Val Kilmer Admits He ‘Alienated the Head of Every Major Studio’ After Being Labeled Difficult
One actor who gained a bad reputation during his career is Val Kilmer. Directors have spoken negatively about him in public. Now he is addressing how it changed his career.
Val Kilmer didn’t get along with Joel Schumacher
Kilmer played Batman in Joel Schumacher’s 1995 Batman Forever. The director hasn’t been shy to say that they didn’t get along when they worked together.
“Batman Forever, when we were on the world tour, it just really went to his head,” Schumacher said according to The Hollywood Reporter. “I’m not going to get into that. He wanted to do Island of Doctor Moreau because Marlon Brando was going to be in it. So he dropped us at the eleventh hour.”
Schumacher later returned to the franchise with Batman & Robin with George Clooney playing the hero. Kilmer went on to be in Island of Dr. Moreau.
Kilmer didn’t get along with the former director of ‘Island of Dr. Moreau’
The actor’s next role didn’t go smoothly either. He reportedly didn’t along with director, Richard Stanley who was replaced by John Frankenheimer.
“Val would arrive, and an argument would happen,” Stanley said according to Entertainment Weekly. Stanley was replaced and he claimed it was because they wanted to keep Kilmer, who they thought would bring in money.
“He’d do [the lines] but he’d throw it all away,” Stanely said. “And he kept insisting on odd bits and pieces of his wardrobe that didn’t make sense, like a piece of blue material wrapped around his arm. It was like, ‘Why is that around his arm, and will he take it off?'”
He claimed things didn’t get better with Marlon Brando being on set. “By the time Brando arrived, the script had collapsed,” Stanely said. “No one was willing to say no to anything, which is why Brando wears an ice bucket on his head in one scene.”
The movie wasn’t a hit and the critics tore it apart. Kilmer is now reflecting on his career and how it was changed.
He said he alienated the head of every major studio
The actor talked about his bad reputation in the industry in an interview with The New York Times. Kilmer revealed that there are many powerful people who weren’t willing to hire him.
“In an unflinching attempt to empower directors, actors and other collaborators to honor the truth and essence of each project, an attempt to breathe Suzukian life into a myriad of Hollywood moments, I had been deemed difficult and alienated the head of every major studio,” he said. “Everyone has to work out their own salvation. How to live and by what morality, and I found that the part that I feel bad about is hurting somebody in the process.”
Kilmer is still working. He might not have returned to the Batman franchise, but he is returning to another role. According to IMDb, he has multiple movies in post production including Top Gun: Maverick. The sequel is expected to be released on Dec. 23, 2020.
