Val Kilmer was 'quite insecure'

Val Kilmer was “insecure” and liked to test his directors.

The Top Gun star passed away in 2025 at the age of 65 and close friend and Mindhunters director Renny Harlin has remembered him as “a highly, highly intelligent man”, who liked to challenge the filmmakers he worked with.

During a masterclass chat at Malta’s Mediterrane Film Festival, Harlin told moderator Steven Weintraub of Collider: “Bless his soul. We became good friends. Val was famous for testing directors always because he was a Mensa member, a highly, highly intelligent man and very talented. His style was to test the director early enough [in the project] to see who was the smartest guy in the room. I think he was quite insecure also and felt that if he doesn’t feel like he can respect the director, then he has to take over because otherwise it’s going to be a disaster.”

Harlin shared a tense exchange on Mindhunters, where he and Kilmer disagreed over a pair of glasses.

He said: “We had shot one scene for one day already and everything went fine. Then it was the second day of the same sequence and I’m ready to say ‘action.’ [Val was] studying the script and he has [a pair of glasses] on and he’s looking at the script. The first assistant director said, ‘OK, we’re ready to go, everybody please take your places.’ Val goes to his mark and camera is ready to roll. He puts his script away, and he still has his glasses on. I said, ‘Hey, Val, just take the glasses off. We are ready to go.’ He looks at me and says, ‘No.’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean no?’ He says, ‘Well, I thought about my character last night and he’s really quite a studious type. I think it was a mistake that I didn’t have the glasses yesterday. So I got these glasses this morning and I’m going to wear them from now on.’”

While Harlin insisted the change would not work as some scenes had already been shot, Kilmer replied: “Well, I guess then we have to reshoot what we shot yesterday, but I’m going to wear glasses from now on.”

However, Harlin stood up to him and the pair went on to have a cordial working relationship and a good friendship.

He said: “I just went right to his face in front of everybody - cameras are ready to roll and the whole cast is there - and I looked him in the eyes and I said, ‘Val, take off the f****** glasses now.’

“It was a test and he looked at me really seriously while everyone was on pins and needles, wondering if it was going to be a physical fight or what would happen. He took the glasses off and flashed that Iceman smile from Top Gun, and said, ‘It was worth trying.’”