Val Kilmer’s Former Director Slams Late Actor as the ‘Worst Human Being’

Adam Marcus, the director of the 2008 film Conspiracy starring Val Kilmer and Jennifer Esposito, did not mince words in a recent rant about the late actor.

“#MicroIntellectMonday to that time when I directed that guy,” Marcus shared via Threads on Monday, June 1, alongside a photo with the Top Gun star. “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.”

“And to any of you rolling your eyes because of the whole don’t speak ill of the dead bulls**t,’ f**k that,” he continued. “[If] this guy did one-tenth of what he did on my set today, he would have been cancelled in a blink. Worst human being I’ve ever known… and that is really saying something.”

Kilmer — who died of pneumonia in April 2025 — long had a reputation of being difficult to work with dating back decades.

In 1996, John Frankenheimer, who directed Kilmer in The Island of Dr. Moreau, is quoted as saying, “I don’t like Val Kilmer, I don’t like his work ethic, and I don’t want to be associated with him ever again,” per The Independent.

However, Joel Schumacher, the director of 1995’s Batman Forever, disagreed.

“I didn’t say Val was difficult to work with, I said he was psychotic,” he joked in 2020, according to the outlet. “But he was a fabulous Batman.”

During a 2017 AMA, Kilmer responded to a Redditor asking about his notorious reputation.

“I didn’t do enough hand holding and flattering and reassuring to the financiers,” he explained. “I only cared about the acting and that didn’t translate to caring about the film or all that money.”