Val Kilmer stars as a career military officer working for a highly secretive special operations force in writer-director David Mamet’s espionage thriller, “Spartan,” which opens today. He spoke with a group of reporters recently about the film.
QUESTION: What initially drew you to “Spartan?”
VAL KILMER: I’d probably do anything with David Mamet because he’s so great. I just love his writing. I hope he does more comedies, though — he’s so funny. Have you interviewed him? He’s just fantastic.
Q: This certainly isn’t one of Mamet’s funnier films. How do you think it compares to his other work?
VK: He’s known for the unique style of his dialogue, but this is probably the least Mamet-like sounding movie. But I think it’s his best screenplay. That’s because it’s a good story for film, and he’s really grown as a writer in relation to film, which is a tricky business.
Q: Let’s talk about the parallels “Spartan” draws to the current political climate in America.
VK: OK, well, I think this film is very relevant for the times. We take what’s shown on television as the truth, and it isn’t. The news on television isn’t the truth. You look up the definition of what news is, it certainly isn’t what we’re watching on television.
Q:And you believe the government is com-plicit in this deception along with the media?
VK: Well, sure. We have a very grave responsibility, and a really awesome opportunity at this time to lead in the world, and our government has spoken for the people unfairly, and characterized and represented us as something that our nation isn’t. We’re not like what our government has told the world we are, and that’s just an absolute fact. One of (author) John LeCarre’s character’s observed that a government is defined by its spies. What they’re willing to have a spy do covertly or overtly defines the character of a nation. And when you look at it that way, it’s a wonderful story because it brings up how powerful the government is, and how their relationship with the media is — more times than not — questionable.
Q: Some might say this movie an indictment of the current administration in Washington. Is that an accurate assessment?
VK: There are people around the president in this film that have decided for him — it’s not really clear whether it’s with his knowledge or not — that’s it’s best to lie to the country. And in our lives, we’ve experienced that happening on a large scale, and it will happen again.
Q: Former Delta Force operative Eric Haney was the technical advisor on “Spartan.” What did you learn from him about the world of military espionage, and how were you able to utilize it in this role?
VK: These guys have taken lives in defense of our nation. When you talk to them about killing, they train themselves like brain surgeons to be able to control their emotions. They’re really amazing characters. Eric had an experience where he had a CIA directive — they were told where the enemy was, they went and killed him, and it was a U.S. guy. Eric had trained him. It couldn’t get any more poetic or awful than that. Turns out it wasn’t an accident, it was a manipulation of their talent and our money and our investment in our security.
Q: Sounds like making this movie was a profound experience for you.
VK: Yes, and a weird one, too. The woman who plays the madam, she’s a friend of mine (Kilmer’s character threatens to kill her in the movie). And we both said the same thing after, that acting is just a weird thing. I mean, I’m going to kill her if she doesn’t tell me what I want to know. It’s just so strange to go strangle my friend all night long. I’m proud of it, because I think I represented the character and that life well. But it’s a tough world they live in. They all die.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 12, 2004. Read the original PDF.