Val Kilmer is telling all in his new memoir, I’m A Huckleberry — including how he met Angelina Jolie, and what it was like working with her on the film, Alexander. “I always say, she’s like other women and other superstars, but just more,” Val wrote. “More gorgeous. More wise. More tragic. More magic. More grounded. Is it worth it? Worth knowing people who require weeks of effort to understand even a little? Yes.”
Val explained that he and Angelina actually met on a New York City street before they were even cast in the 2004 movie. “We developed a friendship,” he admitted, and explained that he was around during the time that Angie’s mom was losing her cancer battle. “They were living in her mom’s favorite hotel,” he added. “Or maybe it was Angie’s. I happened to be staying there myself. It was meaningful and mortal and effortless and exquisite.”
He went on to share a story about how he told Alexander’s director, Oliver Stone, that he would only be in the movie if “the king and queen could have flashbacks to falling hard for each other and storming the castle with passion, before turning against each other.” Val added that he was “half kidding” with those remarks, but it worked in his favor.
“I couldn’t wait to kiss Angie, buy her a Gulfstream jet and have V + J painted in rainbow glory on the tail,” Val recalled. “She had recently adopted her first child, Maddox, and the paparazzi were obsessed with this postmodern Madonna, the perfect picture of unapproachable stardom and impossibly chic maternal instinct.” Val’s memoir is out now.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for Val and Angelina in real life. After Alexander’s release, she began working on Mr. & Mrs. Smith, where she met Brad Pitt. They started dating after his divorce from Jennifer Aniston, and were together for more than ten years before splitting in 2016.
