In his recent memoir I’m Your Huckleberry, actor Val Kilmer shared his experience working with Batman franchise director Joel Schumacher before Schumacher passed away from cancer at the age of 80.
Kilmer, 60, released his best-selling memoir I’m Your Huckleberry in April, and has received rave reviews from critics and fans as they commend him on opening up about his career, personal relationships, and battle with throat cancer. In an excerpt, Kilmer recounts working with director Joel Schumacher, who helped guide him on set of “Batman Forever” while Kilmer starred as leading man Bruce Wayne.
Read MoreVal Kilmer (from his memoir “I’m Your Huckleberry”) on working with BATMAN FOREVER director Joel Schumacher. pic.twitter.com/CMQTNa5Ea0
— Courtney Howard (@Lulamaybelle) June 26, 2020
The Benefits Of Creativity During And After Cancer Treatment
Due to his battle with throat cancer, Kilmer had to take a break from his career on the red carpet. However, he clearly kept his mind busy by embracing new passions such as painting and writing. There’s been evidence that shows exploring creative outlets can help people going through cancer treatment cope with their emotions and express them.
Three-time cancer survivor Marianne Cuozzo has been an artist her whole life, but after being diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in 1994 she used her passion as a way to deal with treatment and a recurrence that occurred in 1997. Cuozzo says that her art changed drastically from the beginning of her cancer journey to when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014.
“When I was first diagnosed when I was 28, I had a little studio at my house,” Cuozzo says. “I’d go in the studio, and I had these huge pieces of charcoal. I would do these really angry charcoal drawings, and I’d roll them up and stuff them under the couch. No one was meant to see them because it was just for me and, my cathartic getting out my anger. Then recently, with having the breast cancer, it became a body image…My artwork is very reflective of my cancer journey.”
Three-time cancer survivor Marianne Cuozzo says painting helped her through her cancer journey
In addition to benefits during cancer treatment, families who have lost family members or loved ones to cancer have said creativity helped them cope with loss. Camilla Legaspi lost her mother to breast cancer when she was just in high school, but once moving to college she decided to honor her mother’s memory by turning to one of her favorite hobbies writing. While attending Princeton University, Camilla joined her school’s magazine and used her family experience as a way to fuel her poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and other mediums.
“My mom was a very creative person,” Camilla explains. “So I was actually able to take this very creative part of her and use that to define me, instead of just her death. My outlet for it became writing and writing for my school magazine and publishing creative works about what had happened to me. I’ve learned to have it impact me in a positive way, and not for it to have just been a sad story.”
Camilla Legaspi used her late mother’s passion for writing to change their family’s story
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.
