Val Kilmer says he did have cancer, but is now on the mend

By Danette Chavez | May 1, 2017 | 1:38pm

Aux Features Film

In a Reddit AMA, Val Kilmer opens up about working with Tom Cruise and Marlon Brando on Top Gun and The Island Of Dr. Moreau, respectively. He also shares some new info about his Ghost In The Darkness co-star, Michael Douglas—namely, that he was right about Kilmer’s cancer diagnosis. While explaining where The Doors star had retreated to, Douglas told CBS News in 2016 that Kilmer was actually battling tongue cancer, which the Wall Street actor himself had beaten several years ago. But back in November, Kilmer denied Douglas’ claims, posting on Facebook that while he loves the guy, this was one thing he’d gotten wrong. At the time, Kilmer did say he was dealing with a “swollen tongue,” and now he reveals that he had in fact undergone treatment for tongue cancer.

Kilmer tells his Reddit interviewers that Douglas “was probably trying to help me cause press probably asked where I was these days, and I did have a healing of cancer, but my tongue is still swollen altho healing all the time. Because I don’t sound my normal self yet people think I may still be under the weather.” Now it looks like Kilmer’s recuperating nicely, as he’s back out touring with his Citizen Twain show. You can read the rest of the AMA queries here, though, as one astute commenter notes, there’s a serious dearth of Tombstone info.