How Val Kilmer became one of the most notorious actors in the history of Hollywood

Kilmer was one of the biggest movie stars of his time, but he made a long list of enemies on his journey to stardom.

Val Kilmer’s career spanned across four decades, but his ride to the top of Hollywood’s A-list was anything but smooth sailing.

Kilmer, who made his feature film debut in the 1986 action comedy Top Secret!, was known for having a reputation among Hollywood’s elite for being difficult to worth with.

One of Kilmer’s first feuds emerged in the early 90s while he was filming Michael Mann’s crime drama Heat opposite Al Pacino.

Hollywood legend Pacino supposedly got into a furious row with Kilmer while filming after he witnessed Kilmer being “an impossible a**hole” toward an assistant.

He would later bag a role in Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever as the titular character sending his career to new heights, but behind the scenes Kilmer was allegedly a nightmare.

Schumacher and Kilmer didn’t get along, and the director told Entertainment Weekly in 1996 that things worsened until they eventually became physical.

“We had a physical pushing match. He was being irrational and ballistic with the first AD, the cameraman, the costume people. He was badly behaved, he was rude and inappropriate. I was forced to tell him that this would not be tolerated for one more second.”

Actor Val Kilmer plays characters of Bruce Wayne (Batman) in 1995 film Batman Forever. Picture: Supplied.

He went on to insist that he “prayed” that he would never have to work with Kilmer again on the set of another movie, revealing that their physical fight had led to a complete breakdown in their communication.

“I’m tired of defending overpaid, overprivileged actors. We had two weeks where he did not speak to me, but it was bliss,” he added.

Joel Schumacher was one of the biggest Hollywood directors at the time. Picture: Getty.

Things worsened over the course of the next few years. While filming The Saint in 1997, crew were allegedly instructed to avoid making eye contact with him entirely.

Kilmer’s on-set behaviour then went on to become cemented within Hollywood lore after he filmed The Island of Dr. Moreau during the same year, alongside Marlon Brando. He is said to have burnt a cameraman with a cigarette, among other wild behind the scenes antics.

With a budget of $40 million – substantial for the time – and two big-name stars, The Island of Dr. Moreau seemed poised for success. But it went on to become of Hollywood’s most infamous productions for all the wrong reasons.

Just three days into production actor Rob Morrow quit the movie altogether, and then director Richard Stanley, who had developed the film from the ground up for years on his own, was fired by the studio and replaced by Manchurian Candidate director John Frankenheimer.

Stanley later shared that he believed Kilmer had intentionally sabotaged him in order to get a new director aboard.

Kilmer in a scene from the movie Top Gun, which became his breakout role. Picture: Supplied.

“He would refuse to rehearse,” he told EW. “He’s clever, because then we’d just shoot it, and the moment you shoot it, its rushes, and it goes back to the company.”

However, things were still volatile behind the scenes, with Frankenheimer also failing to find common ground with Kilmer.

According to an insider on-set during filming: “One evening, Kilmer turned to the director and asked, “You know what I think?” To which Frankenheimer responded, “I don’t give a [expletive]. Get off my set.”

Marlon Brando, meanwhile, insisted his trailer be moved far away from Kilmer’s after reportedly telling the actor during a heated exchange: “Your problem is, you confuse your talent with the size of your paycheck.”

Kilmer’s struggles with director Frankenheimer continued throughout filming, with a total of 12 days wasted where production was at a standstill as a result. Kilmer also videotaped some of their on-set rows, clips of which later made it into his 2021 documentary, and was even reported to have burned a crew member with a cigarette during one particularly big blow-up.

While Kilmer never denied the allegation, he did previously insist it was an “accident”.

Kilmer as Jim Morrison in scene from 1991 Oliver Stone film The Doors. Picture: Supplied.

In his 2021 documentary, Kilmer insisted that his erratic and volatile behaviour on-set of the infamous production, which went on to become one of the year’s biggest flops, was about giving his all to the role.

After the on-set shenanigans that plagued Batman and Dr. Moreau, Kilmer’s career headed on a downward trajectory that it never managed to recover from.

However, Kilmer previously claimed that his choices as an actor in the late 90s and 2000s were somewhat lacking because he kept “turning down” big roles due to his commitment to his family.

“I did not just turn down five really great directors but ten really great directors just because I was trying to be responsible to my family or my marriage,” he said. “I just didn’t pay attention to business. I can’t be a responsible parent and only be there three or four months a year.”

Participating in a Reddit forum Q&A in 2017, Kilmer made a rare admission about the diva reports which had plagued him over the years.

“I didn’t do enough hand holding and flattering and reassuring to the financiers,” the actor wrote at the time.

“I only cared about the acting and that didn’t translate to caring about the film or all that money.

Red Planet became of Kilmer’s most notorious movie flops. Picture: Supplied.

“Sometimes when you are the head of a project and the lead actor is usually the reason a film is being made, unless it’s a superstar director, then it’s only fair to make people feel good and happy they are at work. I was often unhappy trying to make pictures better.”

Despite his bad reputation eventually getting the better of his career, Kilmer will still be remembered as one of the most well-known actors of the late 80s and 90s.

He rose to household name status after starring as Iceman in Top Gun alongside Tom Cruise in 1986.

Kilmer reportedly turned down a role in David Lynch’s legendary Blue Velvet for Top Gun, which proved to be the correct choice and cemented him as one of Hollywood’s most bankable hunks.

Kilmer met his future wife, actress Joanne Whalley, on the set of Ron Howard’s fantasy film Willow, and then appeared with her in Kill Me Again in 1989.

He caught the eye of Hollywood director Oliver Stone who cast him as Jim Morrison in his biopic The Doors, which led to Kilmer also scoring acclaimed roles as Elvis Presley in True Romance and Doc Holliday in the western Tombstone.

Actor Val Kilmer in 2005 film 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'.

These roles, as well as his part in crime drama Heat, cemented him as one of the most talented and sort-after stars in the business, and let led to him being cast in his biggest role to date as Batman in Batman Forever. While the film failed to win over critics, it was a big hit at the box office and meant he could ask for upwards of $6m per movie.

However, a series of flop movies over the course of the following half-a-decade led to the swift end of Kilmer’s brief Hollywood reign.

After box office disaster Red Planet in 2000, Kilmer turned his sights onto smaller roles, most notably of which cane in 2005 in acclaimed comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

In 2021, Kilmer released a documentary chronicling the highs and lows of his life and career. Val, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival.

His final role came in 2022 when he returned to his role as the Iceman in Top Gun: Maverick, in which his character has become the commander of the US Pacific fleet.

Kilmer struggled with his health in later years after being diagnosed with cancer, and news later broke that he had sadly passed away from pneumonia following a long battle with throat cancer.

Originally published as How Val Kilmer became one of the most notorious actors in the history of Hollywood