{"id":660320,"date":"2025-04-03T05:10:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T02:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/it-took-a-while-but-david-zucker-finally-bonded-with-val-kilmer-guest-column\/"},"modified":"2025-04-03T05:10:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T02:10:18","slug":"it-took-a-while-but-david-zucker-finally-bonded-with-val-kilmer-guest-column","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/it-took-a-while-but-david-zucker-finally-bonded-with-val-kilmer-guest-column\/","title":{"rendered":"It Took a While, but David Zucker Finally Bonded With Val Kilmer (Guest Column)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tIt was the fall of 1983, and my brother, Jerry, Jim Abrahams and I were frustrated at the difficulty of casting the lead for our movie, Top Secret!<\/em><\/p>\n

\n\tWe auditioned actor after actor with no success. Then our casting director, Susie Arnold, came across a young actor app<\/a>earing in an off-Broadway play called Slab Boys<\/em>. So we all got on a plane to New York and saw Kevin Bacon, Sean Penn and an obscure young actor named Val Kilmer. I don\u2019t recall much about the play, but he looked good and appeared to be able to act, so the next day we had him come up to our offices on the 17th floor of the then-Gulf & Western building on Central Park South for an audition.<\/p>\n

\n\tHis reading was spot-on, but when he broke into an impromptu rendition of Elvis\u2019 \u201cTurn Me Loose,\u201d we knew we had our star. He made us laugh, too; this kid somehow knew where the joke was.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe movie was shot at Pinewood Studios in London with an all-English cast and crew. Although Val plunged into his role with his characteristic work effort, we noticed he was often moody; it was hard to predict which Val would show up on any given day, often seeming uncomfortable as the fictional rock star, Nick Rivers.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tVal Kilmer made his big-screen debut in the action comedy \u2018Top Secret!\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy Everett Collection<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tMany decades later, Jim Abrahams and I would reflect that, after all, here was a Juilliard-trained actor shoehorned into the silliest of movies<\/a>, having to co-star with a cow wearing boots. And, untrained ourselves, we realized after years of experience that we had neglected to write a real character with a three-act arc!<\/p>\n

\n\tIn his recent autobiography, I\u2019m Your Huckleberry<\/em>, Val confessed he still couldn\u2019t figure out what the hell the movie was about. Maybe for this reason, for the first two weeks, I just couldn\u2019t seem to connect with him, and I assumed it was just because of this dark side he seemed to have. Until one night, three weeks into filming, we found ourselves sitting next to each other, silently, at a drinks party at Jerry\u2019s flat in Chelsea, observing everyone else having fun. Having a dark side myself, I remarked casually, \u201cI hate everyone!\u201d In an instant, Val\u2019s face lit up, big smile. \u201cDude!\u201d We finally bonded.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd meanwhile, we were all having the time of our lives on that movie. On occasion, Val\u2019s girlfriend, Cher, would visit the set. I remember being really annoyed that she kept telling him, \u2018This is a monumentally stupid movie; it\u2019s going to flop \u2026\u2019 Never mind she was right; I thought it was still annoying.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOver the ensuing years, I would run into him on occasion at a party, at our shared attorney\u2019s office, a premiere, and always he\u2019d be gracious, very un-Hollywood, I was glad to see. We\u2019d say hello and reminisce a bit. The last time I saw him was outside my house a year ago; he had rented a place just up the street.<\/p>\n

\n\tBy that time, he was quite ill, but we chatted for a while, and I remember him being surprised that I had been excluded from the upcoming sequel to Naked Gun<\/em>. I had just finished a script, Naked Gun 4: Nordberg Did It<\/em>, with the superb writers Mike McManus and Pat Proft, who had worked with Val on [the 1985 film] Real Genius<\/em>. But suddenly, I read that Paramount had given the franchise to Seth MacFarlane!<\/p>\n

\n\tNaturally, I was shocked. But Kilmer\u2019s reaction? This green rookie actor from 40 years ago just laughed and advised me, \u201cThat\u2019s Hollywood!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKilmer died Tuesday of pneumonia in Los Angeles. He was 65.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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