The classic movie Val Kilmer’s agent begged him to reject: “Financially, it makes no sense”
In 1995, Val Kilmer’s status as a Hollywood leading man was cemented when he starred as the Caped Crusader in Batman Forever. The star had been building his career for the previous decade with movies like Top Gun, Willow, The Doors, and Tombstone, but stepping into the cape and cowl of the Dark Knight was by far his most high-profile role up to that point. While the movie didn’t fare too well critically, it was the sixth highest-grossing film of the year, and suddenly Kilmer was more famous than he’d ever been.
Around this time, Kilmer was offered a supporting part in an epic crime thriller being put together by The Last of the Mohicans director Michael Mann. Kilmer’s agent didn’t expect his client to go for the role because he’d finally secured above-the-title status, and the money involved wasn’t anything to write home about. To his shock, though, Kilmer was ecstatic about the part and was desperate to do it.
“My agent at the time strongly recommended that I pass,” Kilmer wrote in his excellent memoir I’m Your Huckleberry. When he admitted he was stunned that his representative didn’t want him to make the movie, he was warned, “Val, the pay is less than your per diem for Batman.” However, this was neither here nor there to Kilmer. What his agent didn’t seem to grasp was that the movie was Heat, and it was going to star Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, widely regarded as the two greatest actors in Hollywood history.
“It’s Michael Mann directing,” Kilmer wrote, incredulous that his agent couldn’t see the woods for the trees. “And it’s Pacino and De Niro. If I do the movie, I’ll get to call them Al and Bob for the rest of my life!”
However, Kilmer’s representative wouldn’t be easily dissuaded from his opinion, and he couldn’t get past the thin paycheque on offer. “Financially, it makes no sense,” the agent stated through gritted teeth. In one way, it could be argued that he was simply looking out for his client’s best interest. Still, because an agent only gets paid when his client gets paid, it’s hard to overlook the thought that he also wanted to line his own pockets with another fat leading man paycheque. To his chagrin, though, Kilmer didn’t care about the money.
“I wasn’t thinking finances,” Kilmer noted. “I was thinking folklore. Oh, just to collect some deeply nuanced, joyous stories about the Godfather films! Just to be able to say ‘Al and Bob’ for the rest of my life!”
Ultimately, Kilmer ignored his agent’s protestations and signed up to play the vicious Chris Shiherlis, and the movie was released in December ’95. His instincts were correct, too. It was a stone-cold masterpiece; the kind of movie every crime thriller aspired to emulate from that point on. It influenced a generation of actors and directors, including Christopher Nolan, who famously showed Heat to his Dark Knight cast and crew to give them a feeling for what he wanted that Batman sequel to feel like.
Crucially, though, Kilmer got exactly what he wanted out of the movie: Al and Bob. “Imagine being able to say, ‘Al and Bob’ for the rest of your life,” he reiterated in a Reddit AMA. “Not many people can do that.” He reminisced about shooting the movie late at night in downtown Los Angeles under a veil of silence, which made De Niro giggle “like a school girl” as he sat in a van with Kilmer and tried to remain quiet.
He also remembered Pacino hugging him “like he was my older brother,” and was astonished at the honour of being part of “one of the greatest cops and robbers films in film history.” In that situation, who cares about finances?
