Val Kilmer impressed his fans with his appearance in Top Gun: Maverick alongside Tom Cruise last year. He is still a popular celebrity who has worked with big names in the industry despite his infamous bad attitude. Due to his diva-like personality, he even earned a reputation for being difficult to work with thus earning quite a top spot in many celebrities’ bad’ lists.
It was his bad attitude that made a bad impression on his Batman Forever director, Joel Schumacher. The director was fed up with his personality that he didn’t hold himself to spilling behind-the-scenes actions that annoyed him.
The On-Set Tension Between Val Kilmer and Joel Schumacher
The late filmmaker, Joel Schumacher worked with Val Kilmer on the set of the 1995 film, Batman Forever. Both the duo could have become quite renowned pair which they eventually did but in quite a negative way. After working for some time on their project, it was clear that they were not appreciating each other’s presence.
Back in 1996, the former got into more behind-the-scenes tension and stated how the duo ended up having a “physical pushing match.”
He told EW at the time that their on-set tension happened due to his infamous awful attitude which ticked him off.
“He was being irrational and ballistic with the first AD, the cameraman, the costume people. He was badly behaved, he was rude and inappropriate.”
His continuous behavior eventually led Schumacher to explode as he stated,
“I was forced to tell him that this would not be tolerated for one more second. Then we had two weeks where he did not speak to me, but it was bliss.”
While things were bliss for him for some time, it was enough for him to get Kilmer on his bad list. He even shared his opinion on working with the actor again.
Joel Schumacher Talked About Not Wanting to Work With Val Kilmer Again
After getting a silent treatment for weeks from the 63-year-old Batman actor, the director felt relieved. But in a separate interview, he opened up about working with him again on any project, to which he responded,
“I’m tired of defending overpaid, overprivileged actors. I pray I don’t work with (Kilmer and Tommy Lee Jones Jones) again. It seems like three’s a crowd indeed.”
For the unversed, Tommy Lee Jones was also making noise at the time due to his awful behavior towards Jim Carrey which the director addressed at the time. He even mentioned that he was warned about The Prince of Egypt star’s behavior before the latter got booked for the role.
“I had heard horror stories about Val and was warned not to hire him. But I have heard that about many talented people, hired them anyway, and had no problems whatsoever.”
Source: EW
