Hollywood Insiders Not Shocked by Val Kilmer Criticism: ‘Stories Have Been Circulating for Decades’

Adam Marcus found himself in hot water after he declared the late Val Kilmer as the “worst human being” he had “ever known,” but a new report says that Hollywood celebrities were much less shocked by his statement.

“Val was undeniably talented,” a source told Rob Shuter‘s Naughty But Nice Substack on Wednesday, June 3. “Nobody questions that. But his brilliance often came with challenges.”

That “brilliance” often brought in hit films and because of that, people in Hollywood didn’t mind overlooking Kilmer’s alleged bad behavior.

“If you’re making people money, the rules become very flexible,” a separate source told the gossip blog. “That’s always been part of the business.”

The source added that claims of the Tombstone star’s difficult personality wasn’t “some shocking revelation.”

“What’s surprising isn’t that people are criticizing Val now—it’s that so few were willing to do it while he was alive,” the source explained. “People are acting shocked, but these stories have been circulating for decades. The difference is that most people were unwilling to say them publicly.”

As In Touch previously reported, Marcus, 58, spoke out about his experience with the Top Gun legend – who died from pneumonia at age 65 in April 2025 – when he directed him in the 2008 film Conspiracy.

“#MicroIntellectMonday to that time when I directed that guy. The guy who played Iceman and Doc Holiday. You know the one. Here’s me and the Putz working it out on the set of Conspiracy. So yeah, that happened,” Marcus wrote alongside a picture of Kilmer via Threads on Monday, June 1.

He went on to slam people who were “rolling [their] eyes” at his remark because of the common expression, “Don’t speak ill of the dead.”

“[If] this guy did one-tenth of what he did on my set today, he would have been cancelled in a blink,” Marcus continued. “Worst human being I’ve ever known… and that is really saying something.”