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Few actors truly immerse themselves intotheir role with the kind of complexity andmeticulous attention to detail that Val Kilmer

does. The intuitive and effortlessly talentedactor of films as diverse as Heat The SaltonSea Spartan lexander and The !oors toname "ut a few interprets his roles with thesplendour of a chameleon tantalisin#lydisappearin# into its surroundin#s.

$arlon %rando once opined that every scenean actor works within has a clich& and theactors role'without exception'is to stray asclear from that clich& as far as possi"le.(mulatin# one of his artistic idols) Kilmer hasshown the a"ility to do exactly that throu#h avaried and diverse career that has seen him

#o from "u""le #um pop icon splendour inearly films such as Top Secret and Top*un) the formida"le leadin# man of The!oors %atman Forever and The Saint to acharacter actor "urnin# with +uiet intensity infilms like ,onderland and -onspiracy thatdemand repeated viewin#s and which refuse

to pander to the conventional rules of screenactin#.

Val Kilmer for#oes the archetypical templateof screen actin# as we have known it sinceew Hollywood em"raced the #auntletthrown down "y pioneers such as %rando and-lift "ack in the /012s. 3nstead he has takenthe intrinsic art form and made it uni+ue and

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as difficult to penetrate as possi"le. ,hetherhe is completely em"odyin# 4ohn Holmes or4im $orrison or pi+uin# within the confines of

dan#erous smoulderin# intensity such as thedan#erous and unconventional assistant inThe 3sland of !r $oreau Kilmers work hassou#ht to define a screen ima#e that is asimpossi"le to pin point as the mans talentitself.Throu#hout his many roles not only has

Kilmer offered a complexity of camoufla#eand su"terfu#e that is "oth disconcertin# andimpecca"ly formulated) "ut is also uni+uelymemora"le. His acclaimed role inTom"stone is indicative of that'the a"ility totranscend the script) to em"ellish the rolewith the kind of perverse spontaneity that

was so symptomatic of %rando that it wasfalsely attri"uted to "ein# The $ethod in thelatters heydey'there was only the method ofthe kind of actor that Val Kilmer em"odies5that which disappears so seamlessly into thetext and ma#ic that is the actin# art formthat it "ecomes difficult to discern where one

of Val Kilmers characters "e#ins and whereVal Kilmer the actor takes over.

Kilmer has "een the leadin# man) theHollywood heartthro" and the "ox office star'"ut this "ook is chartin# waters that are notso easy to navi#ate. ,hat makes Kilmer somemora"le in his roles that he practicallyunreco#nisa"le'"oth emotionally and

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physically'from one to the next. 3t is thata"ility that makes him free6e a moment intime where reality and ima#ination seem

effortlessly entwined so that a pulpy actionthriller like Heat "ecomes so much moresimply "y his presence alone. For Kilmer hasshown throu#hout his career) that he isimpossi"le to la"el. ,hether he is the cleancut leadin# man in The *host and The!arkness or disappearin# into the role of a

prison inmate in Felon Kilmer has sou#ht topush the "oundaries of what constitutessimple actin# and his most am"itiouspro7ect'playin# $ark Twain'is a clearindication of that.

This is a "ook a"out the kind of star

Hollywood wishes it could churn out of atalent mill "ut which is too uni+ue) impossi"leto define and intrinsically diverse that itcannot "e contained within the confines of amanufactured "ox office treatment and hasled to a "ody of work to date which sets himapart from those too limited and too afraid to

truly dare.