Val Kilmer's Favorite Part Of Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang Was Improvising Insults At Robert Downey Jr.
In the world of a Shane Black project, smartasses, abrupt violence, and the spirit of Christmas all go hand in hand, especially in "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang." Keeping with noir tradition, what starts out as an inquiry into a murder case blossoms into an investigation rabbit hole that reveals so many other parties at play. Rather than following your traditional gumshoe, we're sent scrambling all over Los Angeles with a bewildered private eye and a small-time NY crook masquerading as an actor. Black has an incredible knack for taking two stars you would have never thought of as a buddy duo, and showing us what we've all been missing out on รก la "The Nice Guys."
In "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," Val Kilmer's Perry Van Shrike makes the perfect foil to Robert Downey Jr.'s Harry Lockheart, as the pair find themselves way in over their head in having to deal with one another. Although Downey's career resurgence wouldn't come until the life-altering release of "Iron Man," you can see so much of his Tony Stark material in the testing stages here. His charisma is off-the-charts hilarious, especially whenever Kilmer simply has to reckon with the idea that he's stuck working with an idiot.
It never ceases to amaze me how much the driving plot dissipates into the background, as I'm hyper-focused on watching Kilmer and Downey riff off of one another. As it would happen, it turns out that this was one of Kilmer's favorite parts about working on the hilarious neo-noir.
'Having Robert playing a dumb guy was really fun'
When you take into account just how different Shrike and Lockheart are from one another, it's astounding how much chemistry these actors have with one another. There's hardly a moment of silence between them, as the commonality between them is that they're mostly quick on their feet, for better or worse.
During a 2005 interview for CityLife Magazine, the duo talked about how much laughter came from playing these characters. They loved the snappy idiosyncrasies of Black's script, but according to Downey, they sometimes found themselves improvising when the cameras were rolling. Kilmer had a blast riffing with his co-star, especially because Downey was able to play dumb. "He's actually very smart but because he's acting dumb he can't say anything back to me," says Kilmer.
Downey Jr. also had nothing but great things to say about his co-star:
"He's Val g*ddamn Kilmer [...] He's amazing. The stuff he came up with on the spot was great. Like when he's supposed to tell me to put my cigarette out and I ask him where and he just deadpans, 'Throw it in that clump of dry bushes, you moron.'"
The gag from "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" that always works a number on me is when Lockheart accidentally murders a promising lead with a Russian roulette interrogation gone wrong. The cogs turning in Shrike's head as he attempts to process the decision leads to the hilarious escalation of "who taught you math?!" Seeing as Kilmer spends most of the film grappling with his reluctant partner's miscalculations, it seems to have allowed the "Top Gun" star a perfect outlet to lovingly make fun of his other screen half at every available opportunity.
"Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" is currently streaming on Showtime.