Val Kilmer died last week of pneumonia after a long fight against cancer that took his voice. He left behind an extraordinary job and a reputation for being a difficult, sometimes volatile interpreter. Kilmer tried to address the two facets of the legend in “Val”, a documentary opology which has punctuated some rough edges of the actor but highlighted the others.
The writer-director Oliver Stone could have been the director who was most on the wavelength of Kilmer. Their first twinning was “The Doors” in 1991, in which Kilmer acted and sometimes sang the role of the leader of the Jim Morrison doors, opposite Meg Ryan as the wife of Morrison, Pamela. Thirteen years later came “Alexander”, the biopic of Stone of the Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great; Kilmer played King Philip in front of Colin Farrell as his son Alexander and Angelina Jolie like Olympias, Alexander’s mother (and the ex who hates Philip’s guts). The two Kilmer performances are raw, terry, emotional, daring and in the eyes of certain viewers, a little too much to take (although others think brilliantly in tune with the films).
I spoke in Stone of the qualities of kilmer which led to its implementation in the two roles, as well as an unconventional, sometimes anti-social approach, sometimes worse than it to build a character, who was revealed a few years ago when an actress who had auditioned for a hearing. “His personality was not easy to get along,” said Stone. “Creative people are often involved, and there were quite a few things you would expect to see a young eccentric actor in Hollywood – although, even according to these standards, Val was pretty there.”
How did your paths cross?
He was a very eccentric individual, and I had a very eccentric introduction to him. He made a strange hearing for (the role of the SGT. Elias in “Platoon)”, recorded him himself and sent him, and it was quite Wackko – all kinds of postures and strange poses and dialogue of his own invention. I don’t really remember too much about it, but I would likely have watched it in 1984, just before the film.
Did you follow his career before hiring him for “The Doors”?
Oh yeah. I really liked “Top Secret!” And he was great in it. And I loved the other he did who was so funny: “Real Genius”, was it the title?
Have you seen the “real genius”?
Oh yeah! I liked it in it. He was a very good actor. When he came for “The Doors”, the first question was whether I could do it, which means if I could manage it. Then it comes down to the question of his voice. Could he play Jim Morrison as a singer? I mean, we could have used all Morrison (for the singing parts of the film), but with Val, we knew that we would not have to do so. The actor playing Morrison didn’t need to have a singing voice, but really, at the end of the day, we knew that it would have been a better arrangement to have someone with a voice, and Val had a very good voice. An excellent voice. I put it with Paul Rothschild, who was the real producer of the life of Jim Morrison, and they worked together and arrived, and we recorded a lot of songs. Val was very impressive. I would say that in the end, he was the only choice.
What were other actors you are watching?
There were a few others. There was a group that was there at that time – I don’t remember their name – who were the imitators. You know, they would go out in clubs and play the doors and be Doors, do you know? The guy who is Morrison was not bad. He could sing, but he was not as good actor as Val, by far. And the other guy was Jason Patric, who really started to hate me because I put him through a few (exercises). He did not get the role. You know, they were all pretty young people, they were all competitive, and there was a lot of volatility in their emotions, so I don’t think Jason took well.
Was Val considered problematic or difficult to work at that time?
He was considered by many people like, I suppose, an asshole, do you know? But I loved it. He was rocky. He was stormy. Tumultuous.
I also heard about it. During the manufacture of “the island of Dr Moreau” in 1994, There were stories. He would have burned the burns of a cameraman with a cigarette. Tips like it happened during the shooting of The doors?
No. But we were in trouble once later, years later, when these actresses were called (harassment and ill -treatment) during #MeToo, and one of these women made crazy accusations about us.
This refers to actress Caitlin O’Heaney, who auditioned for Pamela Morrison, and Tell Buzzfeed That during a performance of a domestic argument scene, Kilmer struck her and then threw her on the ground. The case was settled amicably with an NDA attached.
I remember that the casting director, Risa Bramon Garcia, treated it completely. (Garcia told Buzzfeed that the actress had “A very extreme reaction to a situation which for me was not extreme at all. »») But there were all these kinds of nonsense about how I was the director and he was the actor and I should have checked him. Risa treated it, but the charges were suspended in the air. It was bullshit. Val was simply boring, he had an advantage for him, and he played him in rehearsal to the edge, and that was what I needed the role. Val was a very strange guy in the sense that he communicated with forces that were not in the norm. And he alienated (people) during the casting process. He alienated some actresses, but we (continue to audition) because we had to find a Pamela Morrison, then we had to find the character of Kathleen Quinlan (Appointed Patricia Kennely after the journalist who had affected Morrison and married him during a private ceremony, although Stone later declared that the character was a composite of several people), and there were other roles that were, you know…. We had sexual acts in history!
What other delayed fallout came out of the “Doors” hearings?
I remember that it was Melissa Gilbert who had the accusations on her hearing, right? She was the head of the Actors Screen Actors. (Gilbert accused Stone to humiliate it during its hearing as a reimbursement for a slight social perceived elsewhere.) It was all bullshit. Nothing such has happened. And the girls (who auditioned) – some of them, you know – they understood that it was a very risky film for his time. Kathleen Quinlan, I must say, was mature and managed it best, because she had some of the most difficult scenes with him, if you remember.
Yes – She and Kilmer have a five -minute nude scene where they simulated sex and take drugs and run and dance.
Meg Ryan treated it very well. It was a difficult role for her, like Pamela. She contributed a lot and (critical) she was very underestimated in relation to Val in her role.
You know, I did not know that Val was so problematic until I started working with him. I was challenged by him. He was in a bad mood. Very bad mood. But the results are on the film. It was an exhausting performance for him. You have to sing, really sing, for hours and be very physical on stage. And Val also put so much in his game. It was not as if we were making additional requests on him and that we were unreasonable. We did not make David Fincher and made him take fifty taking of something. But it was an extremely using process and it would be very tired. And he was a young man!
He was thirty years old a little before shooting.
He would be so tired by playing Jim that he couldn’t get out of the trailer.
What was the relationship after “The Doors”?
We finished the film on a bad note. He did an excellent job, but he was not satisfied with me or himself, and he was very disturbed in many ways. He was not grateful. It was not grateful to have (obtained) the role. And although he became allies to make the film, at the end of the film, he injured me by telling me things that were not nice. It was a bitter experience in a sense, you know: “Goodbye”. “Go to hell.” This kind of thing. He didn’t tell me very beautiful things because he didn’t love me at the end.
The film did not occur as planned at the box office. It was long and it was a dark film. I had written the script in this way: it went on the dark side. Remember, that was really what Jim was.
But the years have passed and the film met a huge enthusiasm. Everyone liked Val’s performance more than he liked the film! And he obtained a huge credit for this. And he comes back in touch with me, and he just tells me how much he likes to work with me. And I guess he had had makeshift inversions? Then I wanted Val.
For “Alexander”?
That’s right. I wanted Val to play the father, Philippe. I had an intuition that it would be good for that, and he did it perfectly. He did it really well! I thought he was a very big Philippe. And it’s funny because the conventional choice would have been Liam Neeson, who was available and with whom we had a good meeting.
He would probably have been very comfortable in this role, having played so many fathers and mentors.
Yes! But we just saw something, I thought, only in Val who excited me. Although it was closer to Colin (Farrell) than Liam, Val gave what I thought was a very strong performance. I will defend it! He was good for me in these two films. He gave me what I wanted. Val died a little ahead of his time, right?
Yes, he was 65 years old, which is not that old for an actor now.
I have seen it here and there in recent years. As you know, he became very sick and he didn’t look good. He invited me to come and see him in this area and that. Then he became more sick, and he could barely speak, but we still talked here and there. He was nice to me.
I was a hard director for him, but I never really felt that I was his enemy. It was a handful. You move on and let the years spend.
