Mercedes Kilmer defends AI Val Kilmer precedent

Mercedes Kilmer says her late father Val Kilmer wanted AI-generated versions of him used in film to help create compensation structures and actor licensing rights, linking the approach to the laws and protections she believes were still being written.

When Mercedes Kilmer stepped onto the TODAY stage on Tuesday, the conversation quickly moved from nostalgia to something more immediate: how her late father, Val Kilmer, would have wanted his image handled in the era of AI.

Kilmer, 34, said she supports the use of an AI-generated version of her father in the upcoming film As Deep As the Grave. She described it as a project her dad wanted—pushed not by novelty, but by a desire to build “structures for actors to own their licensing and to have rights.”

Her comments landed alongside details of Kilmer’s health history and the way that history shaped his approach to the technology. Val Kilmer passed away from pneumonia after he had been diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014. In her telling. the idea began as a way to work within the limitations of his illness—and later turned into something broader.

“My dad was very passionate that this is the time. before these laws are written. to make sure that there’s a structure for compensation. to make sure that actors get paid on par with what they would get paid if they were physically doing it. and if it creates more jobs in that way. that’s wonderful. ” Mercedes Kilmer told Craig Melvin and Savannah Guthrie.

She framed the decision as both practical and symbolic. “I think this is a really historic precedent, and I’m really proud of him,” she continued. “It started off as something to overcome the limitations of his illness. but then it evolved into something that he really was like. ‘Oh wait I have a chance to actually set precedent.’”.

The spotlight on AI is not happening in a vacuum. Val Kilmer’s final film appearance came in 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, where he reprised his role as Lt. Tom “Iceman” Kazansky from the original 1986 film. The movie reunited him with Tom Cruise. Since Kilmer had already lost his voice at the time. the production used a “voice engine” to teach a voice model how to speak like Kilmer.

What stands out in Mercedes Kilmer’s account is how quickly the subject moves from an emotional family story to a legal and economic one: compensation. licensing. and rights. She portrays the technology as something her father tried to pull toward structure—so actors would not just be referenced. but protected.

With As Deep As the Grave approaching, her message is clear: she doesn’t see AI as the point. The point, she says, is what comes after it—who controls it, how actors are paid, and whether the rules will catch up before the next wave of film work moves past them.

Mercedes Kilmer Val Kilmer AI-generated actor As Deep As the Grave TODAY Craig Melvin Savannah Guthrie throat cancer Top Gun: Maverick actor rights licensing compensation