A chat with the film’s director following the actor’s death has revealed Val Kilmer drew the line at a particularly graphic gag while filming the 2010 comedy ‘MacGruber’.
Val Kilmer drew the line at a particularly graphic gag while filming the 2010 comedy ‘MacGruber’.
The ‘Top Gun’ actor died earlier this month at the age of 65 after a long battle with throat cancer, and his refusal to agree to the joke has now emerged in a chat with the film’s director Jorma Taccone.
Jorma, 48, told ‘The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast’: “He did do the movie – there was one joke, though, that he refused to do, which was that we did want to cut his penis off and shove it in his mouth. “That was the one joke that he did not want to do.”
Even though Val, who starred as villain Dieter Von Cunth in the ‘Saturday Night Live’-inspired spoof, declined to perform the scene, a version of the joke remained in the trailer.
In the clip, Will Forte’s title character threatens Dieter with the brutal act of violence.
Val, also best known for his performances in films including ‘Batman Forever’ and ‘Tombstone’, died on 1 April from pneumonia.
‘MacGruber’ was directed by Jorma and co-written by him, Will and John Solomon.
The three comedians spoke about their collaboration with Val during the ‘Lonely Island’ podcast.
Will, 54, described his initial surprise Val had even agreed to join the cast.
“For people who don’t know the process, we went into the table read not having the role cast,” he said. Will added: “He was just coming to the table read as a favour, like, not even to any of — I don’t know who he was doing the favour for because none of us knew him. So we were so excited to have him at this table read.”
Jorma added Val had only seen the script for the first time when he turned up to read.
“He admitted to us afterwards that he read it cold,” he said, adding: “And he nailed it. Just absolutely nailed the part.”
Podcast host Seth Meyers, 51, responded to the story by saying: “I think now it’s especially a good decision on his part. I think it would be even harder to talk about him now had you guys made this poor person do this.”
Will, who remained close with Val following the film, also wrote a tribute to him in Vulture on 4 April.
In the essay, he described him as “just the most unique person I’ve ever met.”
Val Kilmer drew line at graphic gag while filming 2010 comedy ‘MacGruber’
