John Frankenheimer famously quipped, “Will Rogers never met Val Kilmer.”
The late filmmaker and the recently deceased actor butted heads on the production of the 1996 movie The Island of Dr. Moreau that Frankenheimer immediately demanded Kilmer be taken off the set when he filmed his last scene. It was almost common issue with the actor that he had problems on the set.
On the 2000 movie Red Planet, him and Tom Sizemore, who had become friendly on the seat of Heat, hardly spoke to each other and even refused to be on set with each other for many scenes. This led to stand-ins and doubles being used for a lot of filming. Kilmer was reportedly angry that Sizemore was getting more special treatment as the production had shipped his free weights so he could exercise. “I’m making ten million on this; you’re only making two!” he reportedly shouted to Sizemore who responded by throwing a 50-pound weight at him.
Considering Kilmer was at one time just another Julliard student trying to make it big, it seemed to some his ego was too much. This could be surprising because his first two movies had him in light-hearted comedies. In Top Secret!, he played a rock star who gets involved in an espionage plot involving East German officials and French rebels. The movie was intended as a parody of spy movies and directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker. It got good reviews but not a big box office as it was their follow-up to Airplane!
His next role was as a science tech prodigy in Real Genius who along with other students have been tricked into invented a dangerous laser weapon to be used by the military. As Chris Knight, Kilmer played a sarcastic laid-back student who helps his young roommate played by Gabe Jarrett come out of his shell. A popular Hollywood story is that Kilmer mocked the movie’s producer, Brian Grazier, for looking too young to be a producer. Yet Grazier has disputed that and said he actually rejected Kilmer at first but after speaking with him some more, decided he was right for the role.
But then he switched gears from comedy to 1980s MTV style action movies with Top Gun as Navy Lt. Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, the hotshot pilot who is competing against Tom Cruise’s main character, Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, to be the best of the best of the class of pilots. The movie is full of machismo and homoerotic overtones. At the end of the movie, the two competing pilots become friends.
Top Gun was a hit and his next role as Madmartigan in the fantasy action movie, Willow, had him playing the romantic hero. Yet, the movie directed by Ron Howard was compared too much to Star Wars as it was also from the mind of George Lucas. Ron Howard, director of the movie, later admitted he tried too much to emulate Lucas. The movie would go on to become a fan favorite among movie and fantasy nerds but Kilmer spent the next five years making smaller movies like Thunderheart and Kill Me Again, appearing again with his wife, Joanne Whalley. They had also been in Willow.
But it was dumb luck on a troubled movie production of a Wyatt Earp/Doc Holliday movie called Tombstone that led to Kilmer breaking more through the mainstream. Reportedly, Willem Dafoe was originally selected to play Holliday. But executives at Disney, who were producing the movie, didn’t want Dafoe in the role as there was still controversy over Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ as the actor played Jesus Christ. So, Kilmer was hired thanks in part to his role as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s controversial The Doors.
The 1993 western was riding a high renaissance of western movies following City Slickers, Dances With Wolves and Unforgiven. However, because the movie had originally had Wolves actor Kevin Costner attached as Earp, the production was rushed to get it in theaters faster. (Reportedly Kurt Russell who did play Earp stepped in to direct with the help of George P. Cosmatos. However Michael Biehn who played Johnny Ringo has disputed this.)
Tombstone didn’t perform as well as intended as the 1993 Christmas season was a very oversaturated movie season, it found its fanbase on home video and cable and praise was given to Kilmer’s role. Less than 10 years after his first movie, Kilmer was now an A-lister and was cast in Heat alongside Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. He also got the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batman Forever after Michael Keaton dropped out.
However, it’s not the best performance. Rumor has it, Kilmer and director Joel Schumacher didn’t get along. Kilmer would recall in the 2021 documentary Val how difficult it was to perform in the Batman suit as it was almost impossible to hear. The movie was also supposed to have a different tone as well before the studio recut it to make it lighter.
Then, there was the terrible production on Dr. Moreau. It was documented in the 2014 movie Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau. Kilmer and Whalley were going through a divorce and while he had been selected for the lead, Kilmer wanted his role reduced and took the role of Dr. Montgomery which was a risky move. However, the movie is a mess considering that Marlon Brando is only in it for a third of the movie. However, Kilmer’s Brando impersonation as his character goes mad is noteworthy. There’s also reports that Brando and Kilmer didn’t get along.
For the most part, it seemed Kilmer’s fame was fleeting. He appeared in The Ghost and the Darkness alongside Michael Douglas but the movie got mixed reviews and underperformed at the box office. It seemed to be a sign of things to come as most of his movies from then on received negative reviews or underperformed at the box office.
As the 2000s started, Kilmer took on lesser stellar roles even though he appeared in the critically acclaimed Pollock and and a smaller role in The Missing working again with Howard and Grazier. However, his role as porn star John Holmes in the mediocre Wonderland got him praise. But the movie’s retelling of the infamous 1981 Wonderland Murderers isn’t a great movie, mainly because there’s not many likable characters in it. He would also appear in the critically acclaimed movies Spartan, directed by David Mamet, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, directed by Shane Black, and co-starring Robert Downey Jr.
However, his movie career seemed to take a dive as he appeared in many movies that went straight to DVD. He did appear in Francis Ford Coppola’s experimental horror movie Twixt. However, his role in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call seems to be a letdown as it doesn’t offer him much. But by the middle of the 2010s, Kilmer was battling throat cancer and had to get two tracheotomies and underwent chemo therapy.
He continued to act when he could but his voice was obviously dubbed in The Snowman even though he had a nice cameo in A Jay and Silent Bob Reboot playing himself playing Bluntman who doesn’t speak. In 2021, Val was released on Amazon Prime and it included home videos he had made as well as a more intimate look into his life.
Kilmer mostly kept his life private from the 1980s to his death earlier this week. His last public appearance was reportedly in 2019. He practiced Christian Science his whole life which almost kept him from seeking the right medical help for his cancer. For the most part, his health in the 2010s was mostly entertainment gossip with Kilmer and his people keeping quiet. Val gave a more eye-opening look at why he may have been called difficult. It’s obvious Whalley was his one love as the actor never married again, even though he had dated many other women.
But the documentary focused on his brother who suffered from epilepsy and drowned at 16 to his parents divorce. Kilmer would later have to sue his father on business matters. He was at a public appearance where he had to be taken away in a wheelchair to rest. There’s been disputes over his reported difficulty. Biehn said he was so into the role of Holliday that he stayed in character and Biehn never really met Kilmer. Mira Sorvino, his At First Sight co-star, said he got along great with him.
And even Cruise, who has been known to be difficult himself, told Jimmy Kimmel in an interview they got very emotional filming his scene in Top Gun: Maverick. Kilmer’s illness and health was worked into the role as Iceman, who is now an admiral but dying of cancer. It seemed almost a fitting bookend to his career as when we first see him in Top Gun, he seems all cocky and arrogant. Iceman and Maverick are bitter rivals.
But they’ve become the best of friends. More than that, they’ve become brothers.
When egos clash on a movie set, it’s bound to get ugly. But both Frankenheimer and Sizemore had difficulties with other filmmakers and actors. I mean, Will Rogers never met John Frankenheimer nor Tom Sizemore.
Kilmer passed away on April 1 from pneumonia. He was 65. Fly high, Iceman!
What was your favorite role of his? Please comment.
Zane Says 