Interview with Val Kilmer (Esquire Magazine, July 2005, page 123) concerning his acting abilities.
Interviewer:Â You understand how it feels to shoot someone as much as a person who has actually committed a murder?
Kilmer:Â “I understand it more. It’s an actors job. A guy who’s lived through the horror of Vietnam has not spent his life preparing his mind for it. He’s some punk. Most guys were borderline criminal or poor, and that’s why they got sent to Vietnam. It was all the poor, wretched kids who got beat up by their dads, guys who didn’t get on the football team, couldn’t finagle a scholarship. They didn’t have the emotional equipment to handle that experience. But this is what an actor trains to do. I can more effectively represent that kid than a guy who was there.”
Kerry and Fonda just moved up a notch in my book.