I know that he has been dealing with numerous health issues but ever since his cancer ordeal, he has virtually aged by 20 years. And this was just before, he had put on a gross amount of weight:
https://www.lipstickalley.com/threads/val-kilmer-makes-rare-public-appearance-for-his-twainmania-foundation.2447475/
'It's difficult to talk and be understood' Val Kilmer uses a voice box to discuss throat cancer recovery as he breaks down in tears over health battle in emotional trailer for new documentary
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-9761861/Val-Kilmer-uses-voice-box-discuss-throat-cancer-recovery-Val-documentary-trailer.html
Sad π
shareSome might say karma is what it is. Treated people like shit in his heydey. I don't wish ill health on him but sure as hell don't feel sorry for him. By all accounts he was a total bastard.
shareI understand π I feel bad for him because I watched my own father suffer first from Leukemia and then later Hodgkins Lymphoma, which was what ended his life. Watching everything he went thru and suffered is why I feel bad for Val Kilmer.
shareAsshole comment. No one deserves cancer. And because how people were treated on a movie set? GTFO
shareMaybe but there's this:
https://www.indiewire.com/2017/10/caitlin-oheaney-val-kilmer-assault-auditions-the-doors-1201890656/
and this:
https://moviechat.org/nm0000174/Val-Kilmer/5a8e7d12f1d2200014824e32/Is-Val-Kilmers-cancer-karma-for-his-past-history-of-horrible-behavior?reply=5c2acb5531bcae55e201a521
I think you're being disingenuous as if you read my post I didn't say he deserves cancer. I say "some might say it's karma" and there's a thread on this forum about that very thing. No one calling anyone an asshole there. He was abusive to Caitlin O'Heaney, his ex-wife and God knows how many others that he bought off. I'm not going to shed any tears for him.
Honestly, as for that woman's accusation, that seems more evidence that he pretentiously gets way too into his parts than anything else. As someone else in the article states, she seemed fine when she left the audition. And I doubt this was any real attempt at hurting her (especially in a room full of people while she's testing for a role). Seems just as likely to me that this was just an accident while doing a fight scene, or a relatively harmless bit of physicality (that may have worked for the scene) blown out of proportion by a particularly overly sensitive person. Or, of course, the more malicious possibility that she was just looking for a paycheck (which she apparently happily accepted). I see no reason to presume that's less probable than him picking this bizarre moment to try and beat on a woman.
As far as the other stuff goes, I agree that the guy appears to take himself far too seriously. And, like many actors like that, makes life hell for everyone else on set due to his "passion" for his craft, etc π. But eh. It's only when these things are all compiled together does it really give the impression of being that terrible. Individually, each seems sorta unremarkable to me.
There's something in psychology called the availability heuristic. It's like a shortcut our brains take to label things as being this way or that. Fewer people are killed by school shooters per year than are struck by lightning for instance, but we'll see school shootings as an epidemic and lightning deaths as an anomaly. Because we're hearing more reports about the shootings (as the news likes to highlight each instance incessantly). Thus, we mistakenly assume the issue is worse than it is due to hearing about it more often.
In cases like these with Kilmer, I wonder if it's not too dissimilar. Compile all of the negative things people said about him in his 30+ year career and show it to everyone, and it'll make him or anyone else look worse than they may actually be.