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Madmartigan
Val Kilmer
by Dan Madsen & John S. Davis
Portraying the handsome but undisciplined renegade warrior Madmartigan in Willow is an impressive performer with a formidable background--actor Val Kilmer.
At age 17, Kilmer was accepted into the Juilliard Academy in New York, the youngest student ever admitted at that time. He played several leading roles while studying drama there. He also co-wrote a play entitled How It All Began, which was seen by Joseph Papp and later presented at the Public Theatre with Kilmer in the lead.
He subsequently appeared in Papp's production of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part I. Kilmer's Broadway debut came in the play Slab Boys which co-starred Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon.
In 1984, Kilmer made his motion picture debut in Top Secret, a comedy in which he played Nick Rivers, a rock singer caught up in a series of misadventures involving the German military and a top secret weapon. In his next film, Real Genius, Kilmer portrayed a collegiate prodigy with a unique sense of humor.
His best known performance, however, was in the box-office smash Top Gun. Kilmer played Tom "Iceman" Kazansky, the talented F-14 pilot, whose technical skills in the cockpit are unmatched by any of his Top Gun flight school peers.
Now, with Madmartigan, Kilmer once again preparing for war, readying for savage combat in a very unusual world. This warrior is different.
"I really like Madmartigan," Kilmer explains. "He's fun to play. I like the fact that he's unpredictable. He's a hustler, so he has many different characteristics that come out of living through hard times. And that's enjoyable to play. He's definitely one of the most interesting characters I've done. It's fun to play a schmuck--but he's a likable schmuck and I hope audiences find him enjoyable to watch."
Preparing for a role such as Madmartigan--a man living in an entirely different world--might seem a difficult challenge. However, Kilmer approached the role very simply, realizing that Madmartigan is an individual with very fundamental necessities.
"I didn't do anything special," Kilmer observes, "because Madmartigan's really a very basic guy. Also, Ron Howard and George Lucas are so good at what they do that everything is sort of already there for you. You don't have to worry or think about it or have any concerns about it. I had a couple of talks with Ron about the character's style and tempo. Basically, what I had to do was make up aspects of the character that didn't exist in the writing. But this film is really well-written so it gave me a good idea of what Madmartigan is like. Nothing about it is complicated. It's just experimenting with different ways to do somethings that you already know you're going to do."
One of the requirements for Kilmer's role was being able to handle a sword. Not only did he have to learn to use the ancient weapon, he had to develop a style of fighting unique to Madmartigan. And he accomplished that task, curiously enough, with the use of juggling.
"We wanted to find a style of sword-fighting that was different and we came up with something that has elements of juggling in it," Kilmer explains. "I didn't even know I could juggle. We were just fooling around looking for something unusual that Madmartigan could do. Bill Hobbs, the fight arranger, was searching for some kind of style that was original while combining things that George Lucas likes in the Japanese culture. So, we wanted to have something that matched the character, some bravado that had meaning. We first rejected the idea of juggling because it's pretty meaningless for fighting. Then, we started fooling around with different things that made it look like some of the disciplines in the martial arts which are based upon the original Samurai practice for battle. Yet, now, it has been developed into an art, a physical discipline. So, we developed a similar style for Madmartigan, using elements of juggling and the Samurai and came up with what you see on the screen."
Madmartigan also dresses for success in a style unlike most other warriors. When Kilmer first saw himself in full costume, it was clear he resembled an American Indian far more than a European Knight.
"I relived my ancestry," he recalls. "I'm part Cherokee. Madmartigan looks like an Indian. His hair looks very much like the way the Cherokee used to wear their hair. They had it flat on the sides with the braids coming down. But this isn't my real hair, of course, it's a wig."
Kilmer finds the role as delightful as the prospects for this epic adventure.
"Willow really has a lot of potential," he contends. "Everyone I know who has read the script likes it a lot. And that happens very rarely in any genre, where you read a script and you want to read it again instantly. When I finished reading the script for Willow, and this was before I even knew whether I had the role, it was so much fun to read that I read it again immediately. It's just a very good story. I had a different feeling reading Willow. It was fun to read a scene with the brownies, for instance. They have great lines! And usually you get a little tingle for them, not for you, because you know they have great parts. But this script was enjoyable from start to finish and I had a good time reading all of the characters' lines, not just Madmartigan's."
While Willow has been a positive experience for Kilmer, it has also been physically demanding. The swordfighting, rain and mud have made the job more grueling than any of his previous films.
"I used to ride in the junior rodeo and this feels like I've been in the rodeo for 48 hours solid," he reveals. "I'm usually muddy and wet and tired at the end of each day of shooting. Willow has been a very physically demanding picture."
Kilmer has nothing but praise for the men behind Willow, George Lucas and Ron Howard. As an admirer of their films, he was pleased to get the chance to work with them.
"George Lucas is like Zorro," Kilmer comments jokingly. "He comes and goes on the set. And he leaves his mark when he's gone! But when he's around, he really takes an interest in what's happening. He really loves to play with things, which is fun because, usually, producers are the kind of people you don't think you can really talk to. I haven't specifally talke to George about my character, but we have discussed the ways he expresses himself, which is through the objects he uses and how he uses them. Hopefully, Willow will achieve what George's other films have. The kind of things that happen in Raiders of the Lost Ark, for instance, you've seen before, but you look at it in a different way because George has changed it here and there to add new life to it. That also helps to make working on a film like Willow fun, because although the things you're doing are new, you're paying homage to things of the past. It's great to know that you're part of that and after you get to be too tired from filming to remember your middle name, that's one of the comforting elements of going to work every day.
"Another thing about George's films is that they're believable. He sets up things and you believe it even though it's outrageous. That's true of Willow, which also has a specific style all its own. There is a specific style of acting for the film--like heightened realism at times. Every now and then, something will happen and it will be acceptable, it won't jay you. And the same with fantasy: Bizarre things happen, but in the world of Willow, they're normal. An Eborsisk monster comes out of a moat or we get turned into pigs by magic. Those are things that happen in this magical world."
Although Willow is a big and complex production, Kilmer found that director Ron Howard juggled the numerous elements of battles, hundreds of extra and complicated special effects with relative ease.
"I don't like to compare Ron with other directors I've worked with," Kilmer says, "because then I'll have to insult the other directors! He is very, very good. I've always had the experience of having concern about what the director wants except on this film. Besides having a great director, Willow's story is so strong, it speaks for itself. It tells you what should happen in a scene.
"I think that the story of Willow can influence people. It's a very hopeful story about courage. It's good action/adventure on one level, but it's always saying something very positive on another. Usually movies are so commercially oriented that this kind of hopefulness somehow gets lost. The style of filmmaking has become commercial-product oriented--selling an image of something you are told through clever manipulation that you want or need. There is not much heart in that--it's basically just pushing the right buttons or painting things the right color," Val Kilmer notes. "But what I like about Willow is that it shows you can tell a story about something that is not attached to a product and stands for positive, good things. It's a story with heart."
Madsen, Dan, & John S. Davis. "Madmartigan: Val Kilmer." The Official Willow Movie Magazine. Ed. David McDonnell. New York: Jacobs, 1988. 20-22.
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