The reality TV show Val Kilmer desperately wanted to star in: “There’s no way you guys are doing that”
Ever since it first exploded in popularity to saturate the airwaves and become one of the 21st century’s most dominant forms of episodic entertainment, reality TV has provided a safe haven for veteran actors and faded stars to earn some money, which wasn’t the reason Val Kilmer wanted to get involved.
A combination of nostalgia, residual name value, and the opportunity to get their face back out there in front of an audience has encouraged countless forgotten favourites, Hollywood staples, and slumming superstars to join the reality racket, but Kilmer’s desire had nothing to do with his career or reputation.
His position in the industry may have declined steeply from his 1990s heyday when he was an established leading man, but Kilmer was busier than ever when his stock had dropped the lowest. Between 2003 and 2013, he appeared in 45 features, almost twice as many as he’d racked up in the two decades previously, dating back to his debut in 1984’s Top Secret!
Among those dozens of films, most of which were entirely forgettable, was a Saturday Night Spinoff that tanked at the box office. MacGruber has since become a cult favourite that boasts Christopher Nolan as its most famous supporter, but the friendship that developed between Kilmer and the movie’s leading man, Will Forte, almost blossomed in the most unexpected fashion.
“At a certain point, he said, ‘Will, you and I have to go do The Amazing Race,'” Forte recalled following Kilmer’s passing. “We have to. Let’s do The Amazing Race‘. I’m like, ‘I am so fully in’. We got really excited about it, and then we called our respective agents and managers, and they were like, ‘There’s no way you guys are doing that.'”
Since premiering in 2001, The Amazing Race has expanded into a global staple of the reality TV circuit. The premise sees two-person teams pitted against other competitors with the goal of racing around the world as fast as possible, using whatever modes of transport they need to complete the task.
Kilmer and Forte would have made for an unusual pairing, but they wouldn’t be the first people from the film industry to participate, with School of Rock writer and The White Lotus creator Mike White finishing in sixth place alongside his father in 2009. Their representatives shut it down, and it’s a missed opportunity that Forte will always rue.
“That is, maybe to this day, the biggest regret of my whole career, that I never did The Amazing Race with Val,” he said. “I think we would’ve gotten out very quickly, but it just would’ve been the experience of a lifetime.” The prospect of the MacGruber co-stars turning up on a reality TV show to race around the world is fascinating to think about, only for Kilmer and Forte’s killjoy agents to ruin everything.
