Val Kilmer Opens Up About His New Voice After Throat Cancer In New TV Interview

We really love how candid Val Kilmer is getting about his battle with throat cancer. Speaking out, literally just the act of speaking now, takes so much bravery after what he’s gone through.

This was one of the sexiest screen idols of all time, and now he’s left unrecognizable without his distinctive baritone voice. Thankfully the Real Genius star has shown he has a lot of perspective on the matter.

As you may remember, Val previously had kept intensely private about the illness, even seemingly denying it after co-star Michael Douglas spoke openly about it while addressing his own cancer scare.

Video: Alex Trebek Describes Almost Giving Up On Some Days After Stage 4 Cancer Diagnosis

While promoting his new memoir, I’m Your Huckleberry, named for his famous catchphrase as gunfighter Doc Holliday in 1994’s Tombstone, the 60-year-old gave a rare on-camera interview with Chris Connelly on Good Morning America — via video from the safety of their own homes, naturally.

From the start, Kilmer was in good spirits, telling Connelly:

“I feel a lot better than I sound, but I feel wonderful.”

Speaking frankly on his illness, he said:

“I was diagnosed with throat cancer, which healed very quickly.”

Val is cancer free today. That was the good news. Unfortunately in order to stay alive, the movie star had to undergo some extreme procedures, including having a tube installed in his throat which helps him breathe through his neck. As he explained:

“This is a tracheotomy which helps me breathe because my glands in my throat swelled up as well.”

Doctors saved his life. However, he lost his voice to the cancer and the necessary treatment.

Related: Val Dishes On Romances With Movie Stars In New Memoir

Asked what he missed most about his old voice, Val joked:

“That I had one!”

He added:

“And that I didn’t laugh like a pirate.”

Aw. So glad he has kept his sense of humor through all this.

Val also hasn’t completely given up his career. We’ll see him on the big screen again this year in the long-awaited sequel Top Gun: Maverick, which was recently delayed from June to December.

On what it was like to reunite with wingman Tom Cruise, he reflected:

“It was absolutely moving. I really was surprised and Tom was wearing his jacket from the first movie and it was just very moving.”

See — and hear — more from the grateful Val Kilmer (below)!

[Image via Z.Tomaszewski/WENN/GMA/YouTube.]