Kevin Spacey Dedicates Lifetime Achievement Award to Val Kilmer

Kevin Spacey paid tribute to the late Val Kilmer while accepting a lifetime achievement trophy at the Septimius Awards last week, going so far as to dedicate the honor to his lifelong friend.

The two night award ceremony, held at Amsterdam’s Tuschinski Theater on Sept. 3-4, saw honors handed out in a variety of entertainment categories with appearances from Hollywood stars including Jonathan Majors and Meagan Good (who both won awards), Septimius ambassador Stedman Graham (longtime partner of Oprah Winfrey) and a host of international talent from both sides of the camera. Spacey wasn’t alone in receiving a lifetime achievement honor as Irv Gotti, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Oscar-winning make-up artist Jenny Shircore and special effects supervisor Neil Corbould also won career-spanning trophies.

While accepting at the black-tie gala, Spacey first thanked longtime manager and “best friend in this world,” Evan Lowenstein and his wife Lucie, before turning his attention to Kilmer. The two met at age 12 while in Sunday School together before going on to study at the same Southern California high school and at the prestigious Juilliard School of Drama in New York. Spacey said that when he knew that he would be accepting the honor on the date of Sept. 4, it made him recall how he started his professional acting career exactly 44 years ago that very night alongside Kilmer, “playing two very small parts as soldiers” in a production of Henry IV, Part 1 at Central Park’s Delacorte Theater in New York.

“I am thinking of Val tonight,” Spacey said. “I am missing Val for all that he taught me, for the times that we shared together, but mostly for what he learned as a man, as a father and as a friend. I recall with enormous love in my heart that in 2017, when a number of people were walking away from me, Val was busy coming toward me, sending love and his support, and I will never forget him for that.”

Spacey’s mention of 2017 recalls how his career took a blow — including being fired from Netflix’s House of Cards — due to sexual misconduct allegations and subsequent legal battles. Spacey always denied all criminal charges and was found not guilty in sexual assault trials in the U.S. and the U.K. His speech then focused on second chances.

“If there’s one thing that I have grown up believing about movies and what has been demonstrated here with all of the clips that we’ve seen, is that in so many films, these movies are about how sometimes in life we get second chances,” said the actor, fresh from attending an event during the Venice Film Festival at Hotel Cipriani where he debuted footage from a new project, Holiguards Saga — The Portal of Force. “And I can tell you how precious that means to me, and I hope it means for everyone. Tonight, I want to thank you for this honor. I want to dedicate it to my friend Val Kilmer, because I have been and always will be team Kilmer.”

Kilmer died at age 65 of pneumonia, his daughter Mercedes Kilmer confirmed to the New York Times, after battling throat cancer for a number of years. Spacey, meanwhile, also participated in an on-stage panel discussion with Graham and the recently married couple Majors and Good. Majors is mounting a comeback of his own after a misdemeanor assault conviction derailed his career.

At the Septimius Awards, Majors received a best American actor award while Good was honored as best American actress. Other winners included Vermiglio (best European film), The Seed of the Sacred Fig (best Asian film), Streets of Gloria (best American film), Tommaso Ragno (best European actor), Alma Poysti (best European actress), Mahnaz Afshar (best Asian actress), Tovino Thomas (best Asian actor), Nisrin Erradi (best African actress) and Idir Benaibouche (best African actor), among others. The full list of winners is here.

“At some point there has to be accountability for writing your own story,” Majors told THR’s Rebecca Keegan in a cover story interview. “Am I going to fall into that narrative of falling apart, of self-destruction? Have a struggle, blame the world. Have a struggle, hate yourself. Have a struggle, deny everything. None of those narratives is beneficial.” Instead, Majors revealed that his strategy moving forward was “have a struggle, learn, metabolize, grow.”

Below, see speeches from Spacey, Majors and Good.