{"id":2966,"date":"2026-07-03T05:36:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T05:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=2966"},"modified":"2026-07-03T05:36:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T05:36:02","slug":"renny-harlin-recalls-clashing-with-val-kilmer-on-mindhunters-over-pair-of-eyeglasses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=2966","title":{"rendered":"Renny Harlin Recalls Clashing With Val Kilmer on \u2018Mindhunters\u2019 Over Pair of Eyeglasses"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Renny Harlin has a hard and fast rule for winning over actors on his movie sets: Preparation, preparation, preparation.<\/p>\n

Read more Moritz Borman, Oliver Stone Collaborator and \u2018Terminator\u2019 Movie Producer, Dies at 71<\/a><\/p>\n

The veteran filmmaker sat for a masterclass conversation last week at Malta\u2019s Mediterrane Film Festival in Valletta, during which he opened up on the creative process he\u2019s leaned on to make nearly four dozen films over five decades while working with some of the biggest movie stars on the planet, from Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson to Sylvester Stallone and Val Kilmer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about preparation. Preparation costs nothing,\u201d Harlin told moderator Steven Weintraub of Collider<\/em>. But for Harlin, his prep goes beyond scripts and storyboards. He said he also learns how to do the grueling stunts his films require. \u201cWhether I\u2019m doing Cliffhanger<\/em> in the mountains, Die Hard 2<\/em> in airplanes or Deep Blue Sea<\/em> in water tanks, I learned how to mountain climb, I learned how to scuba dive, I learned how airplanes worked. Even for Cliffhanger<\/em>, I learned how to fly a helicopter. For me, the preparation is the most valuable way to spend your time and that\u2019s where you really make yourself ready.\u201d <\/p>\n

It had an added bonus of allowing him to win over some of the \u201ctoughest actors in the business, and I\u2019ve worked with some really experienced and hard-nosed actors,\u201d Harlin said. \u201cThat\u2019s the way I won them over, whether it was Sylvester Stallone or Bruce Willis or Samuel Jackson or Sir Ben Kingsley and so on. Or, Val Kilmer, who had a reputation for not being the easiest.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019ve always managed to win them over by the fact that when I show up for the movie, I\u2019m prepared and they can ask me any question about anything and I know exactly how these things are done technically and how they work,\u201d Harlin continued. \u201cI tell them exactly what equipment they need, how they need to use it, and I win their trust. It\u2019s not a secret, but many actors are insecure because they put themselves out there. They go in front of the camera in front of the world and they expose themselves and many actors are also extremely intelligent. And if they feel that they know the movie and their character better than the director, then they tend to take over because they feel that their responsibility to protect themselves is to take control. That\u2019s when you get those horror stories where actors run all over the directors and the whole thing ends up in chaos.\u201d <\/p>\n

He avoided chaos once while working with Kilmer on 2004\u2019s Mindhunters<\/em>, co-starring LL Cool J and Christian Slater.<\/p>\n

Read more Rosal\u00eda Brings Her Breathtaking and Cinematic Lux Tour to Los Angeles<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBless his soul. We became good friends,\u201d Harlin said of the legendary star who passed away at age 65 in 2025. \u201cVal was famous for testing directors always because he was a Mensa member, a highly, highly intelligent man and very talented. His style was to test the director early enough [in the project] to see who was the smartest guy in the room. I think he was quite insecure also and felt that if he doesn\u2019t feel like he can respect the director, then he has to take over because otherwise it\u2019s going to be a disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harlin then recalled a tense moment on Mindhunters<\/em>, which followed a group of FBI trainees who are taken to a remote island for simulation training. Once there, they realize that they are being hunted by a serial killer. Kilmer played an FBI instructor named Jake Harris. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had shot one scene for one day already and everything went fine,\u201d Harlin recalled. \u201cThen it was the second day of the same sequence and I\u2019m ready to say \u2018action.\u2019 [Val was] studying the script and he has [a pair of glasses] on and he\u2019s looking at the script. The first assistant director said, \u2018OK, we\u2019re ready to go, everybody please take your places.\u2019 Val goes to his mark and camera is ready to roll. He puts his script away, and he still has his glasses on. I said, \u2018Hey, Val, just take the glasses off. We are ready to go.\u2019 He looks at me and says, \u2018No.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018What do you mean no?\u2019 He says, \u2018Well, I thought about my character last night and he\u2019s really quite a studious type. I think it was a mistake that I didn\u2019t have the glasses yesterday. So I got these glasses this morning and I\u2019m going to wear them from now on.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Harlin was quick to say that they had already shot half of the scene with Kilmer not wearing glasses, so for continuity\u2019s sake, he couldn\u2019t all of a sudden be wearing spectacles. To which Kilmer replied, \u201c\u2018Well, I guess then we have to reshoot what we shot yesterday, but I\u2019m going to wear glasses from now on.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Harlin wasn\u2019t having it. \u201cI just went right to his face in front of everybody \u2014\u00a0cameras are ready to roll and the whole cast is there \u2014 and I looked him in the eyes and I said, \u2018Val, take off the fucking glasses now.\u2019 It was a test and he looked at me really seriously while everyone was on pins and needles, wondering if it was going to be a physical fight or what would happen. He took the glasses off and flashed that Iceman smile from Top Gun<\/em>, and said, \u2018It was worth trying.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018Elle\u2019 Honors the Late James Van Der Beek After Final Onscreen Role<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During Malta\u2019s Mediterrane Film Festival, Renny Harlin revealed how he once smoothed things over with the 'highly intelligent' Val Kilmer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2185,41,2233],"class_list":["post-2966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-mediterrane-film-festival","tag-renny-harlin","tag-val-kilmer"],"yoast_head":"\nRenny Harlin Recalls Clashing With Val Kilmer on \u2018Mindhunters\u2019 Over Pair of Eyeglasses - US Property Moves<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=2966\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Renny Harlin Recalls Clashing With Val Kilmer on \u2018Mindhunters\u2019 Over Pair of Eyeglasses - 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