Late Val Kilmer branded ‘worst human being’ by movie director

Val Kilmer has been branded ‘the worst human being I’ve ever known’ by director Adam Marcus.

Marcus worked with the late actor, who died in April 2025 at the age of 65, on 2008 action thriller Conspiracy.

Kilmer starred opposite Jennifer Esposito and Gary Cole in the direct-to-DVD film, playing an Iraq war veteran who attempts to unravel the mystery behind the disappearance of a friend.

However, writer-director Marcus has now insisted working with the Top Gun star was not a pleasant experience.

In a post on Threads, which included a photo of the director and the actor and has since been deleted, Marcus wrote: ‘#MicroIntellectMonday to that time when I directed that guy. The guy who played Iceman and Doc Holiday [sic]. You know the one.

‘Here’s me and the Putz working it out on the set of Conspiracy.’

Marcus went on to add: ‘And to any of you rolling your eyes because of the whole ‘don’t speak ill of the dead bulls**t’, f**k that.’

The filmmaker insisted that if Kilmer ‘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,’ he concluded his post.

In Conspiracy, Kilmer – who made headlines recently after it was confirmed a fully AI rendered version of the late star will appear in an upcoming movie – plays former marine William ‘Spooky’ MacPherson, wounded in action, who visits a fellow veteran on his ranch.

But when he finds his pal missing, and with no one willing to acknowledge he ever lived there, he sets out on a new mission.

Kilmer was previously criticised by his Batman Forever director Joel Schumacher in an interview with Entertainment Weekly back in 1996, where the moviemaker branded the actor ‘childish and impossible’ and suggested he was a ‘psychologically disturbed human being’.

The Island of Dr. Moreau director John Frankenheimer also declared he would never work with Kilmer again after they wrapped the 1996 film.

However, Kilmer rebutted both director’s comments in a 2003 interview with Rolling Stone, saying: ‘I’ve been careless about how I viewed my business. But I trust that the truth is the truth and a lie is a lie.

‘Frankenheimer, bless him, he passed on, but he had a history of being mean about people.’

When it came to his Batman director, he continued: ‘Schumacher’s not a great director by any stretch, but he makes everyone happy, he makes money. But his version of me being unstable – he’s very smart, he can’t say any­thing about work, because then I can sue him for slander.’

Tackling the idea he was ‘not responsible’, Kilmer also claimed he had ‘made [his] employers over a billion dollars’ and was ‘very proud’ of ‘consistently’ making money.

Kilmer also addressed his issues with past work colleagues years later in his 2021 documentary Val, where he struck more of a reflective note, his words largely narrated by his son Jack after Kilmer lost his voice to throat cancer.

He admitted: ‘I have behaved poorly. I have behaved bravely. I have behaved bizarrely to some.

‘I deny none of this and have no regrets because I have lost and found parts of myself that I never knew existed. And I am blessed.’

In April, fans were horrified by the AI version of Kilmer in As Deep As the Grave, where the actor – who was cast before his death but never made it on set – is seen as Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist.

Despite being done with the support of his daughter Mercedes, the trailer saw AI Kilmer branded‘necromancy’ and ‘the biggest, most judgmental YIKES’.

‘This is a character Val wanted to play, he was really clear about that before he passed and he spoke with his children about this, about continuing his legacy beyond his life,’ producer John Vorhees said in defence, as the trailer was unveiled.

‘I think as long are families are okay, most people believe there shouldn’t be a problem,’ added the film’s writer-director Coerte Voorhees.

As Deep As the Grave is yet to confirm a release date, but is expected in late 2026.

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