Val has talked a lot about his experiences in Africa, mostly when promoting THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS and AFRICA UNBOTTLED, but it's also clear from what he says that his fascination with the continent and his habit of visiting there predate those projects by many years. The E! channel interview for THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS was voted as the interview that tells you the most about Val's love for Africa. The HBO channel special on THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS, in which Val is interviewed on the set of the movie and clearly enjoys the experience of living in Africa and filming on location, was voted the favorite movie special.

Val has always been interested in Native American causes and is himself part Cherokee. Though his interest is ongoing and he has mentioned it in some of the interviews for his recent movie, AT FIRST SIGHT, people most remember his talking about it in the E! and Letterman interviews for THUNDERHEART.

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While Val always goes on a talk show to promote some project or another, sometimes it's hard to tell what! Some interviews meant to promote THUNDERHEART were mostly about THE DOORS, the appearance on Leno for BATMAN FOREVER turned out to be almost entirely about the birth of Val's son, and the chief topics when he appeared on Regis & Kathie Lee for AFRICA UNBOTTLED were his lips and the fact that he lives in a mud (adobe) house! In this confusion of unrelated interviews, Val's appearance on the Letterman show to promote AFRICA UNBOTTLED was voted the most unrelated. In it Val talks about his ranch, living next to Ted Turner, buffalo and an incident where his father was attacked by an eagle. Then he finally starts talking about Africa!

His appearances on talk shows or in movie specials are the best chances to see Val the person on TV, but they aren't the only chances. The entertainment media tracks many events, and publicity appears in many forms. Val has also been interviewed, even if only for a few sentences, on the set of a movie, at the premiere of one his movies, standing around at ShoWest (a movie promotion event for theater owners), standing in line for awards shows, in short clips used on the video press release and in the many short pieces generated by TV shows and other media during the publicity junket, where an individual actor promoting a movie can do as many as 60 interviews in a day. And then there are his appearances on awards shows! Some of the more memorable things said by him or about him are from these shorter pieces. It was at ShoWest that Nicole Kidman announced that except for her husband, "Val Kilmer has the best lips in the business." It was while standing in line for the 1994 Golden Globes that Val Kilmer revealed that while he was dressed in sober black and white, "I've got colorful underwear on, though." It was in a short interview for Entertainment Tonight that he first made the outrageous and clearly tongue-in-cheek assertion (which he repeated in the MTV BATMAN FOREVER special) that he had done all his own stunts as well as those of some of his co-stars. And it was at the 1999 Academy Awards that he sang to a horse.

You don't have to see Val Kilmer as himself to appreciate his movies or to appreciate his acting ability. But it is a whole lot of fun!

"I had been a Val Kilmer fan for quite a while before I really saw Val. I'd seen most of his movies up to and including THE SAINT, but movies and the occasional print interview were all I knew of him until I sat down with my first Val Interview Tape. For the first few moments, I was mesmerized with seeing him walking and talking on the screen, and I had no idea what was being said. Once I got the silly grin off my face, and my senses returned, I was able to fully take it all in. I found him to be intelligent, funny and very thoughtful about the words that were coming out of his mouth. And most of all, he was real. No longer was he a larger-than-life face on the movie screen, he was a real guy. He walked different, he talked different, his behavior was foreign to me. Now, some people might find it disappointing to have the image of their hero converted in the harsh light of reality, but I was excited! For to me, the fact that Val was not like any of the characters I'd seen him play just further cemented my conviction that he's a truly great actor. It's not until you see Val just being Val that you can appreciate how thoroughly he disappears into his roles." - BJ