Val Kilmer Got Deep Into Method

In Hollywood today, you’re only as strong as your last millennium story of patriarchal victimization. If you’re a young actress trying to catch a break, other women in the business have probably sabotaged your chances a thousand times over, but what about that one time that guy made a dick joke and you required a thirty year scrip for Xanax?

80’s spot role TV actress Caitlin O’Heaney claims actor Val Kilmer punched her during a 1991 audition for Oliver Stone’s The Doors bio pic.

“When I got to the room and Val Kilmer picked me up and shaked me, throwing me down to the floor, Stone just stood there the whole time laughing.”

If you only read the Buzzfeed headlines and the part where O’Heaney claims afterward she went down to her car and cried for twenty minutes, you might picture a tweaking early 90’s Val Kilmer indiscriminately beating women. As a generalization, that may not be far off for early 90’s Val Kilmer. But it isn’t likely what really happened.

O’Heaney was auditioning for the role of “that chick Jim Morrison attacks in a drug rage”. The actresses were warned prior to casting call that the scene was physical and there would be contact. If you’ve ever met a method actor, you understand when they’re told to rage, they will rage. 

The movie’s casting director, Risa Bramon Garcia, remembers shit going down very differently than O’Heaney:

“I remember there was a moment Val pinned her to the wall — all part of the scene. It was way blown out of proportion. I am not somebody who takes this stuff lightly. I can tell the difference between something that’s abusive and a moment that got carried away … but it was all in the context of the work. [O’Heaney had] a very extreme reaction to a situation that to me was not extreme at all.”

Garcia adamantly denies that Kilmer ever struck O’Heaney. It was Garcia’s job to step into the scene before anything every got too volatile. Facts aside, as you really must in the #MeToo era, O’Heaney spun her questionable tale of Hollywood misogyny into the greater cause:

“Women have come together, saying, ‘We’re not going to be fucked by you. I finally have the confidence to speak about this. It’s too long that I’ve sat on this story.”

Maybe 26 years too long. Inside Edition was huge at the time. Call them and tell them Val Kilmer punched you on set. They would’ve made it the lead. And perchance, the accused could’ve had a chance to respond. As opposed to ambush potshots on social media. Even if you’re trying to be semi-earnest, it’s likely you don’t clearly remember events from almost three decades ago. This is why every man in his 50’s remembers being an amazing high school athlete. 

Much like the statute of limitations on actual criminal prosecution, there ought be similar on casual online allegations. Five years seems about right. It’s almost 2018, get your 2012 suddenly ready to go stories before they are timed out.