How Val Kilmer’s Illness Led a Director to Use AI for ‘As Deep as the Grave’

Best known for iconic roles in films like Top Gun, The Doors, and Batman Forever, Val Kilmer captivated audiences for decades with his chameleon-like performances and commitment to his craft. In later years, he became equally known for his battle with throat cancer. This significantly affected his voice and health without diminishing his presence on the screen. After his death, he’s now being brought to life via AI technology in the indie film, As Deep as the Grave. Here’s what to know.

Val Kilmer will appear in ‘As Deep as the Grave’ using AI technology

Top Gun and Batman Forever fans will never forget Val Kilmer’s incredible film presence. The actor died in April 2025 at 65 years old following a bout of pneumonia, according to People. Previously, Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2015 and recovered.

The actor made his final film appearance in the 2022 Top Gun sequel, Top Gun: Maverick. However, fans can expect to see him on the big screen after his death. Kilmer was cast in the film As Deep as the Grave five years before his death, but he was reportedly too sick at the time from cancer to film. The movie’s director, Coerte Voorhees, was able to put Kilmer in the film using generative AI without Kilmer ever physically stepping onto the set.

“He was the actor I wanted to play this role,” Voorhees told Variety. “It was very much designed around him. It drew on his Native American heritage and his ties to and love of the Southwest. I was looking at a call sheet the other day, and we had him ready to shoot. He was just going through a really, really tough time medically, and he couldn’t do it.”

Kilmer’s daughter, Mercedes, and the actor’s son, Jack, reportedly support the endeavor. Mercedes said that her father looked at “emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling.”

“His family kept saying how important they thought the movie was and that Val really wanted to be a part of this,” Voorhees stated. “He really thought it was important story that he wanted his name on. It was that support that gave me the confidence to say, OK, let’s do this. Despite the fact some people might call it controversial, this is what Val wanted.”

The film’s production team used younger images of Kilmer and footage of the actor from his later years to accurately bring the character to life. They were also able to recreate his voice. The film received permission from Kilmer’s estate to do this.

The actor ignored throat cancer symptoms initially

Val Kilmer wrote about his throat cancer diagnosis in his 2020 memoir, I’m Your Huckleberry. He admitted to ignoring some of his symptoms. People reports that in 2014, he had to cancel his one-man show, Citizen Twain, after losing his voice. He then discovered a lump in his throat. Finally, in 2015, he had an experience he could no longer ignore.

“One night, I suddenly awoke vomiting blood that covered the bed like a scene out of The Godfather,” he wrote. “I prayed immediately, then called 911.”

Kilmer learned that he had cancer in his throat. He underwent a tracheotomy, chemotherapy, and radiation. The actor also prayed and turned to his faith. “I wasn’t ready to die,” he noted. “Healing is not born of vanity, it is born of honesty.”

He later admitted that cancer changed his priorities. “I was too serious,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2017. “I’d get upset when things like Oscars and recognition failed to come my way.”

Val Kilmer previously partnered with AI company Sonantic for his voice

After losing much of his natural speaking ability following throat cancer treatment, Val Kilmer turned to technology to help reclaim his voice. Beginning around 2020 to 2021, he partnered with the London-based AI company Sonantic. They built a digital model of his speech using archival recordings from earlier in his career. Because Kilmer could no longer record new dialogue traditionally, engineers trained machine-learning systems on existing audio to generate a synthetic voice that closely matched his original tone and emotional range.

The result was a highly personalized text-to-speech system that allowed Kilmer to “speak” again in a way that felt authentic to him. The process involved creating dozens of different voice models and refining them until one captured what developers described as the essence of his voice. Kilmer himself praised the outcome. He said the technology had “masterfully restored” his voice and gave him a renewed ability to communicate, according to Fortune.