Val Kilmer's Director Breaks Silence: The Worst Human Being He's Ever Known

Director Adam Marcus didn’t hold back when discussing his experience working with Val Kilmer on the 2008 action thriller Conspiracy. In a series of since-deleted social media posts, Marcus unloaded on the actor, calling him a“putz”and labeling him the worst person he’d ever encountered—and he made clear he meant it.

What makes Marcus’s comments particularly striking is his defiance of the cultural convention of not speaking ill of the dead. Val Kilmer passed away in April 2025 from pneumonia, and Marcus addressed the criticism head-on. In his posts, he dismissed what he called the“whole‘don’t speak ill of the dead’bulls***,”arguing that if Kilmer had exhibited just a fraction of his on-set behavior in today’s climate,“he would have been cancelled in a blink.”It’s a bold statement that suggests the tension between Kilmer and Marcus ran deep enough to survive even the actor’s death.

This isn’t the first time Kilmer’s reputation has taken a hit. Director Joel Schumacher, who worked with him on 1995’s Batman Forever, previously labeled him“childish and impossible”and called him a“psychologically disturbed human being.”The pattern paints a picture of someone whose talent didn’t necessarily translate into being an easy collaborator—or a pleasant person to be around on set.

Kilmer himself acknowledged the friction over the years. In a 2003 interview with Rolling Stone, he admitted to being“careless about how I viewed my business,”though he pushed back by saying“the truth is the truth and a lie is a lie.”Later, in a 2021 documentary about his life, he confessed to behaving“poorly”and even“bizarrely to some,”but claimed he had no regrets. It’s a complicated legacy—an actor with genuine talent and legions of fans, but also a documented history of making life difficult for those working alongside him.

Marcus’s outburst raises a question about how we reckon with complicated figures after they’re gone. Kilmer had undeniable screen presence and a devoted fanbase, yet his professional relationships seem to have been fraught with tension and conflict. Should we separate the artist from the person, or is it worth acknowledging both sides of the story when someone passes?