Val Kilmer had a long and successful acting career before his death at the age of 65, and he was credited for iconic roles such as Bruce Wayne in Batman Forever and Iceman in Top Gun. However, the American actor also hit the headlines several times due to reports of difficult on-set behaviour. One of his biggest controversial moments was when he signed up for the ill-fated 1996 version of The Island of Dr Moreau, having just wrapped up Batman Forever. Director Joel Schumacher, who initially hired Kilmer to play the caped crusader, had been informed about “horror stories about Kilmer’s antics” on set.
He later told Vulture that Kilmer was “psychotic” and that he found the American “childish and impossible.” Val was then hired as a late replacement after Bruce Willis dropped out of The Island of Dr. Moreau, and the antics reportedly didn’t stop there.
The studio had also cast Godfather star Marlon Brando in the film. Even though Kilmer called Brando his “hero”, the two stars reportedly feuded whilst on set and Brando even said to Kilmer, “Your problem is, you confuse your talent with the size of your paycheque.”
Apart from the pair clashing, the film also ran into further trouble when a new director was hired three days into filming. Veteran John Frankenheimer was brought in and reportedly disliked Kilmer even more.
After the film concluded filming, John fumed, “Even if I was directing a film called The Life of Val Kilmer, I wouldn’t have that p***k in it.” The Island of Dr Moreau ended up being a box office bomb, with Kilmer taking the majority of the blame.
However, the Hollywood star grumbled in 2017 that he didn’t drag down the production in any way. He told Deadline, “I got blamed for ruining the film, even though I died two-thirds of the way through. And the film is just as bad when I’m not in it.”
Despite the flop, it was all water under the bridge for Kilmer, who still considered Marlon his close colleague, “I love Marlon and was so lucky to be able to call him my friend”.
Kilmer died from pneumonia on 1 April, his daughter Mercedes Kilmer has confirmed to the New York Times newspaper. Mercedes also said that Val had been diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, but later recovered from the disease.