Mister Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014. He later recovered, though his public battle with the disease lasted for years. Val's throat cancer was related to other diseases and affected his vocal chords. He said; "When I speak now, I sound like Marlon Brando after a couple of bottles of tequila," Val recalls, in his candid video memoir.
I'm pictured here with Val Kilmer at his tie-in promotion for the 2008 premiere opening of the movie: Columbus Day
He's a very cool dude...down to earth and wore the sun glasses 'cause they helped keep the anonymity thing going a bit longer. I'll tell you one thing, for 17 years now, those (f---'g) glasses had me explaining to people that really is Val Kilmer in the picture. When he asked what kinda work I did, I remembered him slipping in & out of character's voices, beginning with his first film: Top Secret. Plus, The@Saint. Even Morrison's band members couldn't tell the difference between Jim & Val. So, I figured I'd give it a shot and say I did voices. He came back with; Would he know anything I did?...ahh, geashh, maybe you've seen a Celeb Death Match or... It was like a switch. He said, which one's. I started bangin' out a few. He stopped me at Nick Nolte vs. Eddie Murphy. So, this one's for you Nick Rivers. From one Nick to another!
We mentioned Val in our July 31st 2021 Blog posting when we shared a link that was titled: Ai gave Val Kilmer his voice back It spoke to the ill-fated voice of Val Kilmer and how a voice-Ai algorithm has helped him communicate both personally & professionally. Val describes in detail how his voice was restored via Ai after surgery for throat cancer in his new documentary "Val" via Amazon Prime.
In "Top Gun: Maverick," when Kilmer went to reprise his beloved "Ice Man" character, director Joseph Kosinski told USA TODAY that, despite rumors of Ai, the voice in the film was nearly 100% Kilmer.
Kilmer’s return to the role was one of the most moving moments in the movie. His character, now an acclaimed Admiral, communicates via a computer due to an unspecified illness. Maverick producer Jerry Bruckheimer told People in 2021: “We all wanted Kilmer, but Tom Cruise was adamant that if he’s going to make another Top Gun, Val had to be in it."
It'll be four years ago this July that we not only posted in our Blog about Val Kilmer, but the featured story was that of Ai growing out of it's shell and taking over the whole megillah, figuratively speaking of course. We were covering the advancement of Ai's naturally sounding replication aspect. Industry alarming was Anthony Bourdain's brush with Ai ...actually his Ai'd voice only.
That information came compliments of the director, Morgan Neville about his Anthony Bourdain documentary film called: "Roadrunner" . Mr. Neville revealed it's not all Bourdain's voice the audience was listening too.
Instead, [click link to hear the difference] Artificial Intelligence (Ai) software was used to replicate (45 sec's) of a few quotes of Bourdain that he never uttered aloud, at least not for this documentary. It materialized in a 2021 New Yorker article by Helen Rosner, where she asked Neville "how on earth he'd found an audio recording of Bourdain reading his own e-mail." Mr. Bourdain's ex-wife Ottavia Busia said - I do believe Morgan thought he had everyone’s blessing to go ahead with Anthony's voice being Ai'd, but, I certainly was
NOT the one who said Tony would've been cool with it. WoW, to live-on past one's passing.
