"I went to London to meet him, and he was Jim Morrison with long hair. Later, he came to see me in Los Angeles, and he came in as an FBI agent, with short hair and a suit. What was interesting was that I never met Val Kilmer. I remember seeing him later in Santa Fe and he was very much who he was. But the way he works, which is both intriguing and can be slightly difficult for others, is that he is that role."

"He is wonderful in the movie. He is a very talented actor."

"Kilmer's mouth and eyes rarely convey the same emotion at the same time. We bounced ideas off each other. One [Kilmer had] was whistling on the way to the OK Corral. I think each director has different relationships with actors you know. I think the ones who don't like him are the ones who tie him up in knots and not let him move, the autocrats."

"In that one expression is Chris' total understanding of who he's been and where he's come from, all that history, the volatility, the dysfunctional parts of his marriage, the contradictions. It's the accumulation of all the work we did. It's not just an accumulation of Chris' history crashing at that moment, it's Val's history and my history and everybody's history doing that picture. In that moment, Val is Chris. He's not Val; he's not acting. He is being Chris. You can't fake that. When you work with a brilliant actor like Val, you get those transcendental moments when an expression says everything."

"He's been nothing but generous to me. [The bad press] is the price you pay for fighting for what you believe in."

"Never have I heard so much crap about an actor I had such a good time with. It's all bull. He doesn't explain himself to people, so people talk."

"Val was one of the first people cast. He was there every step along the way, patient, understanding, and phenomenally generous with his time."

"You know, people have said I'm a little crazy. But if you're the slightest bit different, you're gonna get a little of that, right? He's got his own style. I kind of like that. I think he's an interesting, fun person. I think he's a hoot."

"Bob (De Niro) said he was great. And when I met Val, I have to admit I was charmed by him. He worked incredibly hard and I like him so much. I still socialize with him. Brains can scare a lot of people in Hollywood."

"I was very impressed by the way all of them, especially Val, studied the almost impossible task of trying to represent a blind man and then an agnosic man - someone who is able to see but is mentally blind and cannot decipher what he is seeing. Sometimes I was quite puzzled and a little miffed during filming when I would go up to talk to him and he wouldn't greet me. I thought at first he was being supercilious but in fact it turned out he couldn't see me."

"He's very creative. Very improvisational. He's always coming up with great ideas. Very natural. Every take is different. We have a really fun time. It's going well."

"I didn't need just another action man, I needed a real actor, someone who could pull of playing 13 different characters - 12 the audience knows about, one important disguise they mustn't cotton on to. Val Kilmer has shown how incredibly diverse his talents are in such films as The Doors and Tombstone. Val has all the qualities of a leading man; he's handsome, debonair and charismatic. But what distinguishes him from all the others out there is that he can play other people. He doesn't just rely on projecting an extension of his own persona. He was the only person who had the true acting ability to play all the diverse parts Simon Templar must adopt. Val has never been used in this way before - I think people are going to be really surprised with what he comes up with here."

"Val and I met for the first time on our lot in London. I've worked with great actors before, and I was aware of Val's reputation, so I asked him how does he see making this movie. He said to me, 'I do a lot of movies where they won't listen to my suggestions.' I said that we will listen, and he said, 'That's all I want.' So he suggested how to create all these characters that Templar uses in the film. They were not on the page, they were just scenes dealing with a man in disguise, but what that disguise was going to be, the particular accent and attitude along with body language, it was all coming from Val."

"Val has a beautiful intensity of spirit that you feel when you play opposite him," says Elisabeth Shue, Kilmer's love interest in The Saint. "He's very reactive. And you can see his mind working on film, which is rare."

"Val's an actor's actor, wonderfully complex. Before we made BATMAN, Tom [Cruise, her husband, who had worked with Kilmer in TOP GUN (1986)] said, 'You're really going to get along well. He's really bright, and he's really dedicated.' and that was true. We just clicked."

"Val has been a complete gentleman. He's given us extra days he's not required to do by contract. He's been very adaptable. But most artists require someone who will listen to them - you'd better listen to a serious actor, and Val is a serious actor."

"Val is a very vulnerable and fragile person .... I think that's why his performances are so good. He dares to let his own, interior workings come out on screen"

"Working with Val was the best part of the movie."

"I'll be honest: I was a little concerned about Val because I heard he had a rep for being difficult. I can tell you, he was a love. I mean, he gave me the same kind of loyalty that Doc Holliday gave Wyatt Earp. It was really on the line for me, and he came through. And I think that's what it is with Val: he needs a challenge to be at his best - the challenge of a difficult role, or a difficult situation, or a challenging director. Val doesn't have a coasting gear."

"If I were to guess," says Schumacher, "I would think that Val's survival instinct forced him to be as involved as he is with acting craft, because with his looks he could have been very easily thought of as just a fox, just a pretty boy. His career is just starting to roll now. And I think it's a better moment than when he started, because he's older, he's more mature, and he will continue to grow as an actor, because he's really got his craft."

"I think he's just a little more...virile," [than Batman predecessor, MICHAEL KEATON] "He's very less-is-more. He just gives you enough to make you feel there's something beating underneath."

"With Michael Keaton and Val, the actual performances are both very good. I think that perhaps Val is more.... Michael would give you something that he just made, open his hand and say, 'There it is; I've just made it.' And Val just opens his hand and it's there; it's part of his hand. I don't know how else to put it."

"At one point we were on a gimbal that was swerving and dipping in the air, and I was supposed to kick him (Val) in the face. I think on the third or fourth take, the helicopter zigged when it should have zagged, and I popped him on the nose. I was mortified, but he was a perfect gentleman."

"Val is such a good actor that he can turn a joke, run and pick up a sword, then do a serious acting moment, and never make a false step. Discovering that Val was so great at the physical aspects of the film, I felt blessed in the same way I did when I discovered Darryl Hannah could hold her breath under water for more than a minute."

"He's probably one of the best American actors right now - he's in his prime. This movie could be very big for him. It's the best-written role in the script and he's doing a heck of a job. He's learned how to play on of Chopin's nocturnes. He's a bright guy. He does a lot of research, he gets used to all his props, he works hard with his accent. He's got a lot going for him."

"I actually like Val. I know he gets a lot of bad press, but I like him a lot. Sometimes (people) can want a little bit of control and want (their) own way...and not have an idea in their head. The fact is that Val wants the control, but he has some great ideas. I think if they would have listened to Val a bit more, the film might be a little bit better."

"But it's weird because like right now, I've read two things where there seems to be this massive kill campaign against Val Kilmer. And he was in DR. MOREAU and it just *#&@*'d me off because it's just so not true. I mean, I worked with the man...he's just not, he's not an *#&!@#. He's been given this awful rap for nothing. He never did the things they say he did. I was there. I would know, you know?"

"When I first saw Val as a young actor, I thought two things. One was that I thought he was talented and two, I thought that he would work - that he would get work. That he had the kind of personality and the kind of looks and the kind of putting that all together that could make him very employable - and I was right.

"When I first met Val, I didn't think he was right. He didn't look the part, and his voice didn't sound like Jim's at all. But when he put on makeup and got into the part, he reminded me of Jim in everything from his voice to his manner. It was like having him back for a while. Spooky."

"For Val, he understood not only what was on the page but the spiritual essence of what the movie was trying to say and he has sort of lived and breathed the character of John Patterson for a long time."

"I will never forget the smile on his (Ted's) face when he spoke of Mr. Kilmer. When I read horror stories about how difficult he is to work with, I just remember the wonderful things Ted told me about him and realize the stories cannot be totally accurate. If you have a way to get in touch with Mr. Kilmer, I would very much appreciate your letting him know how much the late Chief Ted Thin Elk thought of him as a man and an actor."

"Išll tell you who I really have a lot of respect for is Val, Val Kilmer. Val and myself and Kurt, I can remember sitting around and talking and talking and talking about the characters and Kurtšs characters and Val and I must have rehearsed the scenes we did hundreds of times and talked about different variations and different ways we could play it and just attack it from every way we could. Val is the hardest working actor that I˛ve ever worked with and hešs gotten a bad reputation, but hešs a perfectionist. People say, hešs a... some people mistake being a perfectionist for being a prima donna and hešs not."

"People have said to me they think it's his best work," (in JOE THE KING) "He's had glimpses here and there - I've known him since we did THE DOORS - but here he was just relaxed. There was no money involved, of course. He just did the part."