Adam Marcus referred to Val Kilmer as the “worst human being” over a year after Kilmer’s passing from pneumonia.
The director collaborated with the late star of Batman Forever on the 2008 action film Conspiracy. He shared his thoughts in a post that has since been removed.
“#MicroIntellectMonday When I directed that guy. The guy who played Iceman and Doc Holliday. You know it,” he wrote, sharing a photo with Kilmer, as noted by a media outlet.
Marcus, 58, further added, “This is me and the Putts working on the set of ‘Conspiracy.’
The filmmaker later responded to those upset by his remarks regarding the late actor from Top Gun.
“And for those who roll their eyes at the words ‘don’t speak ill of a dead bull,’ oh well,” he stated in a post that was also reportedly removed.
He went on to assert that if Kilmer “had only done a tenth of what he did on my set today, it would have been canceled immediately.”
“The worst human being I’ve ever known…and that’s really saying something,” he concluded.
Kilmer portrayed William “Spooky” McPherson, a disabled Marine in the film, who, after visiting a friend in the Southwestern U.S., finds that his friend has vanished, with no one willing to acknowledge their existence.
Previous accounts indicated that Kilmer was tough to work with on set.
For instance, director John Frankenheimer vowed never to team up with Kilmer again, following the film The Island of Dr. Moreau.
In a discussion from 1996, Batman Forever director Joel Schumacher described Kilmer’s behavior as “childish and impossible.” Later, in a 2021 documentary about Kilmer’s life, the actor acknowledged past behavior on set.
Kilmer passed away at home in Los Angeles in April 2025 due to pneumonia at the age of 65, having been bedridden in the years preceding his death as a result of energy depletion from prior cancer treatments.
