Cancer has taken his voice, but the unlikeliest movie star in Hollywood history still has a lot he wants to say.

The iconic actor played Iceman, Doc Holliday, Batman, and Jim Morrison, but behind all the mythic roles was a man grasping for meaning wherever he could find it. Here he opens up about cancer, strength, and death.

On the production team of Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, who defined the’90s at the box office with films like Top Gun and Beverly Hills Cop, then struggled amidst Simpson’s hedonistic excess and the failure of Days of Thunder.