Word: val
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...months before shooting was to begin on Paramount's The Saint, the Aussie auteur Phillip Noyce went to visit the movie's star, who was on location in Australia for another film. When the actor didn't show up for their meeting, Noyce sighed and thought, "Well, this is Val Kilmer." That would be Val Kilmer the Hollywood bad boy, whose very name spurs some directors to spit venom. Noyce walked outside and into a dark street, then became aware of someone following him. "I stopped in a doorway and looked over my shoulder, but no one was there. Suddenly...
That would be Val Kilmer the meticulous student of each role he plays, from randy Jim Morrison in The Doors to the courtly, consumptive Doc Holliday in Tombstone. On that night in Australia, says Noyce, "he was already acting the role of the Saint." Later Noyce and scriptwriter Wesley Strick trekked to South Africa, where Kilmer was shooting another film. "Let's go," the actor greeted them. He hopped into a Land Rover and, steering wheel in one hand, cigarette in the other, drove them madly across dirt roads to a distant campsite where he was living in a tent...
...league of his own. He has been accused of sabotaging productions by making up his own dialogue and deliberately burning a cameraman's face with a lighted cigarette while shooting Moreau (Kilmer says it was an accident). Some directors praise the actor's craft and attitude. "Val gives you nuance piled on nuance," says Heat director Michael Mann. "I had a spectacular time working with him." But others hear the word Kilmer and reach for their revolver. "He isn't just a high-strung, difficult actor," says Joel Schumacher, who hired Kilmer for Batman Forever and apparently rued...
...fantasy Willow, where he met the English beauty Joanne Whalley. They were married for seven years, producing two children; they split in 1995. Kilmer subsequently dated Cindy Crawford and recently had to dodge rumors of a tryst with his Saint co-star, Elisabeth Shue. Noyce says that was just Val the perfectionist, obsessed with highlighting the film's romantic glow. "He worked so minutely on this relationship that some crew members said they were having an affair," says Noyce. "I don't believe that was true, but they spent a lot of time in the caravan together...
...dour to spark a series, but Kilmer is ready for whatever happens. "Movie careers can be a machine-gun thing," he says. "You do three jobs, one of them will hit. I've always been confident about trusting what I can get from acting." That sounds like Val Kilmer the realist, who plans a long career giving moviegoers pleasure and directors hell...