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By Liane Bonin
Liane Bonin
Liane Bonin is a senior writer for EW.com

Director Joel Schumacher called him "childish and impossible." "The Island of Dr. Moreau" director John Frankenheimer demanded that someone get "that bastard" off the set. The handsome actor dated Cher during her motorcycle-mama days. But with his latest project, it seems inveterate bad boy Val Kilmer has transformed himself -- and he has a fictional character to thank for it.

Through his own nonprofit organization, Kilmer recently directed and partially financed a fund-raising film for a Native American prep school in New Mexico. Kilmer felt that making the film was not only a good deed, but a question of taste. "This was something I know how to do," Kilmer tells EW Online. "And most fund-raising films, they're just so bad."

Kilmer says his inspiration for the project came from playing the character of Virgil in his new movie "At First Sight" (opening Jan. 15). In the film, the brooding actor best known for playing rock stars, gunslingers, and superheroes turns on the charm as a blind masseur who undergoes a sight-restoring operation to please a new lady love (Mira Sorvino). "The role really deepened my sense of self," says Kilmer. "I think this story is an example that love is what you give and not what you get, and while I like to think that I make as much time as I can for people less fortunate, playing Virgil made me understand I have to do more."

Another thing Kilmer would like to do more of is play the romantic lead. "Some of my favorite stories are romances, and I've always wanted to tell a really good love story," says Kilmer. "It's just been my luck that I haven't been able to until now." For the time being, though, Kilmer will have to content himself with portraying baddies: In his latest project, "Joe the King," he plays an alcoholic, abusive father.


Posted Jan 13, 1999 | Order Article Reprints