting was, which was central to speech.”

Mercedes is credited as an associate producer on the Prime Video documentary Wavewhich talks about her famous father. She and her brother attended a photo call for the documentary at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. Ahead of the project’s release, Mercedes told Party tonight that the “whole movie” made her tender.

“I wouldn’t say that things surprised me about my dad. He’s such an open person that I know very well,” she explained. “But it really surprised me to see that with the public. I’m so used to people not understanding my father. I’m so used to his public image being different from the playful, funny person we know.”

Jack Kilmer, 28

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Vala’s second child was born in June 1995. A few weeks after the birth of their son, Whalley filed for divorce from the actor, citing irreconcilable differences, according to TIME.

In 2013, Kilmer proudly celebrated his son’s graduation with a video of himself and Jack. “My son’s graduation today!” he captioned the post.

Jack followed in his family’s footsteps. He appeared in Gia Coppola Palo Altowhich also starred James Franco, and, according to Interview magazine, Jack “practically didn’t act before he walked on set.”

Jack told the magazine at the time that he and his father could “connect on a whole other level”. He said: “It was exciting to read the script with him.”

Jack’s credits also include the 2018 drama Pretenderswhich was directed by Franco, as well as Josie and Summer 03. Like his older sister, Jack is credited as an associate producer on the 2021 documentary. Wave.

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In addition to being an associate producer, Jack also spoke in the film for his father, whose voice was left “damaged” as a result of “extensive radiation and chemotherapy” for throat cancer.

“It was interesting doing the narration because we wanted to make it sound as natural as possible,” Jack said Los Angeles Times.

Meanwhile, Kilmer admitted it was “shocking to hear how much” his son sounds like a “young version” of him. The Top Gun: Maverick the actor admitted, “There were a few times when I couldn’t tell who was talking.”

Jack told PEOPLE 2021 that there are things they do every day to soothe his father’s “vocals and repair them, but they’re very damaged.” Val’s son said: “It’s funny I don’t notice it anymore. I’m so familiar with his voice that maybe I hear his old voice when I talk to him. But it doesn’t seem like he’s in pain when he talks. Sometimes you can’t shut him up.”

Jack added: “It’s hard, but that’s life. We appreciate every day we get to see him and be around him.”

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Source: HIS Education