Kilmer, born to actors Joanne Whalley and Val Kilmer, grew up in Los Angeles and attended primary school at The Center for Early Education, where he met would-be filmmaker Gia Coppola (he was in the first grade; she was in the sixth).[1] He has British citizenship through his mother.
Career
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".[2][1] After he ran through a table read with her, she encouraged him to audition for one of the film's main roles, Teddy.[1] Coppola filmed him as he read through the lines and this became his audition tape; he eventually won the role.[2][3] After he was cast as Teddy, his father, actor Val Kilmer, joined the cast as the father of another character.[2] Before filming Palo Alto when he was 16 years old, Kilmer had never acted before, and did not aspire to be an actor.[1][4]
The film was released in May 2014 to mostly positive reviews, and Kilmer's performance was described as "formidable", "naturalistic and sincere".[3][5]
Kilmer graduated from high school in 2013.[1] 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.[1][5] 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 Kilmer's father Val on the 2005 crime buddy comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
In 2014, Kilmer also dipped into the high-fashion modeling world, posing for portraits in Saint Laurent's Permanent Collection, as well as walking the runway in the brand's 2015 spring-summer show. In 2018, Kilmer starred in Jonas Åkerlund's biographical horror/thriller Lords of Chaos as Pelle "Dead" Ohlin, alongside Rory Culkin and Valter Skarsgard.
Kilmer provided extensive narration for the 2021 documentary Val, which details the life of his father. In reviewing the documentary, many critics noted the similarity in voice between Jack and Val as a young man. The film premiered on Amazon Prime on August 6, 2021 following a screening at the Cannes Film Festival.[6] Jack was also heard in two episodes of the Disney+ series Willow, providing the voice of Madmartigan, the character played by his father in the original film.
Personal life
Kilmer enjoys surfing and skateboarding. He is a musician,[1][3] playing guitar and drums, and was previously in a band called Glimmer. Most recently he has served as a touring guitarist with Brion Starr and has released his first solo EP entitled "Archaic Angelic".
