The 1980s director who called Val Kilmer “a deeply troubled man in need of psychiatric help”
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Sat 1 August 2026 21:15, UK
Actors can be difficult people, especially for directors to deal with, but rarely are they so difficult that their directors think they should be put into insane asylums, which is what happened with Joel Schumacher and Val Kilmer.
To say Kilmer was a challenging actor to work with would be like saying the Titanic had a ‘quite eventful’ trip to New York in 1912. When he died last year at 65, there were tributes galore from all over Hollywood, and plenty of praise for his acting talents, but unusually, there were also some dissenting voices, including those who publicly stated that he could be ‘an asshole’.
And that kind of ‘some good, some bad’ reflection was present in the people who had the pleasure or the misfortune to direct him in his wildest years, the 1980s and ‘90s, when he was one of the most in-demand movie stars on the planet, and frequently displayed the outlandish ego to go with that title. Throughout that period, Kilmer had starred and often stolen the show in several enormous blockbusters across genres.
Those included Top Gun, Tombstone, The Doors and Michael Mann’s 1995 masterpiece Heat. Mann was someone who appreciated Kilmer’s abilities, saying, “Val gives you nuance piled on nuance. I had a spectacular time working with him”. But the same year saw him step into Michael Keaton’s black rubber boots for the star-laden three-quel Batman Forever, and the director Schumacher told a very, very different story.
Schumacher didn’t go into the experience without his eyes wide open. He had been warned previously about Kilmer’s potential for on-set carnage, but had heard that about other very talented people, and believed he could tame him. That was a major mistake.
Not long after filming began, Kilmer, who had reportedly been ‘rude, inappropriate and irrational’, screamed at an assistant director and stormed into his trailer, closely followed by Schumacher. The director told him in no uncertain terms that he wouldn’t have his crew spoken to like that, resulting in Kilmer pushing him against the wall of the trailer, with Schumacher pushing him back.
That led to the star not speaking to Schumacher for two weeks of filming, which the director described as ‘bliss’. Although Schumacher would admit that Kilmer could on occasion be charming and seductive, he said those moments were few and far between, explaining not long after filming, “he isn’t just a high-strung, difficult actor. He’s a deeply troubled man in need of psychiatric help”.
Further reading: Cutting Room Floor
The director’s problems with his lead actor were far from the only issues he had to deal with on a set that was packed full of superstars, all on astronomical wages. Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones were also at it, with the elder actor openly telling Carrey upon first meeting that he hated him and his madcap antics, something Schumacher was appalled with Jones for doing.
Batman Forever made an enormous amount of money at the box office nonetheless, but Schumacher didn’t forget the experience of working with Kilmer in a hurry, and although he returned to helm Batman and Robin two years later, Kilmer did not, replaced as the ‘Caped Crusader’ by George Clooney.
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