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MAN: So I went over to Harold Becker and I said,
"Listen, man, I’m not quitting.
You can’t get me to quit, you fucker."
I’ll kick that guy’s ass in the last scene.
You know?
So the next day, they said, "No, you got to go."
(chuckles)
You ever been fired before?
-Fuckers. -VAL: I’ve been fired.
Yeah?
VAL: I’ve almost been fired from all of my movies.
Every time, they start looking for someone else.
("Livin’ For Your Lover" by Chris Isaak playing)
-Even this one. -(chuckles)
♪ I love her... ♪
Hey! More! More! More.
More. More.
-(laughter) -(goofy accent): He wants more!
More sex.
More drugs. More wine!
More tobacco. More headaches.
More ulcers. More herpes.
More women.
And less of Tom Cruise.
(laughter)
(yelling)
Give me more!
-(yells) -(laughter)
("Everybody’s Talkin’" by Harry Nilsson playing)
♪ Everybody’s talking at me ♪
♪ I don’t hear a word they’re saying ♪
♪ Only the echoes... ♪
I don’t do this with every interview I go on,
take you inside my home.
I don’t, but I’m going to.
♪ People stopping, staring ♪
♪ I can’t see their faces ♪
♪ Only the shadows of their eyes... ♪
JACK: My name is Val Kilmer.
♪ I’m going where the sun keeps shining ♪
♪ Through the pouring rain... ♪
I’m an actor.
I was recently diagnosed with throat cancer.
♪ Banking off of the northeast winds... ♪
Though I healed quickly from the cancer,
the extensive radiation and chemotherapy treatment
that followed has left my voice impaired.
♪ The ocean like a stone... ♪
I’m still recovering, and it is difficult
to talk and to be understood.
♪ Everybody’s talking at me ♪
♪ Can’t hear a word they’re saying ♪
♪ Only the echoes of my mind ♪
♪ I won’t let you leave ♪
♪ My love behind ♪
♪ No, I won’t let you leave... ♪
♪ No, I won’t... ♪
♪ I won’t let you leave... ♪
Here we go.
My name is Val Kilmer.
(upbeat music playing over radio)
I’ve lived a magical life.
And I’ve captured quite a bit of it.
I was the first guy I knew to own a video camera.
I have thousands of hours of videotapes and film reels
that I’ve shot throughout my life and career.
I’ve kept everything.
And it’s been sitting in boxes for years.
Writing.
Hi, my name’s Val.
JACK: Audition tapes.
Behind the scenes.
-(helicopter whirring) -MAN: Hi, buddy.
VAL: You look strangely natural in that.
-Look what? -(laughter)
(laughs): You look strangely natural in that.
JACK: Home movies.
Does that thing record your voice, too?
-WOMAN: Mm-hmm. -(gasps)
JACK: Ideas for films.
I’ve wanted to tell a story about acting
for a very long time.
About the place where you end
and the character begins.
About truth and illusion.
Now that it’s more difficult to speak,
I want to tell my story more than ever.
A story about my life...
...that is also not my life.
It’s like I’ve lived my life
and
it’s sort of
all in these boxes,
but what
is part of the
profound sadness
is that
I know it’s incomplete.
As much as I’ve
filmed and as hard as I’ve tried,
there’s nothing I can do
to make
any of it understood.
I know that
that’s not true,
but it’s how I feel.
♪ Show me the way ♪
-♪ To go home ♪ -♪ Home ♪
♪ I’m tired and I want to go to bed ♪
♪ Go to bed ♪
♪ I had a little drink ♪
♪ About an hour ago ♪
♪ And it’s gone right to my head. ♪
Hey, there, you come to see the boating accident?
(gasps)
This was no boating accident.
I know you want this fish dead.
And I’ll find him. And I’ll kill him.
But not for no measly $3,000.
I’ll find him for three, but I’ll kill him for ten.
$10,000?
Ten boxes of crackers.
JACK: Once upon a time, there were three brothers:
Wesley,
Mark
and me, Val.
Our father Eugene was an industrialist
and real estate developer.
He named his company Liberty Engineering
after the greatest large sculpture in America.
Our mother Gladys was a spiritual woman
who loved horses.
It was their shared devotion to Christian Science
that brought my parents together.
They raised us in Chatsworth, California,
deep in the San Fernando Valley,
adjacent to Hollywood, the movie capital of the world.
My younger brother Wesley was an aspiring director,
an artistic genius whose imagination dwarfed mine.
He spent most of his time making art...
...and remaking the films he loved most.
We lived down the street from Roy Rogers’ ranch,
and when it went up for sale in 1971,
my father bought it and moved us in.
Wesley turned the ranch into a full-on movie set.
Ha-ha! Push the button. (cackles)
With this rocket, I intend to cover the measured mile
in approximately 12 seconds.
(sinister laugh)
Activate the rocket.
JACK: I wanted to act early on.
♪ Merry Christmas, Uncle Scrooge ♪
♪ Humbug. ♪
JACK: My heroes were the greats... -Yeah?
...who trained on the stage and went on
to light up the screen.
Stella!
JACK: I remember the first time I made a real audience laugh.
(screaming)
-Don’t wake the bomb. -(audience laughing)
JACK: It was then and there that I realized
-there was nothing better. -That small bomb,
if it explodes, will blow up all of New York.
Also, Philadelphia and Boston.
JACK: And that was that.
Repeat after me:
-I... -AUDIENCE: I...
-am... -am...
-...listening! -...listening!
-I don’t believe it! -I don’t believe it!
This is the first time for Chatsworth.
(wild cheering, screaming)
JACK: If you believe in something enough,
it becomes real.
After years of dreaming about going to New York,
I was the youngest kid ever accepted
into drama school at Juilliard.
WOMAN: Mr. Kilmer, just... just what did you feel
at the time when they said
Tales from Chatsworth is the play?
VAL: All I felt was this numbing sensation
in my left ear saying, "We won!"
(laughter)
JACK: I was about to start school in New York
when I had a dream.
In it, I was talking to my high school girlfriend Mare
and her mom about death.
Her mom said it wasn’t something she feared
because it was where she would meet her creator.
I woke from that dream to a phone call
from my older brother Mark telling me that Wesley
had an epileptic fit and drowned in our Jacuzzi.
He was 15.
(train passing)
The sky wept.
No more home videos.
No more makeshift plays.
My confidant had disappeared into dust.
And our family was never the same again.
-(buoy bell clanging) -(seabirds calling)
(horns honking)
Hi.
I’m meeting the director of the drama division
to show my son the school.
JACK: When I finally started school,
I was raw with grief.
I put Wesley’s drawings up all over my apartment to help me.
Juilliard was tough.
The courses were rigorous, and it was made clear to us
on the first day, whatever we thought we knew was wrong.
JAMES LIPTON: When did you write a volume of poetry
called My Edens After Burns?
’87, ’88.
There’s a poem in here called "Acting Class."
VAL: "These acting scenes are death pennies
-"hanging over my head. -(laughter)
"But we’re all friends here, sitting in chairs
-"designed by Satan... -(laughter)
"a million miles away from this pontificator
juicing over the eternal springs of moment-to-moment acting."
(laughter, applause)
-She was so hard on us. -She was hard?
JACK: We were schooled in everything: Euripides,
Chekov, and Shakespeare, of course.
WOMAN: There you go, Val.
-Here’s your name. -(laughter)
Right under...
-Do you know who that is? -JACK: I do not, no.
That’s a famous actress,
Kelly McGillis.
-WOMAN: Does this look familiar? -VAL: It sure does.
-(laughs) -JACK: This is cool.
JACK: There was no playwriting program at the time,
which was odd, so we started one.
We wrote a play called How It All Began,
based on the memoir of Michael Baumann,
a former leftist German militant.
WOMAN: Well, now,
Michael Baumann will be able to tell his story.
JACK: The play was about terrorism,
a topic as relevant as ever today.
Before the Central Committee of the Roaming Hash Rebels
or anything like it existed, I was a perfectly normal person.
And then I got this feeling from it that’s like,
just like the Rolling Stones, like, you know,
it’s a downtowner!
JACK: We dreamed that play into existence
and I experienced the joy of performing my own words onstage.
-VAL: It’s-it’s abstract. -MAN: Abstract.
JACK: It was life-changing.
You can’t look at any one element in isolation
and say this is the only thing that’s true.
-(applause) -JACK: The play was such a success
that we were invited to perform it at the public theater
after graduation.
As the lead, it was my first step toward
becoming a young theater star in the city.
Here we are, filming ourselves.
The date is April 3, 1983.
JACK: Two years after graduation,
I get my first big break
on the New York stage in a play called Slab Boys.
But after being given the lead,
I was asked by the director if I would mind
playing the second lead because Kevin Bacon was available.
(knocking)
Come on, man.
Is that, uh, is that a video camera?
-WOMAN: It’s rolling, yeah. -Oh, that’s really cool, Val.
That... that is boss.
Do we have a television here?
JACK: Then I was asked to play the third lead
because Sean Penn was available.
BOTH: ♪ There’s a moon out tonight ♪
-(both vocalizing) -(laughter)
♪ That I adore. ♪
That’s gonna be worth some money.
Now, what I’d like you to do is when I leave,
I want you to get as close as you can.
You only have a couple of feet.
And zoom in on the box.
And then you’ll hear me say, "I’ll take a tea, please,"
onstage, while Mark and Cheryl, my brother and--
you know who you are-- well, they’ll be watching it.
-Bye. -(laughter over speaker)
-About to go onstage. -(chatter over speaker)
MAN: Val’s just about to make his entrance.
-Jack. -Hi, Archie.
-And this is Phil McCann. -Howdy, Andy.
And last but by all means least...
-(laughter) -Hector McKenzie...
JACK: I went from being the star of the play
to playing the character that was the butt of every joke.
It wasn’t an easy pill to swallow, but I did it.
-(cork pops) -MAN: Whoa!
JACK: It’s true that there are no small parts,
only small actors.
It’s also true that not all characters are created equal,
and it became clear to me that my mission should be
to chase down those roles that would transform me.
(horns honking)
I’m really determined to do Hamlet...
...by about 27, maybe 28.
I really am.
I’m gonna work on it very hard and be very dedicated to it,
just like a weekend camp counselor.
JACK: In Hamlet, Shakespeare suggests it’s the actor’s job
to hold a mirror up to nature.
To capture everlasting truth through an illusion.
What we strive for as actors is a performance so true
that the audience can see themselves in it.
Good, bad or ugly.
♪ ♪
Oh, that this too, too solid flesh would melt,
thaw...
and resolve itself into a dew.
Oh...
...that this too, too solid flesh would melt,
thaw...
...and resolve itself into a dew.
Oh...
...that this too, too solid flesh would melt,
thaw and resolve itself into a dew.
(grunts)
That this...
too, too solid flesh would melt,
thaw and resolve itself into a dew.
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
his canon ’gainst self-slaughter.
Oh, God.
God!
Your body was literally, uh, um,
responding to what was happening.
Turmoil was going on inside...
your head this time.
Um... why such an extreme response?
Uh, these words, when he says that,
"I don’t want to live anymore, I wish I was dead,"
I’ve-I’ve never thought those thoughts, really.
I’ve never-- and I took them to be true.
It’s not just like a...
"Fuck, I wish I was dead." Or, "I wish..."
KASS: There is no way, absolutely no way
you never thought those thoughts.
There is no way.
Every actor must finally accept that.
Well, yeah, in the context of what...
of the situation where the character expresses...
Yes, so you had those thoughts
even as this character expresses.
Yes, you’ve had these experiences.
Yes, you have had this response.
There are no limitations
to the actor’s capacity-- the creative capacity--
to have experienced even that which is not
a conscious experience in your life, and it’s for this reason
that I have held firmly to the belief
that there never is a need for substitution.
Because, "I never had this situation in my life.
I never experienced this."
There is nothing
that you have not experienced and known.
♪ Wop-bop-a-loo-bam, a-lop-bam-boom ♪
♪ Tutti frutti, oh, Rudy... ♪
JACK: I had been working hard building a career in theater
when Hollywood came calling.
I was cast in the movie Top Secret.
♪ Wop-bop-a-loo-bam, a-lop-bam-boom... ♪
JACK: Top Secret is an over-the-top,
rock musical, spy thriller parody.
To this day, I have trouble
explaining what the film is about.
I’m not the first guy who fell in love
with a girl he met in a restaurant,
who then turned out to be the daughter of
a kidnapped scientist, only to lose her
to a childhood lover who she’d last seen on a deserted island
and who turned out 15 years later
to be the leader of the French Underground.
I know. It...
It all sounds like some bad movie.
JACK: I approached the character the only way I knew how,
which was with everything I had.
♪ How silly can you get, yeah, yeah... ♪
I spent four months learning how to play the guitar,
but when I got to set,
the directors thought it would be funnier if I mimed.
They watched me make my fingers bleed
just to see the look on my face
when they told me, "We like it better
when you can’t play, like Elvis."
We filmed the movie in London,
but it was my initiation into Hollywood.
♪ Cross my heart... ♪
VAL: I miss London bad.
It’s just, you know,
the first big city I came to
after New York.
♪ ♪
JACK: While I was filming, I stayed in an apartment
just down the street from the famous Royal Court Theatre.
Great actors like Laurence Olivier
and Alec Guinness have graced that stage.
At the time, an unknown Danny Boyle
was directing a play there called The Genius,
and I went eager for some culture and inspiration.
I immediately fell in love
with a young actress in it named Joanne Whalley.
I watched her in that play more times than I’d like to admit.
And one night, I followed her and her cast mates
to a local pub, but I was too intimidated and shy
to introduce myself.
She was brilliant.
♪ And love me tonight... ♪
JACK: And I was in town making fluff.
(guitar crackling)
♪ ♪
("Top Gun Anthem" playing)
(radio host speaking indistinctly)
VAL: Fuck. This is our set.
Welcome aboard, actors.
♪ ♪
Here it goes. The rails are up.
(alarm blaring)
(mechanical whirring)
Rick.
And follow me.
("Films" by Gary Numan playing)
JACK: Believe it or not,
I didn’t want to do Top Gun at first.
I felt the script was silly,
and disliked warmongering in film.
(indistinct chatter)
But I was under contract with the studio,
so I didn’t really have a choice.
It was the director Tony Scott’s colorful vision
and energy that made the whole experience enjoyable.
It was hard not to be seduced by it.
♪ ♪
On the page, there was very little to the character Iceman.
♪ I don’t like the film, I don’t like the film... ♪
So I attempted to make him real.
♪ Play it all back, and I don’t like... ♪
I manifested a backstory for him
where he had a father who ignored him,
and as a result, was driven by the need
to be perfect in every way.
♪ But I like the actors... ♪
This obsession with perfection is what made him so arrogant.
That was great. That was a good shot.
JACK: I would purposely play up the rivalry
between Tom’s character and mine off-screen as well.
And what ended up happening is the actors,
in true Method fashion, split into two distinct camps.
You had Maverick and Goose on one side
and Slider, Hollywood, Wolfman and me, Iceman, on the other.
It was fun to play up the conflict between our characters,
but in reality, I’ve always thought of Tom as a friend,
and we’ve always supported each other.
-WOMAN: It was Val. -WOMAN: Val, that smelled great.
-Great. -VAL: Hey.
-Inserts. -(laughter)
Inserts can be valuable.
("I Got You Babe" by UB40 and Chrissie Hynde playing)
JACK: Each night after wrap, our camp would party hard
around San Diego.
♪ They say we’re young and we don’t know ♪
♪ We won’t find out until we grow... ♪
Kelly McGillis and I hardly spoke at Juilliard,
but because we had that experience in common,
we became fast friends on set.
♪ Baby, I got you... ♪
She and Barry Tubb, who played Wolfman,
fell in love during the film
and stayed happily together for some time.
♪ I got you, babe ♪
♪ I got flowers in the spring ♪
♪ I got you to wear my ring... ♪
MAN: Anthony Edwards,
star of Revenge of the Nerds!
I’m a nerd, and, uh,
I’m pretty proud of it.
JACK: We were all at the start of our careers,
with a film or two under our belts.
Haven’t you dicks got anything better to do?
CRUISE: There’s one thing I’ve learned
in all my years:
sometimes you got to say, "What the fuck?"
Come in for the close-up.
Val, it was a full-page ad yesterday.
Val, you have to get still approval next time.
Would you be prepared if gravity reversed itself?
♪ I got you, babe ♪
♪ I got you, babe... ♪
A surprise leader in the summer movie sweepstakes...
-Top Gun is a pop gun. -When it kicked in its burners,
the box office went "pow!"
("Hot Stuff" by Donna Summer playing)
JACK: None of us knew at the time
what a crazy commercial success the film would be.
All of a sudden,
I was being catapulted into the celebrity stratosphere.
(excited chatter)
-(women screaming) -WOMAN: Val!
JACK: And for the rest of my life, I would be called "Iceman"
by every pilot at every airport I ever went to.
WOMAN: I love you, Val!
Want to say a few words to Cable News Network?
-Okay. -Sheryl, Val "Kilmeer."
-Val! Val! -We’ve got... We have him?
♪ Looking for some hot stuff, baby, this evening ♪
-(women screaming) -♪ I need some hot stuff ♪
-♪ Baby, tonight ♪ -(reporters clamoring)
♪ I want some hot stuff, baby, this evening ♪
♪ Got to have some hot stuff ♪
♪ Got to have some love tonight ♪
♪ Hot stuff ♪
♪ I need hot stuff ♪
(Jack laughing)
♪ I want some hot stuff ♪
Yeah?
♪ I need hot stuff ♪
What’s up?
(song stops abruptly)
So, as you have seen now several times,
I can’t speak without plugging this hole.
This is because
they put a piece of plastic
down my breathing tube,
which is also, as everyone knows,
where your food goes down,
and because the hole is so small,
you have to make a choice,
when you have this kind of problem, whether you
breathe or eat.
Obviously, if you can’t breathe, you can’t eat.
Shit!
Goddamn.
(bells jingling)
(jingling)
Oh, no, not...
Oh, Val, I’m not even ready, dressed.
WOMAN: She really looks great usually.
-Oh... come on. -You’ll notice later.
-MAN: I want my picture taken. -(gasps)
Please d... don’t, Val.
(laughing): Oh... don’t. Don’t, Val.
JACK: My mom filed for divorce when I was eight.
My father had several affairs,
and my mother finally left him because of it.
WOMAN: (laughs) She’s trying to hide.
JACK: My father used his power and money
to win custody of my brothers and I.
GLADYS: You can tell everybody it was...
(Swedish accent): it was the Swedish cooking.
JACK: Growing up, Mom was as enigmatic to me
as Ingrid Bergman,
who was also Swedish.
She was strong but aloof,
which made me seek out her approval and love even more.
GLADYS: Carla’s got eight grandkids.
And they’re all darling.
JACK: After the divorce, she moved to Wickenburg, Arizona,
and married Bill, the love of her life.
That’s not fair, Val Kilmer, you turkey.
(playing gentle song)
JACK: Bill was the life of the party,
who loved to drink till he slurred
and told dirty jokes that my mom loved to laugh at
and then would admonish with, "Oh, Bill."
(rattling)
Yeah, yeah, get it, get, get!
JACK: I didn’t take to him right off the bat.
I eventually came to recognize what a good soul he was.
(British accent): Hello.
I think I’ll have another Diet Coke.
(piano playing "Winter Wonderland")
JACK: My mother rarely shared her personal feelings,
but I always felt connected to her
through the faith that she passed on to me.
That faith has helped me weather
some of life’s most devastating hardships.
I used to hate the Valley with an absolute passion.
I hate it.
It’s so, uh--
it’s the rim of hell.
It’s where hell begins, right here.
If you look over the edge,
you can look down into hell.
I haven’t been out here in 15 years.
The last time I was out here was making
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with Robert Downey Jr.
That house was there,
but the rest of these houses weren’t here,
and my dad bought all the property
and
sold each one of the lots
so he could
decide who his neighbors were gonna be.
This is my old house.
The second house.
It’s full of death.
♪ ♪
JACK: Dad blamed himself for Wesley’s death.
Wesley was under his care, and he wasn’t as strict
as he probably should have been
about making him take his epilepsy pills.
Moses and his band of faithful followers.
We’re coming to the promised land.
That’s over Jordan and beyond the Red Sea.
♪ Look over Jordan ♪
-♪ And what did I see ♪ -Just outside of Egypt.
♪ Coming for to carry me home? ♪
♪ ♪
JACK: After Wesley died, all of my father’s charisma vanished,
and he became a detached and vacant version of himself.
VAL: What you thinking about?
I’m thinking about how nice it is to be away from
the civilization called Los Angeles.
Life seems to have more meaning out here
if you can just get connected to it, huh?
JACK: His finances had also taken a turn for the worse.
But he was unwilling to give up his dream:
becoming one of California’s biggest land barons.
So he asked for my help.
After starring in a few films, I’d begun to make my own money
and was asked to cosign on his loans.
That’s our property line right there?
MAN: Yeah, that’s the property. This is lot number three.
JACK: I wanted to be a good son to him
and agreed without much hesitation.
VAL: My father bought all of this.
All of this.
EUGENE: Come over, Val, so we can show you...
-VAL: Okay. -...what we’re doing here.
Good deal.
EUGENE: So, we’re coming here with a ten-foot...
JACK: I gave my father power of attorney,
and he put my name on over 20 phantom companies
that were shells in order to avoid taxes.
He hoped it would work out, but when it didn’t,
I had to make a choice:
sue my own father
or write a check for everything I had.
I wrote the check and got back to work.
(thunder rumbling)
Whoa.
(thunder rumbling)
What are you staring at?
("Look at What the Light Did Now" by Little Wings playing)
(indistinct chatter)
JACK: A few years after first seeing her perform in London,
fate miraculously cast Joanne Whalley and I together
in the movie Willow.
I fell in love with her all over again.
♪ Hear it like a pounce upon a peak, oh ♪
♪ Look at what the light did now ♪
♪ Bear it like a bounce upon the beak, oh... ♪
(whispers): Help!
(lively chatter)
♪ Land and water and bird... ♪
MAN: Uh, it’s too late.
It’s too late to stop now, Val.
-No, I-I’m fine. -WOMAN: All right.
WOMAN 2: You having fun?
-(mouthing) -(laughs)
♪ Look at what the light did now... ♪
-(camera clicks) -(woman laughs)
It’s too late, Val.
♪ Look at what the light did now... ♪
JACK: My father was born in Texas,
but raised on Native American land in New Mexico.
When we were kids, he brought my brothers and I there
to visit my grandfather’s grave.
That day, something deep in my spirit awoke
and New Mexico became home to me.
Joanne agreed to make it hers as well,
and we decided to build a beautiful life there together.
(Southern accent): This is the reason I’m here,
-and it’s the reason you’re here. -MAN: What?
My daddy, Gene Kilmer.
He spawned me now some 28 years ago.
-Yeah, about that. -Mm-hmm.
(normal voice): Well, we’re gonna go cut the cake, Pop.
Okay, I’ll be with you.
(guitar playing "Love")
ANDY and DAVID WILLIAMS: ♪ Love is touch ♪
(laughing)
♪ Touch is love ♪
♪ Love is reaching ♪
♪ Reaching love ♪
♪ Love is needing ♪
♪ To be loved. ♪
(playing hard rock music)
(Jack groans, laughs)
Okay.
(playing hard rock music)
♪ ♪
(gun racks)
He’s freaked out and he said he saw the bogeyman, okay?
So I took it away for him. That’s all.
I took it away.
That’s all I’m saying.
(gunshot)
JACK: Though I had starred in a few films,
I was hardly walking in Brando’s footsteps.
The best character roles were few and far between.
(gunfire)
So I’d go out of my way to make audition tapes
for directors that I wanted to work with,
for roles that I wanted to play.
Marines are not allowed to die without permission.
’Cause we are...
...government property.
JACK: I made multiple tapes for Stanley Kubrick
when I heard he was making Full Metal Jacket.
I’m gonna give you about four takes
with some different voices.
(exhales)
I sure do like shooting people.
(voice lower): I sure do like shooting people.
(laughs softly)
(Southern accent): I sure do like shooting people.
I sure do like killing people.
JACK: I even flew 6,000 miles to hand-deliver it in person.
I’m in England now for a couple of days because I made
a film here last year and I still have a ticket back.
And I thought that I would come by and...
...see how you felt about this.
JACK: I also made a film for Martin Scorsese,
where I played Henry Hill around the time of Goodfellas.
VAL: The feds spent so much money to hook me.
They had wiretaps, surveillance, helicopters.
They had a list a mile long for him.
I had a lot of money out on the street to collect,
several scores to wrap up.
I mean, I was really scrambling the last days there.
It was very dangerous.
JACK: Those attempts didn’t work.
But when I heard they were making a Doors movie,
not playing Jim was not an option.
Snow peas, righteous.
(echoing): ♪ Give us a creed to believe ♪
♪ A night of lust, give us trust in the night... ♪
JACK: I made an audition tape where I sang the songs myself.
("Hour for Magic" playing)
♪ Give of color, hundred hues ♪
♪ A rich mandala for me and you... ♪
JACK: The tape impressed the producers, and I was given
the character that I would live in for the next year of my life.
MAN: Background action.
-Come on! -Come on, man. This isn’t our scene, man.
These people are vampires. Come on, man.
It’s the four of us tonight.
Make the myths, man. Come on.
-Come on. -Hey, don’t leave.
Come on, don’t let me down.
I don’t know what’ll happen tonight.
Might be death.
JACK: I would watch videos to study Jim’s movements...
("Five to One" by The Doors playing)
(cheering and applause)
...and memorize them so the way he moved
was the way I moved at all times.
♪ Five to one, baby ♪
♪ One in five ♪
♪ No one here gets out alive, now ♪
♪ You get yours, baby ♪
♪ I’ll get mine ♪
♪ Gonna make it, baby, if we try ♪
♪ Yeah. ♪
♪ ♪
JACK: He wore these leather pants for years,
so I wore them as long as I could,
which was about a year.
For Joanne, my wife, it was total hell.
Home was just another place to rehearse.
(Joanne clears throat)
("Break on Through (To the Other Side)" by The Doors playing)
She tried to be supportive, but
also just the music
over and over and over again.
♪ Country in your eyes ♪
♪ Arms that chain us, eyes that lie ♪
♪ Break on through to the other side... ♪
(instruments warming up)
Jim had this aspiration to
capture this
fleeting
ethereal truth.
("The End" by The Doors playing)
I think it’s Yeats who said,
I’m paraphrasing, but
the idea is
you see a tree and you observe a truth
about the tree.
JACK: You see a tree,
and you observe a truth about the tree.
VAL: And you’re hit with it...
JACK: And you’re hit with it...
VAL: ...the magic of the tree.
JACK: ...the magic of the tree.
It’s a spiritual thing
beyond the physical life-form of the tree.
So, then you write and write
and write about the form of the tree
and the life of the tree and the spirit of it...
...till your own personality is gone from the words.
♪ This is the end ♪
♪ Beautiful friend ♪
JACK: And when you’re gone from the poem,
then it’s a poem.
♪ This is the end ♪
♪ My only friend ♪
♪ The end ♪
♪ It hurts to set you free ♪
♪ But you’ll never follow me... ♪
JACK: Part of you disappears
so that you can dance with the spirit
of something else.
("Not to Touch the Earth" by The Doors playing)
♪ Not to touch the earth ♪
♪ Not to see the sun ♪
♪ Nothing left to do but run, run, run ♪
♪ Let’s run ♪
♪ House upon the hill ♪
♪ Moon is lying still ♪
♪ Shadows of the trees ♪
♪ Witnessing the wild breeze ♪
♪ Come on, baby, run with me ♪
♪ Let’s run ♪
(shouts)
♪ Some outlaws lived ♪
♪ By the side of a lake ♪
♪ The minister’s daughter’s in love with the snake ♪
♪ Who lives in a well by the side of the road ♪
♪ Wake up, girl ♪
♪ We’re almost home, yeah ♪
♪ I will get you ♪
♪ Soon ♪
♪ Soon, soon ♪
(cheering and applause)
♪ I am the Lizard King ♪
♪ I can do anything. ♪
(cheering and applause continue)
WOMAN: Or we could do one.
(man laughs)
I see this
hole in my throat
and I wonder
whether people wonder
if I’ve had any fear of dying.
Because I obviously
am
sounding
much worse than I feel.
But it’s an obstacle obviously that
is, uh,
very present with whoever sees me.
And
I have had fears
but none that have ever
been overwhelming
about my life,
because I
don’t believe in death,
and my whole life I’ve
tried to see the world
as one
piece of life.
That’s how I understand it right;
when you pull back
from the planet, you see that
we’re all one
life source.
♪ ♪
(line ringing)
MERCEDES (over phone): Hello?
-Hi, sweetheart. -Hey.
You’re not quite ready yet.
Almost. (chuckles)
Okay.
I’m going to come...
I’m going to come over to you, right?
-Pick you up? -Okay.
-All right. -Bye.
♪ ♪
JOANNE: It’s a peach.
It’s a peachy little bum.
What did you do? It’s all over your belly.
You dirty mate. Look.
Oh, my God.
-You think you’re funny, don’t you? -(Val laughs)
-Well, let’s get this off, as well. -VAL: Ew.
JOANNE: Ew.
VAL: Mercedes’ first over the shoulder.
(Mercedes babbles)
(TV playing indistinctly)
(whispers)
Don’t wake the child.
(vocalizing)
(Joanne laughs)
Yeah, you can do it.
(laughs)
We’re just one big happy family, aren’t we, honey?
One small happy family.
♪ ♪
-My trailer. -VAL: You’ve arrived.
You’re a... you’re a pro.
In close.
Who’s the real...?
VAL: See, what a historian would say during the credits,
if you don’t show a picture of Wyatt Earp, it’s what?
This Wyatt Earp or this Wyatt Earp?
Which one is Memorex?
You be the judge. (chuckles)
You’re out of focus. You can’t get that close.
(chuckles): Do you have a macro lens on that thing?
-Listen, conk. -(chuckles)
-Listen, conky. -I’ve been conked.
-(laughter) -VAL: Lot of love on this location.
Lot of love in these tumbleweeds.
POWERS BOOTHE: It’s an extremely unusual experience.
It’s one we used to talk about
in the theater, that you really want
an ensemble feeling and all those things
that are rarely, if ever, achieved.
-KURT RUSSELL: Are you filming? Stay filming. -VAL: Uh-huh.
-Whoa! -(laughing)
Doctor’s in.
-I’ll be your huckleberry. -(gunshot)
JACK: Doc Holliday was a highly educated aristocrat
and-and a dentist.
Really?
(chuckles)
-MAN: Roll, Liz. -We’re rolling.
JACK: He was also dying of tuberculosis
and lost everything, including his practice, because of it.
Tough roles are when the writing’s not good,
and the writing was good.
Doc Holliday’s a very well-written character.
Five hundred.
Must be a peach of a hand.
So it was just a pleasure, but it’s all...
it’s in the writing.
JACK: I saw Tombstone as a love story between two men.
In the final scene, Doc, who’s dying,
tries to get Wyatt to leave him and go live his life.
I got the art department to fill my bed with ice
so I could lay on top of it.
I wanted to create a pain for myself equal to the pain
Doc must have felt in saying goodbye.
It was the best way I could come up with
to do justice to their beautiful friendship.
(quietly): Live, Wyatt.
Live for me.
Wyatt, if you ever were my friend,
if you ever had even the slightest feeling for me,
leave now.
Leave now.
Please.
♪ ♪
(indistinct chatter)
(chuckles)
-You want to throw a tomahawk? -Sure, why not?
Come on.
-Hey! -(laughs)
-Ready. -(laughter)
(cheering and applause)
♪ Have you got a nickel? ’Cause I got a dime ♪
♪ Let’s get together and drink... ♪
WOMAN: I’ll take a photo for you.
Oh, I got it. Ready to do this?
WOMAN 2: Yeah, you can go on in. What’s your name?
-MAN: Steve. -WOMAN 2: Steve. Oh, I got it. There we go.
Steve, this is Val.
Holy cow.
-This is for you. -Howdy.
-STEVE: How you doing? -Not bad.
-Hop in there. I’ll get your photo. -STEVE: All right.
I enjoy your films.
Thank you so much.
Thunderheart.
Yeah.
(man chuckles)
Thank you very much, sir.
We’re nerds, so we play Magic: The Gathering.
It’s a card game.
-So we made that for you. -Thank you.
There’s a Bible verse on the back there for you.
Fantastic.
Val Kilmer "Chosen by God."
MAN: Thank you very much, sir.
WOMAN: One, two, three.
(indistinct chatter)
He blew my mind in South India.
-Val gets around. -MAN: Yeah, man.
I blew his mind in South India.
WOMAN: Who’s next?
EMCEE: Val Kilmer is here, and we’re gonna watch Tombstone
-on this screen. -(crowd cheering)
VAL: I always love it here
in Texas because
my father was born here.
(cheering)
Even though he passed on,
I always feel close by when I come to Texas.
-(cheering) -And, um...
and, um,
I’m having such a great time here.
I’d like to thank everybody for
-putting on such a great show. -(cheering)
EMCEE: Ladies and gentlemen, Val Kilmer is here with us
for Tombstone in a Western town!
(cheering)
-(Tombstone score playing) -(hoofbeats rumbling)
♪ ♪
VAL: Sometimes
I feel so low and I have the blues
really, really hard
about having to,
you know, fly around the country.
I don’t look great and
I’m selling basically my old self, my old career.
For many people,
it’s like the lowest thing you can do is
talk about your old pictures and sell photographs of...
of when you were Batman or
the Terminator.
I don’t want to insult any of the other actors
that fly around the world.
-(Doc Holliday coughing) -(cheering)
(toy cap guns popping)
Five hundred.
Must be a peach of a hand.
VAL: But it enables me to
meet my fans and...
and what ends up happening is
I feel really grateful rather than humiliated
because there’s so many people.
ED BAILEY: Come on.
-Come on, show. -(Doc Holliday coughs)
Is everybody paying attention?
I will help you solve the greatest riddle of all.
The mother of all riddles.
Who is... Batman?
(distorted upbeat music playing)
VAL: You see him?
-MAN: See? -Yeah.
-MAN: Oh. -VAL: Whew. -MAN 2: He’s pissed.
-MAN: Fuck, look at that head, eh? -VAL: Yeah.
JACK: I was in Africa when I got a call from my agent,
who had been frantically trying to get ahold of me.
He asked me how I’d feel about being the next Batman.
(Batman Forever score playing)
I was in shock and disbelief,
mostly because I had just been exploring a remote bat cave
and that’s why I was so hard to reach.
(bats squeaking)
It was a sign.
♪ ♪
Every boy dreams of being Batman.
Batman is a superhero without any superpowers.
Just a normal guy.
Some days, you just can’t get rid of a bomb.
JACK: But he does incredible things
using his own intelligence
and the amazing gadgets he invents.
Every boy dreams of being Batman
because it actually is possible to be him.
When I was in second grade,
our family was invited to the set of the Batman TV show.
To this day, one of my dearest memories
is that of my father lifting me into the Batmobile.
By Hollywood standards,
Batman is the ultimate leading role
and a dream come true.
I took the part without even reading the script.
-(whooshing) -NEWSMAN: Michael Keaton has moved on.
Val Kilmer has moved into the rubber body armor of Batman.
MAN: Mark.
JACK: But whatever boyish excitement I had going in
was crushed by the reality of the Batsuit.
When you’re in it, you can barely move
and people have to help you stand up and sit down.
Poor Val would have to put the mask on
and couldn’t hear when he had it on
and couldn’t breathe properly.
JACK: You also can’t hear anything.
And after a while, people stop talking to you.
It’s very isolating.
Do about an hour of acting, and then you fall down...
(chuckles): hyperventilate and need oxygen and water.
JACK: It was a struggle for me
to get a performance past the suit,
and it was frustrating until I realized that my role
in the film was just to show up and stand where I was told to.
VAL: Actors like Tommy Lee Jones...
Ha! Our kind of day.
...had designed this whole performance,
and so had Jim Carrey.
Riddle me this, riddle me that.
Was that over-the-top? I can never tell.
(cackling)
It was just so huge.
I think it made no difference what I was doing.
I tried to be like an
actor on a soap opera.
The way I would turn to Nicole.
Bat-Signal is not a beeper.
Well, I wish I could say that my interest in you was
purely professional.
Go count how many times
I put my hands on my hips.
I don’t know how they come up with this
style of acting,
but they seem to go...
go to soap opera school.
"Why, why, why would you say that?"
JACK: The day I wrapped Batman,
I jumped in the car and went immediately to the set of Heat.
(gunfire)
Compared to the massive production of Batman,
Heat felt like an indie film.
Working with Al Pacino,
Robert De Niro
and director Michael Mann was pure joy.
Remember Jimmy MacAwain on the yard used to say,
"You want to be making moves on the street?
"Have no attachments.
"Allow nothing to be in your life
"that you cannot walk out on in 30 seconds flat
if you spot the heat around the corner."
Remember that?
For me, the sun rises and sets with her, man.
(applause)
Well, let’s talk about Batman now.
Now, this is kind of neat. You’re playing Batman.
NEWSWOMAN: Batman became the number one movie of the year
with $183 million.
NEWSWOMAN 2: Val Kilmer is Batman.
Most of the time, all you see is his lips,
so who would know anyway?
Hot entrance.
JACK: Batman Forever got mixed reviews
but was a commercial success.
They wanted to start the next one immediately.
I turned it down.
I was already committed to The Saint,
a remake of a British spy thriller series
where I’d get to play a character who dons
multiple personas and disguises.
It was like ten roles in one, and I wanted to do that more.
VAL: What’s that I see, Jack?
Batmobile!
-Is that mine, Daddy? -Yeah!
(chuckles)
VAL: Ready?
Are you all ready, Batman?
-(revving sounds) -Quick, turn left.
That’s this way. Turn, turn.
JACK: Yes, every boy wants to be Batman.
They actually want to be him.
They don’t necessarily want to play him in a movie.
(indistinct chatter)
-Val, Val, Val, Val, Val. -Val, Val, Val, Val Kilmer.
Is it possible to write "You can be my wingman" on there?
Sorry, can you put "Iceman" on that one?
Would you write "You can be my wingman"?
"You can be my wingman" on this one.
Can you put "Iceman" on it as well, please, Val?
Can you put "You can be my wingman anytime"
and then "Val Kilmer, Iceman"?
I wanna take a break.
You want to take a break anyway? Okay.
-Yeah, my stomach... -Okay, okay. All right. Let me--
-Hey, Kim? -Yep.
Can we just finish these last few people?
Want to lock it down, if they would--
Yaseem, tell them to hold the people.
Hold the people. Thank you.
Okay.
-I wanna lay down. -Okay.
-Thank you. -MAN: Hey, thank you so much.
So, Val, what do you want to do with that guy’s autos?
(indistinct chatter)
♪ ♪
(indistinct chatter)
♪ ♪
(film popping)
WESLEY: Testing for Fatman.
(vocalizing theme music)
(vocalizing continues)
♪ Fatman... ♪
Wes Kilmer-- coming in the famous actor’s home.
Wes Kilmer, KBIC News.
Goodbye.
Look, there’s a fence! How we gonna get out?!
Ha-ha. Push the button.
-Okay. -(cackling)
(engine revving)
♪ ♪
He’s back, he’s back.
MAN: Cheer for Val Kilmer, please!
(cheering)
I’ll take that ticket, and then you move right down.
-Hope you’re feeling better. -Oh, he chose blue.
Thank you.
MAN: Thanks, Val. Much appreciated.
Thanks for coming back.
-Thank you, sir. -Very good of you.
-You take care. -Thank you.
WOMAN: Thank you.
You’re an amazing Batman.
Thank you very much. Really appreciate it.
-MAN: Okay. -WOMAN: Thank you very much.
I’m glad you’re feeling better.
WOMAN: I love you.
Last call for Val autographs!
YOUNG MERCEDES: Hi, Daddy.
(engine rumbling in distance)
Hello, Mercedes.
We were talking about things that are scary,
and you said the only things that you were afraid of
were your dreams.
♪ ♪
Not many things scare me.
But one thing kind of is, um...
Scary.
It’s not exactly scary
but one thing that I’m concerned about.
I’m concerned
about making a really beautiful home
for you and Jack
in New Mexico.
There’s the river.
It’s beautiful this morning.
(wind whooshing)
♪ Me and my shadow ♪
(Mercedes panting)
♪ Love you more than life. ♪
Jezebel likes carrots a whole lot more than James Brown.
And...
sometimes not-- I’m not afraid...
...but close to being afraid
of when I’m standing on a high cliff
that I might fall.
(laughing)
♪ So I walk up on high ♪
♪ And I step to the edge ♪
♪ To see my world below... ♪
VAL: Marlon gets to video.
I’m gonna video.
♪ While the tears roll down ♪
♪ ’Cause it’s the world I know, oh ♪
VAL: ♪ It’s the world that I know. ♪
WOMAN: Is that one of those brand-new ones?
-Nice ones? -VAL: Yeah, it’s one of the brand-new ones.
If you could all just scooch in a little.
MAN: Okay, thanks. If we can clear the frame please.
-Umbrellas out. -Wait, wait, wait.
MAN: Want everybody that’s not in costume off the set.
Let’s all, let’s all kiss.
JACK: The Island of Dr. Moreau was my chance
to finally work with Marlon Brando.
The movie was doomed from the start.
Our first director, Richard Stanley, who was talented
but had never directed anything of this scale,
was replaced after he started shooting
by the experienced John Frankenheimer.
Frankenheimer, tasked with getting a production
already weeks behind under control,
was intent on finishing the film as quickly as possible,
and was unwilling to take the time
to explore Marlon’s ideas.
When this became clear to Marlon, he stopped trying
to inject his own genius into the film.
This was devastating to me.
VAL: That’s not Marlon.
WOMAN: He’s not coming in today.
VAL: Did anybody tell you that Marlon wasn’t
-working today, David? -No.
-No one told me, either. -You don’t notice.
-Can you tell it’s not him? -What?
-Can you tell it’s not him? -No, you can’t even tell,
to quote John Frankenheimer. What’s the problem?
-You can’t even tell. -This guy’s exactly like him.
VAL: What’s your name?
-Norm. -Norm.
You’re rockin’, Norm.
(quietly): Marlon Brando’s played by Norm.
-(gunshot) -Back! Back!
WOMAN: No! Douglas, no!
No! No!
MAN: He won’t hurt us.
VAL: Can I help you in any way?
Um...
Maybe if I acted better?
No, that’s not it.
Okay. Let me know
if there is anything I can do for you.
-The writing. -Writing.
Should we get together and write?
Sophie, was I smoking in this?
Get those umbrellas out of there.
-Let’s go! Roll! -Roll?
What do you need? Tell me what you--
Speak English. Go.
MAN: Right. He won’t let me get in.
-BILL: You want shoes for the cast? -Yes.
I have no shoes on.
Very observant of you. This is blue.
-Remember, I saw that. -I’m right over there.
Thanks for your-your concern, Bill.
Have we discussed the blocking or what happens in this scene?
-No. -No. Did you say "no"?
-No. -Yeah. Thank you.
JACK: The chance to make a great film
with my hero, slipping away.
And on top of everything,
the strain of our careers and too much time apart
had taken its toll on my marriage,
and I was served divorce papers on set.
You know, John Frankenheimer can say "action" and "cut"
all day long, and it will never make him a director.
(man laughs)
Action.
(indistinct chatter)
JOHN FRANKENHEIMER: Okay. Uh, this has just gone too far.
I can’t do it.
If we’re going to work this way.
Shut the video camera off.
VAL: Are we rehearsing?
JOHN: We are about to rehearse.
Would you please shut the video camera off?
VAL: No, because I’m in a highly emotional state,
because you said earlier to David and I
you were going to leave this movie.
JOHN: If this continues, I will not...
I do not see how I could function under these conditions.
I’m supposed to be doing creative work
and this is not conducive to creating a good scene.
VAL: Well...
can I have a minute, because I’m in an emotional state
and I won’t be able to read my lines.
JOHN: By all means, please have a minute.
I’ll tell you what. When you guys are ready to rehearse...
VAL: I’m ready to rehearse right now.
JOHN: Shut the video camera off?
VAL: I need a witness because of things you’ve said.
JOHN: Things that I’ve said?
VAL: Yeah.
You’ve debated in front of your two lead actors
on whether you will continue to direct this film.
That puts me in a state of mind
not conducive to creating.
JOHN: Please shut the video camera off.
VAL: I will keep it on until we’re rehearsing.
(indistinct chatter)
VAL: ¿Donde esta Marlon?
Uh, he’s around the corner.
VAL: Thanks.
(laughs): What’s your earliest childhood memory?
(Val laughing)
Gimme a shove.
Can you-- Do you have memories from before you could speak?
Big, big, big shove.
Yeah. That’s good.
Ah, there we are.
This is a nice fade-out.
(descending whistle)
VAL: I have a legal right to have my children
and use my best discretion.
Uh, we don’t have anything written in the agreement,
and I don’t remember saying that anyway.
If that’s what the court order says,
then that’s what I’ll do.
♪ ♪
Well, the-- that happens every single time
we don’t make separate time and agree about the time.
I’m not saying you did it.
I’m saying we cannot do a schedule in front of them.
And if you’re willing to do that,
you’re willing to experience conflict like you had.
I’m not willing to experience it in my home
or in your home.
I’m not blowing off steam. I’m speaking directly
to the children’s best interest, which is the quality of time
that they have with both parents.
If you’re unwilling to negotiate with me,
then we have to negotiate with someone else.
I’ll lodge a legal complaint with the sheriff’s department
since we can’t go through the court
’cause it’s the holidays and no one’s there,
that you’re unwilling to negotiate with me,
and someone else has to do it.
And I’ll check out what... what I have to do.
If I have to legally bring them back by 6:00,
then I’ll try to legally, just like I did 15 times
in the last two years...
(line clicking)
Enough!
Good morning.
Hi, Jack. Hi, Mercedes.
Happy Easter from New Mexico.
Look what I found...
in a cactus.
What a clever Easter Bunny.
A beanbag duck?
What are you doing in New Mexico?
Oh, there’s another one.
(high-pitched voice): My name is Pinky.
(normal voice): Hi, Pinky.
Will you come with us to California?
There’s the river.
It’s beautiful this morning.
Wish you were here.
(soft rock music playing quietly)
It’s really interesting in acting,
where you do so many things that are...
very final about your personal life.
There’s no turning back.
You say yes and agree to do a film,
then it’s-it’s a-- what they call a "pay-or-play contract,"
and a lot of them have been lawsuits through the years.
They become final if you verbally agree.
And, uh...
...it’s your, uh...
actual life that you’re agreeing to...
...forfeit.
It’s one of the things that they buy for all that money.
They-they actually buy your...
life for a period of time.
Your experience, your opinions, your...
...soul in a way.
The Indians thought that-that a photograph
or the image took away...
the soul, and it’s...
...it sometimes feels like that.
♪ ♪
NEWSWOMAN: All these stories about
how tough Val Kilmer, who pulled out of Batman,
is to work with.
(crowd shouting)
OPRAH WINFREY: Spoiled and immature,
a perfectionist obsessed with detail.
Stop it. Stop!
-Let that man alone! -DAVID LETTERMAN: I’m guessing
that probably not much of those things are true.
-None that I heard of. -Yeah.
LARRY KING: You’re not difficult
-to work with? -No, I care very much about
telling the story well.
I’m frustrated because what I have to do isn’t getting filmed
’cause the director isn’t able to bring it out.
Not very long ago, it mattered if you knew how to act.
MAN: Smile through it, Val. Smile through it, Val.
VAL: Now it actually is a deterrent.
Yeah, if you know how to act,
you know, you-you know, you-you could be a problem actor.
Is there a problem?
-Yeah. There’s a problem. -(laughter)
You, ’cause you’re dangerous.
You are a perfectionist.
You are an intense individual, would you not say?
Val is his own man. You understand?
VAL: The only thing that I’ve obligated myself to
is to be, uh, the best
actor that I can be.
I didn’t want to address also being a politician.
You don’t turn down Batman.
You know, you don’t.
Val is a puzzle inside
a mystery wrapped in an enigma.
He sees deeply.
I think he was always right, and sometimes it’s convoluted.
(yelling)
Like, here it goes again.
Here’s that thing. You’re the difficult guy.
No, he’s not.
(applause)
MAN (over P.A.): Now collecting one through 15 general boarding.
Keep in mind that you are going to preboard the aircraft...
MAN (over P.A.): ...service to Oakland.
My name is Matt. I’ll be your operations agent this afternoon.
Want to welcome you to start lining up now, please.
A1 through 30 on your left. A31 through 60 on your right.
If you have a boarding pass with a B or C,
please stay seated until I make that announcement.
The reason I’m wearing an AZ hat
is that
I’m going to Arizona,
because
my mother passed on,
and
she, uh...
right now she doesn’t have anyone to cremate her.
(flagpole clanging)
(footsteps running)
Don’t... don’t get my dress. Don’t get me wet.
Val, stop it. Stop it!
Oh, Val.
That’s not funny. Look.
That’s not funny, and it’s not kind, and it’s not nice.
And it’s not environmentally friendly.
(chuckles)
Yo... you got me.
VAL: It glows in the dark.
It’s very pretty.
Awesome.
These ones or the big ones?
VAL: I like those with that dress.
Okay, time to go.
Okay, let me just do my eyelashes, then we can go.
♪ ♪
Hi, Val. (laughs)
I’m happy you’re here.
♪ ♪
(quiet chatter)
(barking)
(laughing)
Hey, boy. (kisses)
(laughs): There he goes.
♪ ♪
Val.
(dog barking)
Oh, lookee at you.
Lookee at you.
Oh, yeah.
(dog whines)
Hey, Val, here’s something for you.
This is for you.
Val.
(sighs): Oh, Val.
(dog barking)
No, no. Come here.
Come here. Sit. Sit.
See the camera?
VAL: I wrote something nice last night all about her style.
Her hairdo and her jewelry--
they always popped.
(sobbing softly)
♪ ♪
(wind whooshing)
(papers rustling)
I miss my mama.
But I had a vision
that she was so happy
with her youngest son.
The kind of acting that I’m really interested in,
I haven’t very-- I haven’t done very much of in movies.
So it’s a strange feeling, because I can’t really complain.
I’m very, very fortunate, and...
and, um, you... you can’t really discuss it
with other fellow actors,
because nobody has a job in acting, so you can’t...
you can’t, uh, complain about jobs
or, especially, successful jobs.
Then they just think you’re crazy or a pig or something.
-(quiet laughter) -So, uh,
it’s-it’s a difficult thing, uh, trying to reconcile.
And the business changes all the time, so...
But I-I don’t have the kind of doubts I did when I started.
And I’m in... I’m still interested
in pursuing acting, and it’s-it’s, uh,
fascinating studying people, but, uh,
I-I don’t think I would let myself
get as worked up as I used to.
♪ ♪
VAL: It’s very hard in the movie business
to do something different on any level
without being on your own.
And so that’s what happened to me.
I just ended up in sort of constant conflicts with people
that wanted me to do commercial work.
I was looking for a big American story to direct.
I came across
the story of Mark Twain and Mary Baker Eddy.
I spent ten years writing the screenplay on and off.
When I got close to finishing the script,
I felt I needed to understand the character
I was going to play in my movie.
I started writing a one-man play.
I play the character of Mark Twain,
who was arguably America’s greatest writer.
He was also the first stand-up comedian.
(Val imitates cow bellowing)
(cow bellows in distance)
(Val bellows)
(Val bellowing)
I speak cow.
It’s very hard to write a good movie,
and I’ve been trying to write a great movie.
Uh, I might even... I might even go further than that,
say I’m trying to write a classic.
JACK: In order to bring Twain to life onstage,
I needed money and a lot of it.
And at the time, I was in a lot of debt from the divorce,
and the economy had crashed.
The only thing I had of significant value
was the 6,000 acres of land I’d accumulated in New Mexico,
with the dream of one day building an artist community.
It was going to be my legacy
that I passed on to my children and their children.
I made the impossible choice
to sell the land that was so dear to me
in order to pay off my debts
and pursue the role I believed I was destined to play.
VAL (as Twain): If a man picks up a cat
by the tail, he learns something about life
that he cannot learn in any other way.
Man is the only animal that blushes,
or needs to.
Civilization is the limitless multiplication
of unnecessary necessities.
If you had to pick a narrator for the story of America,
you can’t name...
a more qualified man, because...
he really understood everything.
Please forgive me if you’re having trouble
(coughs) hearing me in the back.
I’m dead.
Please forgive me if you’re having trouble
hearing me in the back.
(coughs)
I’m dead.
("Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door" by Bob Dylan playing)
♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪
♪ Mama, take this badge off of me ♪
♪ I can’t use it anymore ♪
♪ It’s getting dark, too dark to see ♪
-All right. -♪ I feel I’m knockin’ ♪
♪ On heaven’s door ♪
"The secret source of humor ain’t joy but sorrow."
♪ On heaven’s door ♪
The secret source of humor is not
joy but sorrow.
There ain’t no laughter in heaven.
-Bang! -♪ Knock, knock, knockin’ ♪
♪ On heaven’s door ♪
♪ Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door... ♪
(cheering, applause)
Why is there no cat food that’s mouse-flavored?
(laughter)
You know the difference between
praying in the casino and praying in church, don’t you?
In the casino,
-they really mean it. -(laughter)
♪ Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door... ♪
(laughter)
What in the hell am I doing out here?
(laughter)
(normal voice): Twain lost his river.
I lost my river.
(as Twain): I took a measureless pride
in being a steamboat captain.
(normal voice): He lost his daughters.
I lost my brother.
(as Twain): I stopped writing
my autobiography that day.
(normal voice): Twain had to go on the road to pay his debts.
I’m on the road to pay my debts.
NEWSWOMAN: In a one-man show,
Kilmer takes on the life of Mark Twain.
VAL: I can probably self-finance the movie
in about three years of doing the play,
so I’m out on the road now.
(cheering)
Are you gonna bring it to New York, maybe Broadway?
Yes, yes. I’ve been meeting producers here,
-and, uh, I don’t have a... -Yes!
-Bring this to Broadway! -(cheering)
-I’ll do it! -Yes!
-I’ll do it here. -You must do it!
-(whoops) -♪ Knock, knock, knockin’... ♪
What’s the most important question in the world?
WOMAN: Why are we here?
’Cause you paid 70 bucks. I...
(laughter, applause)
(engine stops)
(as Twain): When I...
was away, uh, our youngest daughter,
our favorite daughter...
...Susy, died of a broken heart
because I was away too long touring to pay my debts
because of my folly.
And my wife took ill and she also passed.
I used my influence
to get our youngest daughter, Jean,
released from the sanatorium.
(smacks lips)
My poor Ophelia...
...drowned in a bathtub in 1909.
My poor Ophelia
drowned in a bathtub in 1909,
the last year I suffered Earth.
How do you heal a broken heart?
What are the words that heal a broken heart?
I know that’s not the most important question in the world,
but that’s the ball and chain around my memory tonight.
(bird calling in distance)
(siren wailing)
JACK: I was getting ready to put on Citizen Twain in Nashville
when I lost my voice.
I postponed the show for what I thought would be a month or two.
My voice didn’t get better.
It got worse, and one day I started coughing up blood
and was rushed to the hospital.
Through treatment and prayer, I slowly recovered,
but how much I would regain my voice remained unknown.
I wrestled with the possibility of my career being over,
and fell into darkness.
If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say
when you arrive at the pearly gates?
Well, I had this dream once.
And, uh...
this happened.
And she opened what would be her arms,
that feeling, and enveloped me and said, "I love you."
♪ ♪
JACK: In the hospital, I began to paint again.
The way we did when we were kids.
When I finally got out, I threw myself
into making art.
I found a studio big enough for my ideas.
That studio has become a sacred space
where artists gather and collaborate...
...and help the next generation of artists
in our community grow.
-(actors shouting) -Here on Earth,
the distance between heaven and hell
is the difference between faith and doubt.
I have no doubt, for example, my recent illness shut down
professional opportunities that were not opportunities at all.
Healing is not born of vanity.
It is born of honesty.
Honesty is born of pure love.
And love is the most divine healer,
the sweetest, holiest and most effective.
VAL: So we’re going out to Malibu
because of my wonderful little church,
and
my members there, I love them very much.
I’ve studied all the major religions.
I’ve always been interested in religions,
and
often when I meet someone,
I’ll end up talking about their faith.
I’ll ask them.
JACK: You okay?
(both laugh)
-I can’t help it. -That’s not funny.
I’m a bastard.
-Not funny. -And I love you.
Not funny.
It’s very, very funny.
Malibu, six miles.
Oh, look at the ocean.
What would happen if I went into this church service
and I came out speaking perfectly well?
WOMAN (over computer): Thanks be to God
which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our master fully and finally demonstrated divine science
in his victory over death and the grave.
It’s a very good lesson for me to study
about victory over the grave.
(as Twain): I think we got time for one more story, don’t we?
I’m gonna tell you one more story.
This is as humble as I’m willing to get.
♪ ♪
JACK: I’ve wanted to tell a story about acting
for a very long time.
About truth.
And illusion.
VAL (as Twain): My sermon’s gonna be about
truth and illusion.
JACK: The truth is,
in order to find each character,
I’ve had to put a little bit of me in them
and find a little bit of them in me.
I’ve lived in the illusion
almost as much as I’ve lived outside of it.
I have behaved poorly.
I have behaved bravely.
I have behaved bizarrely, to some.
I deny none of this and have no regrets because I’ve lost
and found parts of myself that I never knew existed.
And I am blessed.
♪ ♪
MAN: Action.
Let’s just say I was testing the bounds
of reality.
That’s all. I was curious.
Like Erich von Stroheim in the movies.
The man you love to hate.
It’s meant to be ironic,
like courage wants to laugh.
But essentially, it’s a stupid situation.
I go out onstage and howl for people.
O, vengeance!
-What an ass am I. -(laughter)
In me, they see exactly what they want to see.
Some say a lizard king,
whatever that means.
Some black-clad leather demon, whatever that means.
But really,
I see myself as a...
sensitive, intelligent human being...
...but with the soul of a clown.
(as Twain): Here’s what I preach.
Do what you love to do so well...
I’m thrilled. It excites me.
That’s why working here is so stimulating.
...that someone will pay you wages for it.
(laughter)
And then sometimes there is God so quickly.
Am I the conscience of America?
No, I leave that to my betters.
Perhaps I am the narrator.
Yes, that’s it.
All you need is ignorance and confidence,
-and success is sure. -(laughter)
Don’t let go of your illusions though.
When they are gone, you may still exist,
but you have ceased to live.
♪ One, two, three, four ♪
("I Am a Cinematographer" by Bonnie "Prince" Billy playing)
♪ I am a cinematographer ♪
♪ Oh, I am ♪
♪ A cinematographer ♪
♪ I am a cinematographer ♪
♪ And I walked away ♪
♪ From New York City ♪
♪ And I walked away from everything that’s good ♪
♪ And I walked away from everything I leaned on ♪
♪ Just to find ♪
♪ It was made of wood ♪
♪ Of wood ♪
♪ Wood ♪
♪ And I was a big old bear once ♪
♪ Oh, I was a big old bear once ♪
♪ Yeah, I was a big old bear once ♪
♪ And I walked away from California ♪
♪ And I walked away from everything that shone ♪
♪ And I walked away from everything ♪
♪ I lived for just to find ♪
-MAN: Action! -MAN 2: Running!
♪ Everything had grown ♪
♪ It had grown ♪
♪ Grown ♪
♪ And I am a cinematographer ♪
♪ I am a cinematographer ♪
♪ Oh, I am a cinematographer ♪
♪ I am a cinematographer ♪
♪ And if you were alone ♪
♪ You could walk away ♪
♪ From anywhere. ♪
Say adios.
-Adios. -Adios.
Vaya con dios.
-(laughs) -À bientôt.
-(both laugh)
Au revoir.
C’est la vie. Hasta mañana.