The “immature” actor even Ron Howard couldn’t stand working with: “He needs to stir up trouble”
Actors can blame whoever or whatever they want for their reputation, but let’s face it: if Ron Howard says you’re a nightmare, then you must be a fucking nightmare.
This is the man who stood there and watched in silent amazement as his extras partook in an orgy in a Citroën on one of his sets, an infraction that would have had many other directors dragging them out of there one by one to stop the shagging and focus on their jobs.
This is also the man so nice that Tom Hanks has fantasised at fabricating a feud between them, for the sole reason that he’s never seen Howard get angry once in the 40+ years that they’ve known each other, and he just wants to know what that looks and feels like even once before it’s too late.
As we’ve learned far too many times over the years, many celebrities, whether they’re in Hollywood or not, who present themselves as ‘nice guys’ or have that sort of persona usually harbour dark secrets. Not our Ronnie, though, even if he did once briefly consider starring in a porno to further his ambitions.
In general, despite spending 70 years in the business, the two-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker hasn’t had much of a bad word to say about anyone, and he’s worked with everyone from John Wayne and Bette Davis to Russell Crowe and Jim Carrey, all of whom were known to have their moments.
And yet, even he couldn’t sugar-coat the widely held belief, which was admittedly more of a fact, that if you hire Val Kilmer to play a role in your movie, there’s a distinctly high chance that you’ll need to deal with all of the nonsense that Val Kilmer typically brought with him when he played a role in a movie.
The two collaborated for the first and only time, which may or may not have been a coincidence, on the 1988 fantasy favourite, Willow, and while Howard was too kind to regale any horror stories from his time working with the wayward and disruptive star, he said everything he had to.
“Val is extremely talented, but he is very immature,” the Happy Days alum explained. “There’s something about Val. He needs to be divisive on the set. He needs to stir up trouble. I like him personally, but I found him frustrating.” Of course, people have said a lot worse about him, but that’s not really the point.
Kilmer was called everything from “the worst human being I’ve ever known” to “psychotic” by the people he worked with, but imagine being called “immature” and “frustrating” by Ron Howard; it’s like anyone else calling you a massive cunt.
