Tadashi Suzuki: The “genius” director Val Kilmer always regretted rejecting
Val Kilmer was in his early 20s when Top Secret! and Real Genius were released. Suddenly, the intense, dedicated method actor was one of the hottest things in 1980s Hollywood, and he was soon whisked away to star in blockbusters like Top Gun and Willow.
However, Kilmer later confessed that in these nascent stages of his career, when art collided with commerce and leading man stardom was on the cards, he felt he was standing at a crossroads. Take one path, and he could study his craft with someone he considered a true “genius” of the form; take the other, and it would write his ticket to fame, fortune, and celebrity.
“When I was 21, I should’ve gone to Japan and studied with this genius director, Tadashi Suzuki,” Kilmer admitted to Rolling Stone in 2003 with a rueful shake of the head. “Instead, I ended up in Las Vegas with Cher. I’m not saying she was a mistake — but I should have turned left.”
As hard as it may be to imagine now, Kilmer did date the iconic pop superstar for two years, despite a 14-year age gap. Back then, he was on his way up the Hollywood ladder, while she had already been an established star for decades. The two hit it off, though, with much of their relationship played out behind the closed doors of Cher’s palatial Malibu estate.
“I was madly in love with Val Kilmer,” Cher told Howard Stern in 2024. “Sometimes, you’re only meant to stay with someone so long, and Val was like, he was really young”. The two remained friends until Kilmer’s death, and in his memoir, he paid tribute by writing, “Once Cher works her way inside your head and heart, she never leaves.”
However, one thing Cher said about Kilmer rings especially true in light of his comment about the left turn he should have taken. “Val would just go off and do his own thing,” she revealed, “And you just had to be prepared.”
Indeed, at some point in their relationship, Kilmer must have considered saying “no, thanks” to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, because he longed to study with Suzuki, the famed Japanese theatre director who created a pioneering new acting programme known as the “Suzuki method”.
In the ’70s, Suzuki began teaching his “discipline” from Toga, a mountain village in Japan. It is defined by a series of physical exercises designed to allow an actor to develop their “invisible body”. You see, to Suzuki, there were two types of energy in the world: “Animal energy”, created by humans and our four-legged friends, and “non-animal energy”, defined by electricity, nuclear power, and petroleum. This second type of energy is generally associated with the modern, civilised world, but Suzuki railed against the idea that industrialisation meant humans were any more civilised than in previous ages.
In Suzuki’s article, the artist argued, “A civilised society is not necessarily a cultured one. A cultured society is one in which the perceptive and expressive abilities of its people are cultivated through the use of their innate animal energy.” To Suzuki, humans embracing their animal energy was the only way to foster the feelings of trust and security needed for healthy communication and community.
While all of this may sound a bit pretentious, Suzuki’s application of his theory to acting actually makes a lot of sense – and it certainly appealed to Kilmer. His method was all about using animal energy to “restore the wholeness of the human body in performance.” He concentrated on helping actors control their breathing, which allowed their bodies to “speak” even when their mouths weren’t saying anything. In turn, this enabled them to communicate complicated ideas simply through movement.
Ultimately, does studying the Suzuki method sound better than living it up in Vegas with Cher? Most people would probably argue not. But then again, Val Kilmer wasn’t like most people.
