(Credits: Far Out / Val Kilmer / Press)
Even though he had a reputation for being a deeply serious actor who also developed a habit of being difficult to work with, Val Kilmer excelled in comedy.
That was abundantly clear from his feature debut in 1984’s Top Secret!, which remains one of Hollywood’s most inspired and rewatchable spoofs. Another case in point is Shane Black’s razor-sharp Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, where Kilmer utilised his comic timing to excellent effect in one of his best-ever performances.
While stories abounded about Kilmer being an immersive, studios method actor, which was definitely true in cases like The Doors, Tombstone, and Heat, he knew how to have fun, one of the many juxtapositions that defined the career of a star who was often notoriously difficult to work with but remained respected by his peers, or at least the ones he didn’t piss off.
Outside of a self-aware cameo that traded on his Batman baggage in Kevin Smith’s Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, Kilmer’s last turn in an out-and-out comedy came when he played the villainous Dieter Von Cunth in the Saturday Night Live extension and perennial Christopher Nolan favourite MacGruber.
As can be implied by his character’s name, it wasn’t a particularly serious film. For instance, Von Cunth dies when he appears at the title hero’s wedding having previously severed his own handcuffed hand to escape certain demise, only to end up being thrown off a cliff, machine gunned into submission, blown up with a grenade and incinerated, all before Will Forte’s MacGruber pees on his corpse from a great height.
Needless to say, there wasn’t much off-limits. However, even Kilmer had to draw the line somewhere, and he definitely made the right decision after co-writer and director Jorma Taccone explained to Seth Meyers his original pitch for a scene that would have crossed the line between gross-out comedy and sheer disgust.
“There was one joke, though, that he refused to do,” the filmmaker admitted. “We did want to cut his penis off and shove it in his mouth. That was the one joke that he did not want to do.” Sure, he may have rubbed several directors and co-stars the wrong way over the years, but Kilmer was hardly being a prima donna when he objected to being force-fed his own disembodied genitals onscreen.
Comedy is entirely within its rights to push the boundaries of bad taste, but that would have been several steps too far. MacGruber might not be a great movie, but it’s well on the way to attaining cult classic status, and Kilmer’s performance may have left… a bad taste in the mouth… were Taccone to persevere with his desire to see Von Cunth get his comeuppance in the most stomach-churning fashion imaginable.
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