Val Kilmer Faces Backlash After Calling Anthony Bourdain Suicide ‘So Selfish’

Val Kilmer thinks Anthony Bourdain‘s apparent suicide is “so selfish” and said his death has “given us cause to be so angry.”

The actor expressed his grief and anger in a lengthy Facebook post, where he wrote, “How many moments away were you from feeling the love that was universal. From every corner of the world you were loved. So selfish. You’ve given us cause to be so angry. A spiritual guide once told me suicide is the most selfish act a human can execute.”

He continued: “So what? I hear you took your life in paris. What hotel? Did you relapse?… Those of us that knew you are shocked and angry and angry and angry selfishly angry, for what you just did to us. Millions I should think. At least a million people like me who imagine they know you. Some imagine they know you even well. But you heard that phone ringing, you felt it buzzing in your coat or pants pocket, vibrating a million times, but you didn’t answer it. You let it ring out… Is it important we know how you did it? No. But that you did it.”

He added, talking about “darkness” and questioning what “cloud[ed] over evert last sunny moment” of Anthony Bourdain’s days.

“My prayer before the light breaks this morning of June 8th, is that it doesn’t ever again fool another warrior like you, who chased the hot slice of momentary satisfaction around the world 15 times, but found no reason for 16.

“Who says you had a right to take away all this love from us so soon?… You left too soon my friend. I fell asleep to watching you enjoy Uruguay last night. It was a rerun but I always find something I didn’t see before… you left too soon. And I’m going to prove it…” he ended his post.

Kilmer’s post was swiftly met with backlash from his fans, who commented on the post bashing the actor’s stance on the tragedy.

“Wow just wow it’s attitudes like this that make having this invisible illness deadly!” one user wrote in a lengthy post of their own.

Kilmer replied to many of his critics on the post, rebutting the backlash.

“Clearly you miss my whole point of love. I believe that Love can heal. It is not that I believe because he had an illness it was up to him to be solely responsible. You I am sorry to say, didn’t read what I wrote very carefully,” Kilmer wrote. “I have grown up around extreme depression my whole life and have studied it intensely. I certainly wouldn’t judge his pain nor did I claim to. But clearly he felt he couldn’t take another breath and Love and a search for it enables us to try one more time. Is it not selfish that he could not consider his poor daughters needs for even an hour before committing the act.”

Bourdain was found dead at the age of 61 of an apparent suicide at a hotel room in Strasbourg, France, where he was filming an upcoming episode of his award-winning series Parts Unknown.

If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).