Val Kilmer may have disappeared from Hollywood for a while, but he’s back in a big way.
He’s got Top Gun: Maverick coming out his December 2020, a new autobiography out, and he was even recently interviewed by The New York Times .
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While speaking with them, he admitted something very surprising: he was never fond of playing Batman.
Say, whaaaat?
This is Val Kilmer.
You don’t hear much about the actor today, but back in the ’80s and ’90s, he was a huge movie star. And he’s basically loved by all now.
Most notably, he starred in Top Gun , Tombstone , and Heat .
He was also in one *Batman* movie during his career.
This was Batman Forever , which came out in 1995 and also starred Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, and Nicole Kidman.
The film was never highly-rated, as it only has 39 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
While most *Batman* actors go on to make several sequels in the franchise, that wasn’t the case for Val.
In a new interview with The New York Times , the actor revealed something very surprising: he wasn’t fond of playing the caped crusader.
Cue the gasps in the audience.
A huge reason for this happened when investor Warren Buffett visited the set of *Batman Forever* with his grandkids.
Instead of talking to Kilmer who was dressed in costume in anticipation of their visit, the kids were more interested in playing with props from the set.
“That’s why it’s so easy to have five or six Batmans,” Kilmer explained.
“It’s not about Batman. There is no Batman.”
While speaking to The New York Times , he also addressed the many rumors that he was difficult to work with on the set of the movie.
Some of these rumors included he complained often and made a lot of impossible demands.
Another was that he was rude to his co-stars and wouldn’t even make the effort to do small courtesies for others on set.
Hard to believe, to be honest.
The biggest burn, however, was when *Batman Forever* director, Joel Schumacher, called him “psychotic.”
While he also added that Kilmer was the “best Batman,” he also reminded the interviewer of an alleged incident of when Kilmer stubbed a cigarette out on a cameraman…
To this day, Kilmer denies that alleged incident, and continues to defend himself.
“What kind of person would singe a fellow worker he spends 15 hours a day with, often less than a foot apart? Madness,” he said.
“Everyone has to work out their own salvation,” Kilmer said about all these rumors that surround him.
“How to live and by what morality, and I found that the part that I feel bad about is hurting somebody in the process.”
In addition to his distaste for playing Batman, scheduling conflicts also stopped him from starring in *Batman* sequels.
When this happened due to his contract with The Saint , George Clooney stepped in to play the caped crusader for 1997’s Batman & Robin .
During the interview, his former “rivalry” with Tom Cruise was also mentioned.
For instance, he had a habit of talking about the Mission Impossible actor a lot during the ’90s.
“I have nothing against Tom Cruise, but he must have a large capacity to deal with the business side of movies,” he once told Details in 1995.
Kilmer had to swallow his pride when he heard that Tom was making a 2020 sequel to *Top Gun*.
In his new memoir, I’m Your Huckleberry , he revealed that he begged Cruise to play Lt. Tom “Iceman” Kazansky again.
“He was calling it Top Gun: Maverick. Well, Tom was Maverick, but Maverick’s nemesis was Iceman. The two went together like salt and pepper,” Kilmer wrote.
“It didn’t matter that the producers didn’t contact me. As the Temptations sang in the heyday of Motown soul, ‘ain’t too proud to beg.’”
“Tom and I took up where we left off. The reunion felt great,” he wrote.
In case you were hoping for some details on the movie, Val is saying absolutely nothing about it.
“As far as the film’s plot goes, I’m sworn to secrecy.”
The sequel, which is set to hit theaters on December 23, 2020, also stars Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Ed Harris, and Glen Powell.
For more of Kilmer, you can also check out his new autobiography, I’m Your Huckleberry .
h/t: The New York Times
