For as long as I’ve been watching films, I’ve thought of Val Kilmer as something of an anomaly in Hollywood: the mega-star character actor. As a fan of Hollywood movies, I can’t help but admire his eagerness to inhabit characters that have already established their identities in the public consciousness: Jim Morrison in The Doors, John Holmes in Wonderland, Doc Holliday in Tombstone, Batman in Batman Returns.
Kilmer’s latest project has him touring across the country hosting screenings of one-man play as Mark Twain. It’s called Cinema Twain, and it stops by SIFF Cinema Uptown on Thursday (and at the Tacoma Comedy Club in September). Kilmer introduces the film, then takes questions after, and meets fans afterwards. It all sounds like great fun.
For reasons still unclear to me, I was offered the opportunity to ask some questions of Val Kilmer via e-mail that he was kind enough to answer. I asked him about playing Mark Twain, his work as painter, and for an update on his long-term project of making a film about Twain and Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy.
I really love reading Mark Twain and really revere him, but as a public figure, I can’t help but picture Hal Holbrooke’s portrayal of him, because he’s done it for almost as long as my parents have been alive. Maybe it’s not too dissimilar from playing Doc Holliday or Batman but is there a way that you approached those iconic characters where you weren’t the first person to play them, but still were able to make them your own?
Hal’s beautiful, never to be repeated history of over 50 years on the road with a one man play is nothing short of a miracle. When I talked to him about my idea, he was what you hope an icon will be, wise and gracious. I told him I intended to paraphrase and write reflective material to reveal Twain’s character. And that I beloved I’d found a way through a fantastical premise that allowed Twain to speak in the present tense and reference todays world. Hal is a wonderful actor so I have no idea what he really thought of me “telling stretches” to reveal the truth of the man who precipices Hal’s entire life, but I assured him I was honoring the man with every syllable.
I am proud at how often people comment on the fact they feel they have witnessed Twain himself. I know I have a gift for transporting the audience in some kind of unique way as this is a rare type of compliment I’ve been lucky enough to receive several times in my suddenly-long career.
Can you talk about what it’s like performing on stage verses behind a camera?
Stage is the real test of an actors chops because character and vital “reality” or core essence is conveyed in the transition of a character. It’s the moment an actor is allowed to “feel”, where he is no longer for the moment, pursuing his objective, but reacting to forces moving him in a direction, forward back or stunning him immobile. Film edits the actor into that moment with close ups. You can pinch your leg and make a tear drop. On stage you have to pinch your leg with your soul.
What can someone expect who goes to one of your tour dates? I love that in the Northwest, you’re doing one show in a movie theater and another in a comedy club a few months later. How does the setting or audience affect the show?
If I don’t jam up the intro too much and stay in this incredible zone the audience and grace of being on stage has always afforded me, then, ahem, there’s almost always a standing ovation. I can mention this simply because Mark Twain is a screaming genius, and about the funniest man America ever made, so it’s for him we rise. Hell, I clap too sometimes.
The comedy clubs emerged as an experiment and one that fit so well that my Q and A at the end of the film is now more of a second act of stand up. I’m so happy to be able to share my most precious hopes for our country that I love so deeply, and I’m at a place where I no longer need to prove anything as an artist, largely because I don’t have anything more to say than the core statements I’ve chosen to focus on through Twain’s personal musings and outward fantasies. He’s a complete man. As he said, “I’m not AN American, I am THE American.”
Do you have a favorite Mark Twain book or story that you would want your fans to check out?
Huckleberry Finn. Racism and greed in a masterpiece that did as much, I believe, to heal our nation as President Lincoln over time. And through humor and originality! According to Hemingway, it’s the beginning of the American novel. So there!
This tour looks like it’ll take up much of your 2017. Do you have any other projects you’re working on that you want to/can talk about?
I have three art shows which you can get details on through valkilmer.com and I intend to finish my non-profit status on the road and identify and benefit local art education enterprises already in place wherever I go. And our Vets. How can we be so cruel as to not care for our warriors? It’s a true disgrace.
I’m also a partner in an incredible new company that weds corporate funds with sponsors at live public events and through all media that allows the audience to use their phones to receive a gift without cost and thereby engaging the corporation to make a donation to the celebrity influencer’s chosen cause. It’s a game changer and we’ve got some icons already signed up to kick us off before the new year. Stay tuned on that one! Yeehaw!
What inspires your Daily Abstract paintings?
I’ve painted a lot more as I’ve had a healing that has taken a while to complete involving my throat and tongue. It’s so gratifying to work in a medium which requires no partnering. Film, you look at and work with 50 guys in cargo shorts. Theater, you stare into the void and dream from the bottom of your toes. With a canvas, it’s the moment of your emotions, with an abstract it’s like searching the cosmos with the highest power telescope- you have an idea of what’s ought there, but maybe today you “discover” a whole new galaxy no one has seen before. And it can happen very quickly, or take months to complete. If I don’t create, I start to die. That’s not much fun.
What’s the status of your Mark Twain/Mark Baker Eddy film?
I’m actively fund raising and receiving donations as well at valkilmer.com.
I’m meeting investors around the world as I must finance independently to maintain control. Mrs. Eddy’s legacy must satisfy a particular standard since she is the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, so I have a moral obligation to honor her followers. Regular film financiers, as you can imagine, have naturally different priorities. Although I share them, I want to make a successful film for as wide an audience as possible, I also have an artistic standard, again, that’s not part of a working priority of regular film finance. Strange, but the reason people go to (see a) film is not the reason most people make them. Not many businesses set up that screwy bit. There you have it.
This was put by a friend of mine who is the biggest fan of yours I know: Did you see greatness in your future after making Top Secret?
Alas no. Years before Top Secret. I told a friend in high school one day I would be on a lunch pail. (Kids, you’ll have to Google “lunch pails.”) And I’ve lost count but I think I’m up to four…
