Eight years before Val Kilmer’s death, the Batman star addressed claims about his reputation as a “difficult” actor in an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit, where he invited questions from the public. Kilmer had a reputation for being difficult to work with, and reportedly had some feuds with his co-actors, including The Island of Dr. Moreau co-star Marlon Brando and Red Planet and Heat co-star Tom Sizemore. Kilmer’s Tombstone co-star Michael Biehn once said, “People ask me what it’s like to work with Val Kilmer. I don’t know. Never met him. Never shook his hand. I know Doc Holliday, but I don’t know [Kilmer].”
Richard Stanley, who directed Kilmer in The Island of Dr. Moreau before being fired, recalled, “Val would arrive, and an argument would happen.” John Frankenheimer eventually replaced Stanley, and later said, “I don’t like Val Kilmer, I don’t like his work ethic, and I don’t want to be associated with him ever again.”
‘It cost me some really fun roles’
In the Reddit AMA, a user wrote, “Hi Val, I am a big fan of your work and have been for a long time. When you were younger you had a reputation for being a “difficult actor”. That’s usually code for someone who isn’t afraid to stand up for things. Now that you’re older do have a perspective on that? Was it bul*****? Do you wish you had approached things differently? Or would you do it all again? Any answer that references the Island of Dr. Moreau would be especially appreciated…Thanks for doing this.”
Answering the questions, Kilmer wrote, “Of all people Oliver Stone warned me from experience of how vindictive our little community is and that “YOU better make time for them…” Them back then meant press and hanging with studio execs and casting agents and other stars and agents. I loved my life in New Mexico so took up the cause of defending myself when this folly started gaining traction a bit too late. I didn’t develop a persona like all my contemporaries.”
“When you think of Sean Penn or Tom Hanks or Johnny Depp, you think immediately of the same character and image I do. Tom Hanks usually has an American flag behind his head for example. Johnny has a hat. These are characters they have created. Its fun and its a way to secure your part of the sandbox, but its only a slight part of who they are. These are their personas. Cultivated,” he added.
Kilmer said that as an older person, he wishes he spent “a bit more time here defending myself, only because it cost me some really fun roles, and a mountain of money I assumed would always be there.” He added, “Just for my kids sake, it would be nice to have a couple joints around the world, to pop off to. But most importantly, all the nonprofits I’m involved with would be helped by lots of cash, like some of my friends are able to do now. But Robert Downey Jr. was at the bottom of the barrel and now he owns the HOLLYWOOD sign I think”
Kilmer recently died at the age of 65. His daughter confirmed that his cause of death was pneumonia. He had been diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014.
