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While season 37 of The Amazing Race is ongoing, Saturday Night Live writer and comedian Will Forte reflected on the late Val Kilmer's love for the adventure reality TV show. Forte opened up in an essay he wrote for Vulture, published on April 4, 2025, about his relationship with the actor and how he asked him to be on this generational show back in the day. However, they didn't do it because their agents forbade them from doing it.
"That is, maybe to this day, the biggest regret of my whole career — that I never did 'The Amazing Race' with Val," wrote Forte.
Val Kilmer died on April 1, 2025, from pneumonia at 65 years old, after battling throat cancer for years. He and Forte developed a friendship during the latter's 2010 comedy movie MacGruber, which was based on a Saturday Night Live skit of the same name.
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What Will Forte revealed about Val Kilmer's love for The Amazing Race
In the coveted movie MacGruber, Val came in for the negative yet iconic comic role of Dieter Von Cunth. Reflecting back on their day during the shoot, Will Forte wrote that Val gave him the shirt he was wearing while they were on the set.
According to what Will Forte wrote in his essay, MacGruber was the start of their friendship. He revealed that while shooting was underway, Val had problems with his landlord in Malibu, California, so he asked Forte if he could move in. Will agreed and they lived together for about two and a half months.
While they lived together, Forte showed Val The Amazing Race, a show he loved watching. Val instantly developed a liking for the show, and after a certain point, even wanted to go on the show. Forte wrote what Val told him then:
"Will, you and I have to go do The Amazing Race, we have to. Let's do The Amazing Race."
Forte further wrote that he was very excited at the prospect and very ready to do the show with him. Excited, they both called up their respective agents and managers to see how they could go on it. But they got unfortunate news from them as they asked the actors not to do it. Forte wrote that the managers essentially said:
"There's no way you guys are doing that."
Forte wrote that not doing the show with Val, to this day, was the biggest regret he had about his career. He added that chances were that they would have gotten out quickly but it would have been an experience of a lifetime. He wrote that he wished he remembered some more about his time with the legend because there were so many memories he was leaving out.
He stated that they also talked about collaborating on other stuff together, but nothing serious.
"He was always like, 'Oh, I'm going to go do this thing for Francis Ford Coppola' or something like that. Somehow, we lucked into getting him to do MacGruber," Will Forte added.
Forte said he didn't know if he was going to get lucky enough to get to work with him again, so he settled on being his roommate. Forte was not the only Saturday Night Live star who came out speaking about his experiences with Val after he passed away. Seth Meyers also paid tribute to the actor in his The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast, in its April 15 episode, by reflecting on his time on the show.
For more updates on The Amazing Race season 37, fans of the show can follow its official Instagram account, @theamazingrace. They can tune into CBS at 9:30 pm ET on Wednesdays to watch it.
