rewrite this title Will Forte Says He and Val Kilmer Nearly Went on Huge Reality Show, ‘Biggest Regret of My Whole Career’

The SNL alum says Kilmer asked him to appear on the long-running show with him — only for their agents to tell them both, “No way!”

After the tragic death of Val Kilmer, Coyote vs. ACME star Will Forte shared a wild could-have-been with his friend and costar in this own 2010 Saturday Night Live spinoff film MacGruber.

The actor took to Vulture for an essay about their long relationship as friends, that got even more intimate when Kilmer actually moved in with him for a couple of months amid a “dispute with his landlord.”

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Forte wrote that he took the opportunity to share with Kilmer one of his reality television passions, The Amazing Race, sharing that the Batman Forever star “got really into” the long-running, Emmy-dominating CBS series.

So into it, in fact, that Forte claims Kilmer turned to him “at a certain point,” and said, “Will, you and I have to go do The Amazing Race. We have to. Let’s do The Amazing Race.

It’s an infectious energy, and certainly a sentiment many fans of the show have felt. Travel the world together with someone closest to you and have a shot at taking home a cool million? Kilmer was ready to sign up, and he even got Forte exited.

“I’m like, ‘I am so fully in,'” Forte wrote. “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.'”

“That is, maybe to this day, the biggest regret of my whole career — that I never did The Amazing Race with Val,” he continued, calling it a “shame,” while admitting, “I think we would’ve gotten out very quickly, but it just would’ve been the experience of a lifetime.”

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Who knew there were big-name Hollywood actors dreaming of doing shows like The Amazing Race right there alongside regular Joe and Jane Q. Americans? And why aren’t agents letting them do things like this, if they’re so inclined.

It’s not that big of a detour between whatever other projects they have in the pipelines, and unless they’re a complete disaster, it could only be good press for them and their fans, who you know would love to see some of their favorite stars in these circumstances.

Kilmer, best known for his role as the Caped Crusader, as well as Top Gun, Heat, True Romance, and more, died on April 1 in Los Angeles following a bought of pneumonia, according to his family. He was 65.

Kilmer’s daughter, Mercedes Kilmer, confirmed the news to the New York Times — which first reported the death. Prior to coming down with pneumonia, Kilmer had been diagnosed with a throat tumor back in 2014, and had to be rushed to UCLA Medical Center in 2015 to treat severe bleeding in his throat. The tumor was the result of oral cancer.

The cancer eventually went into remission — his daughter told NYT he’d fully recovered, a feat he attributed directly to his faith as a Christian scientist.

He did still suffer the effects of the disease, however, with Kilmer, who reprised his role in the 2022 sequel, Top Gun: Maverick unable to use his voice due to the throat cancer. The filmmakers used A.I. to recreate his voice, however, and include him in the box office hit.

Kilmer is survived by his children Mercedes and Jack, who he had with his ex-wife, actress Joanne Whalley.

See more tributes to the late actor here:

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