With the recent passing of Val Kilmer, I decided to rewatch my favourite movie of his, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. In the movie, he plays a smart, cool, confident and queer detective nicknamed ‘Gay’ Perry. I think he stole the movie, and the lead actor, Robert Downey Jr, has said the same.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a dark comedy crime film starring Downey Jr as Harry Lockhart, a New York-based burglar who accidentally wins a screen test and ends up in Los Angeles. At a party, he meets both his childhood crush, Harmony Lane (Michelle Monaghan) and private detective ‘Gay’ Perry van Shrike (Val Kilmer). It is very much a writer’s movie. Harry, as the narrator, fights with the storytelling structure, and unlike the cool narrators of crime noir movies, Harry is nervy and uncool.

Val Kilmer was actually the one who decided that his character should be queer. He said of reading the script, written by the director Shane Black, “He wasn’t gay when I read it. I insisted. I said Shane, we gotta get a little colour in here. We gotta juice it up a little. I think I should be gay. I think I should kiss Robert Downey in the middle of the film. Maybe even earlier. Several times.”

The real chemistry in the movie, for me, was not between Downey Jr and Monaghan, the romantic leads, but between Downey Jr and Kilmer. An odd couple, Perry, who wears expensive suits, shows wonderful contempt for the very uncool Harry.

Perry is hired by a movie company to give Harry method acting lessons on how to behave like a private detective. He treats Harry like an impediment to his work, and there is comedy in the exasperation he feels, especially when he gets dragged into Harry and Harmony’s problems.

I love that Perry is so cool and confident in his sexuality. As Kilmer suggested, Perry kisses Harry in the middle of the movie to put off some cops. Kilmer said of the kiss, “It was fine, it was fine. I’ve never kissed a guy before except for Colin Farrell in a movie… And Robert is a better kisser…”

Later, when he and Harry get captured, Perry once again uses his sexuality as a tool, this time to unnerve their captor. He finally shoots the guy with a gun he keeps concealed in his underpants, quipping that homophobes never check there.

Downey Jr said of Kilmer’s performance: “Val avoided that pitfall that would have been almost impossible for me to not fall in, which is, the camera is running, you are Gay Perry and how can you not camp it up? But when he did, it was realistic….it was instinctual, it came out of the character. Which is I think why it works.”

Kilmer cheekily said of his role, “Some people have observed that maybe this wasn’t my first gay role. Maybe that was Top Gun.”