Will Forte Wishes He Did 'The Amazing Race' With Val Kilmer
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Val Kilmer died this past Tuesday at the age of 65 and in the wake of his death many celebrities and filmmakers have posted tributes to the "Top Gun" star. Perhaps none have been more heartfelt than Will Forte's essay on Vulture. The former "Saturday Night Live" star says his "biggest regret" is not appearing in "The Amazing Race" alongside Kilmer.
And by "The Amazing Race" he doesn't mean a movie, he doesn't mean a scripted TV series, and he doesn't mean a stage play. He means the actual reality show "The Amazing Race."
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According to the Vulture essay, Forte and Kilmer struck up a friendship while making 2010's comedy "MacGruber," based on Forte's "SNL" skit. Some years later, Kilmer and Forte wound up living together for two and a half months thanks to a dispute between Kilmer and his landlord. That's when the idea for "The Amazing Race" developed.
"I used to watch 'The Amazing Race,' and he came back home at some point when I was watching it and was like, 'What are you watching that garbage for? Come on, that stuff's going to rot your mind,'" Forte wrote. "I said, 'It's pretty good. You should sit down and watch it. Give it a try before you s--t on it,' So he sat down and he started watching it, and he got really into it."
Kilmer reportedly got so interested in "The Amazing Race" that he was the one who approached Forte with the idea that they should both go on the show together. Forte immediately loved the idea and the pair were apparently excited about it. That is until their managers and agents got wind of the idea.
"They were like, 'There's no way you guys are doing that,'" Forte wrote. "That is, maybe to this day, the biggest regret of my whole career — that I never did 'The Amazing Race' with Val. I think we would've gotten out very quickly, but it just would've been the experience of a lifetime."
The outpouring of love and memories for Val Kilmer in the wake of his passing has been impressive. In one example, this past week Kilmer's old "Top Gun" costar Tom Cruise asked for a moment of silence for the late actor.
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