Jack Kilmer | |
---|---|
Born |
Los Angeles |
June 6, 1995
Nationality | American |
Occupation | Actor, musician, model |
Years active | 2013–present |
Parent(s) | Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley |
Jack Kilmer (born June 6, 1995) is an American actor known for starring in the 2013 film Palo Alto.
Born to actor parents, American Val Kilmer and English actress Joanne Whalley, Kilmer grew up in Los Angeles and attended primary school at The Center for Early Education, where he first met would-be filmmaker Gia Coppola when he was in the first grade and she was in the sixth grade. Coppola would be instrumental in steps to Kilmer's acting career in the future.
They stayed in touch and, twelve years later, Coppola asked him to review her script for Palo Alto, a film adaptation of James Franco's book of the same name which she also planned to direct. She asked him to advise whether the dialog was an authentic reflection of "kids today". After he ran through a table read with her, she encouraged him to audition for one of the film's main roles, Teddy. Coppola filmed him as he read through the lines and this became his audition tape; he eventually won the role. After he was cast as Teddy, his father Val Kilmer joined the cast as the father of another character. Before filming Palo Alto when he was 16 years old, Kilmer had never acted before, and did not aspire to be an actor.
The film was released in May 2014 to mostly positive reviews, and Kilmer's performance was described as "formidable", "naturalistic and sincere".
Kilmer graduated from high school in 2013. He intended for his acting job on Palo Alto to be a brief project before applying to colleges, but after the film's production he decided to enter acting full-time. In April 2014 he filmed Len and Company with Juno Temple and Rhys Ifans. He played Chet, a young film projectionist who proves vital to the investigation in the 2016 neo-noir crime buddy comedy film The Nice Guys, which was written and directed by Shane Black, who had previously worked with Jack's father Val on the 2005 crime buddy comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.