Blessed, Life and Films of Val Kilmer

by William Hamilton

  Stunt coordinator Gregg Powell had worked with Val in Willow. He led a team of 20 Russian stuntmen.

  “Creating the look of Simon was very challenging,” says costume designer Marlene Stewart. “At all times he looks the handsome hero, his own clothes are very streamlined, but efficient: they don’t tell you who he is. Templar is an empty palette who adopts these layers that become his disguises… a lot of the disguises evolved in the process of evaluation – Val working with his dialog coach, Tim Monich, and finding an accent which was the key to each transformation.”

  Oprah Winfrey Show Val Kilmer and Elizabeth Shue interview

  OW: Well, we read that you’re a perfectionist obsessed with details. There’s a story emerging from the making of “The Saint.” It’s the sweater story. You know about the sweater story?

  VK: I – I heard of the sweater story. Well...

  OW: That you – that they shipped sweaters all around the country, that they s—not from – not just around the country but from Moscow to L.A...

  VK: Yeah.

  OW: ...that you looked at, like, 1,000 sweaters.

  VK: I looked at a lot of sweaters. We all did. We all wanted the perfect sweater. I’m... You know that the – that sometimes you’re in an airport in some obscure place and there’s a guy who could either own some – own his own jet...

  OW: Yeah.

  VK: ...or they’re about to kick him out of the lobby of the airport... So that’s all I was trying to do.

  OW: And that’s the sweater?

  VK: No, we never found it.

  OW: You never found it?

  VK: No, I wa – I was – I was – we were – we were doing some additional photography. I walk down King’s Road in London.

  OW: Uh-huh.

  VK: I find the sweater. This is five months after we filmed the scene.

  Later with Elizabeth Shue

  ES: No, and a lot of it I owe to Val, because Val was so tireless in wanting to create that intensity of – of a work environment, and he really kind of pulled me in. And the two of us worked so closely together that I was able to have a similar experience.

  OW: That is terrific.

  ES: And it turned out to be really cool. (She hits Val)

  OW: Well, then of course – what was that all about?

  VK: I don’t know.

  ES: I don’t know. It’s real bizarre.

  VK: We know each other so well now she can hit me.

  ES: I know. He’s like my brother.

  You can see that Elizabeth and Val became close friends during the filming. They worked closely together to achieve a realistic onscreen romance. When they started filming their relationship, people noticed the chemistry between them, and talk started.

  They both insist that nothing happened, and Elizabeth, who is happily married, was very hurt by the allegations. She has said that the rumors were so widespread that some of her husband’s distant cousins would call him up and tell him they were sorry about what had happened.

  Another bad thing about “The Saint” was the perception that the movie hadn’t done well. It didn’t sell as well as Batman, but it was an important role in Val’s career that helped him establish himself as a real actor. Most of Val’s best work has been done on films that haven’t been box office hits. This movie did a very respectable 179,000,000 worldwide. There was talk about making “The Saint” a series like it used to be, but I don’t think Val likes to do the same role more than one time.

  The Prince of Egypt

  12/18/1998

  Jeffery Katzenberg, chairman of Walt Disney Pictures, was talking with David Geffen and Steven Spielberg about what kind of movies they wanted to do for their new (and not publicly announced) company Dream Works. Jeffrey wanted to do something different, he recalls, “Steven asked what the criteria would be for a great animated film, and I launched into a 20-minute dissertation about what you look for: a powerful allegory that we can relate to in our time; extraordinary situations to motivate strong emotional journeys; something wonderful about the human spirit; good triumphing over evil; music as a compelling storytelling element; and so on… Steven leaned forward and said, “You mean like ‘The Ten Commandments?’ and I said, ‘Yes, exactly,’ David said, ‘What a great idea!’”

  The Prince of Egypt took over four years to produce and had a budget of 100 million dollars, the largest budget of any animated film. An ensemble of seven producers and directors headed the enormous project of over 350 artists, and technicians from over 35 countries. The production team conferred with roughly 600 archaeologists, historians, theologians, Egyptologists, biblical scholars and religious leaders.

  Steve Hickner, Simon Wells, and Brenda Chapman directed the film, Brenda being the first woman director of an animated feature. Penney Finkelman Cox and Sandra Rabins produced the movie, and Jeffrey Katzenberg was the executive producer. These and other key members of the creative team embarked on a trip to Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula.

  Songwriter Stephen Schwartz observes, “It's hard to define, but there's an intangible connection that comes from being on the actual spot…seeing the locations and breathing the air. There were times when I was walking through a temple or looking at a giant statue and music would actually come into my head. Several themes in the movie originated that way.”

  Co-story supervisor Kelly Asbury says, “The challenges were to be as true to the biblical source material as possible, maintain the overall narrative of the story, capture the emotions of the characters, and make a film you could really sink your teeth into-all within the time constraints.”

  The story of the exodus is lengthy and complicated for a movie that had a target of 90 minutes. Sandra Rabins says, "We began by identifying the problems, and then set out to solve them during an 18-month evolution in which we continually honed the story to discover what worked and what didn't… we decided that the movie was about the brothers. We had to tell that story; the rest would come later.”

  Val says, “We can all identify with having people in our lives who we still care strongly about, even after the relationship has changed.”

  Katzburg says, “In live action, there is an incredible variety of movies-dramas, comedies, big effects films, intimate romantic comedies… As moviegoers, we demand that kind of diversity from live-action features. I don’t see why animation can’t be as varied in the types of stories it tells. I hope and believe that we can use animation as a cinematic tool to tell many different kinds of stories…that today’s animation can be something more than movies for children.”

  ”We do not want to exclude children as an audience, but set out to make a film that we as adults would want to see,” producer Penney Finkelman Cox says. “This part of the Bible touches on sophisticated themes, which set the movie apart from the start. In other words, the story determined what the film would be, as opposed to the technique used to tell it-animation didn’t define the movie, the nature of the material did.”

  Three artists influenced the concept for the look of “The Prince of Egypt”. Gustave Doré created Bible etchings that are incredibly rich and very detailed. Claude Monet’s brilliant paintings were alive with lush palettes of color and light. The filmmakers also looked to the work of director David Lean, master of epic cinema.

  Katzenberg explains, “When we were recruiting, people would come in, and I’d show them the Doré illustrated Bible, a book of Monet paintings and some stills from Lean's ‘Lawrence of Arabia.’ I’d say, ‘These are our inspirations; I hope we can do them justice.’”

  Casting director Leslee Feldman began gathering voices from an assortment of actors and playing them for the filmmakers, often not revealing whose voice they were hearing.

  Rabins adds, “Leslee had only worked in live action, so she had no preconceptions about what an ‘animated’ voice should sound like. She just presented us with the best actors for the roles, and 90 percent of the time everybody went for the exact same voice. We then approached those actors and actresses
and told them about the film, and every one of them wanted to be part of it. We ended up with a dream cast.”

  “We were incredibly fortunate to have this unbelievable ensemble of talent who were so generous and supportive in making this movie,” Katzenberg adds that Val’s delivery carries “very personal, very emotional accessibility and yet a tremendous nobility and strength of character.”

  Val says, “I was lucky that when Jeffrey Katzenberg approached me, I was working on ‘The Saint’ and had the services of a voice coach and we worked hard on finding the right voices for Moses, because he goes from a young man to the savior of the Hebrews.” “The rhythms of speech and the importance of each phrase made it very reminiscent of doing theatre. It was an extraordinary luxury to be able to keep refining my performance and to do the kind of work I’ve rarely had the chance to do in film. As an actor, it was a joyful and unique experience to be included in the process.”

  Rabins says, “Val gave this film everything we asked for and more. He pushed his performance to incredible levels and was always willing to come back in, even to record a single line. He was a joy to work with.” Val endured 30 recording sessions to capture the voice of Moses (and God), more than any other actor involved in an animated project.

  Sandra Bullock plays Moses' sister Miriam, she thinks, “its groundbreaking-it’s going to change people’s perceptions of animation.”

  Moses’ father-in-law Jethro was voiced by Danny Glover, who, Chapman says, “brought a wonderful exuberance to the role of this boisterous, happy, free man who loves life.”

  Moses’ Hebrew brother Aaron, played by Jeff Goldblum, who says, “My character is very skeptical about the whole idea of Moses’ mission, but he comes to believe. I love this story. It’s very uplifting in a way that’s heart-centered and conscience-driven. It inspires me.”

  Wells says, “The great thing about Jeff is you have to physically stop him from doing takes. He will do 150 takes on one line if you let him because he keeps coming up with more ideas.”

  Patrick Stewart had the challenge of bringing Pharaoh Seti, Moses’ adoptive father to the screen. Hickner says, “Patrick had a huge responsibility, In only a few scenes, he had to establish the ‘baggage’ that Rameses has to carry, so in the second half of the movie, you sense the weight of the mantle that Rameses bears. Patrick did that beautifully.”

  Chapman says, “Ralph (Fiennes) is not only a great actor, he actually helped us to develop the part of Rameses. There's a vulnerability that comes out in his voice, even when he’s being very strong. That became the core of Rameses-he is this big, powerful Pharaoh, but deep down there's some small part that’s a little unsure… he is so determined to live up to his father and be the greatest Pharaoh ever, that he’s blinded to anything else.”

  Fiennes says, “I think he’s a tragic figure… he is not a villain, which I think is one of the strengths of our approach to Rameses. He’s misguided and arrogant, but he is not overtly evil.”

  Finkelman Cox says, “Ralph really worked to bring out all the ambiguities and nuances we incorporated into the role… he just disappeared in front of us and became the Pharaoh Rameses-proud and full of strength. He’s an amazing actor, and we were very excited to have his singing voice as well as his speaking performance in the movie.”

  “Ralph was in Australia and I was in London,” says Val, “so we did all our recording separately in studios halfway across the world…the experience was a feeling of weightlessness initially. There’s just the microphone and a conversation to get you into the scene. It’s like a mosaic or an Impressionist painting, where you really can’t conceive of what you’re doing until a little bit more gets done.”

  Michelle Pfeiffer, Moses' wife Tzipporah, sung her own songs as well. “She brought the part to life,” Hickner states. “Once we heard her voice, we were able to complete the design of the character. It became more and more clear who she should be.”

  Steve Martin and Martin Short brought comic darkness to the movie as the court magicians, and also did their own songs. Ofra Haza, who died in 2000, was a unique find for the filmmakers; she sung her part in 19 languages. She speaks seven languages fluently, and learned her part phonetically for the others.

  Unlike most movies he’d been in, Val didn’t sing his own songs. He explains, “I tried. Stephen Schwartz wrote a song that was way out of my range, and they did try to adjust it and I recorded several times with Hans (Zimmer), but it just didn’t fit.”

  “Val’s got a beautiful voice,” Katzenberg says, “but the songs are very intricate and in a very high register. And Val was shooting “The Saint” at the time we were recording, and for him to sing that song would take two, three months of training, and that’s an awful lot to ask. We’re already making demands on these actors as it is, so we couldn’t pull it off.”

  Amick Byram, sung for Val, Wells comments, “Val Kilmer has such a unique voice that it was especially difficult, but Amick really worked to get it.”

  Oscar winners Stephen Schwartz and Hans Zimmer wrote the incredible music for the movie. The film was nominated for many awards. The Song “When You Believe” swept awards shows with a win at the Academy Awards among others. Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards awarded a tie for Best Animated Film with “A Bug’s Life.”

  Before Val even started, animators worked on the Moses character for 5 months before production, perfecting the character design, action, gesture and dialogue, “It was such a thorough presentation that he (Katzenberg) gave me,” Val recalls. “There wasn’t much for me to say other than ‘Let’s go to work.’”

  “I didn’t let myself think about it (being intimidated by the role). I just thought of the immediate scene-by-scene and acting with these other great actors even though we just did voices. We’re making up a story that’s such a dynamic one and such a human one – Moses. In my early stories from childhood the story of Moses really appealed to me because he is so human. He is so passionate and frustrated when he’s a young man. He kills a man and it’s the same later on when he destroys the first set of tablets. A very passionate man but he’s also a very humble man and so those flaws and the things that make him human, I found really attractive in making the story up… I didn’t really have concern, because they had already gone through everything and talked to so many scholars about how to play a moment, and that kind of thing never really happens in the acting world.”

  The animators didn’t want to use the traditional methods of exaggerated motion, so they used each actor’s motions, and some of their facial features. Val explains, “I can see a bit of me in face, but mostly the animators captured some of my mannerisms. Moses has more of my body language than my body… It’s a very odd sensation seeing yourself drawn.”

  Originally, the voice of God was to be a combination of all the voices familiar to Moses. But the filmmakers decided to follow the Kabbalistic notion that each person would hear God in his or her own voice so Val speaks as God to himself; subtle sound enhancements and the voices of a children’s choir will be incorporated with special music to complete the effect. Val adds, “I play God in the story as well (The role was) Uncredited. It was in my contract, ‘I will take no credit for God.’”

  Interesting facts:

  Val says, “I did the film for my children. These movies last longer than most and they are timeless. My daughter loved it and she’s definitely not too young for the movie. It’s important that younger children know the story of Moses so that they won’t be confused. Mercedes goes to Sunday school.”

  After the Israelites have crossed the red Sea, they wander off eastwards into the sunset

  The original lyrics “You can do miracles when you believe” were changed to “There can be miracles when you believe,” to avoid the implication that you (not God) can work miracles

  This animated film was banned in Malaysia

  Parting of the Red Sea took a total of 318,000 hours (more than three years) for the four-minute scene

 
More special effects were created for “Prince of Egypt” than any other animated film

  A pharaoh would have had many more children (Rameses himself had over 100) but they choose to keep the story simple and focus on Moses & Rameses

  Over 1000 backgrounds were used

  Kelly Kimball was the first full-time staff costume designer on an animated feature

  At First Sight

  1/15/1999

  Val was the first person cast on what would become know as “At First Sight.” Irwin Winkler (director) explains why he chose Val, “Because in the first act of the film Val’s character is totally blind, I wanted somebody who would be very, very attractive to the audience, because I didn’t want to present a blind man who was somebody who you might in some way feel pity for. Also, Val is kind of into nature and he lives in New Mexico out in the desert, and I wanted somebody who was very in touch with the elements.”

  Val says, “It’s a great love story, and there have been quite a few of them made since I started acting. This is just the first one that has come my way, with schedules and different things. I’ve always wanted to do a love story, and everything about this made me excited to say ‘Yes,’ which I did faster than any job I’ve ever taken. I read it at night, and had breakfast with Irwin Winkler, our director and producer, in the morning. By lunch time, the agents had done the deal, and the lawyers were sending papers around and everything.”