Val Kilmer reunites with 'Top Gun' creators for 'Déjà Vu'

It's been twenty years since Val Kilmer made Hollywood sit up and take notice with a breakout performance in "Top Gun" (the film also made a star of the then little-known Tom Cruise). Two decades on, Kilmer's latest effort, the action thriller "Déjà Vu," reunites him with "Top Gun" producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Tony Scott, a powerhouse duo whose joint hits also include "Enemy of the State," "Beverly Hills Cop II" and "Crimson Tide." (Bruckheimer's other credits include the three Pirates of the Caribbean films).

In "Déjà Vu," Kilmer plays Andrew Pryzwarra, an FBI agent who teams up with Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington) of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to track down the perpetrator of a catastrophic explosion on a New Orleans ferry. An intriguing blend of science fact and science fiction, "Déjà Vu's" unique plot twist finds agents Carlin and Pryzwarra tapping into a top-secret government project that may give them the chance to go back in time and prevent a crime that has already happened. "It's almost impossible to compare this film with anything else," says Kilmer, "and it's rare to find a script like that."

Question: What was it like to reunite with Jerry Bruckheimer and Tony Scott?

Val Kilmer: I was telling someone earlier that I'd estimated that between them they had sold something like six or seven billion dollars worth of movie tickets. Then my publicist whispered in my ear that it's fourteen and a half billion dollars. Either way, they seem to understand what everyone in the world wants to see. It's reassuring to be part of that. And I really love being around the two of them because they are just such genuine people.

Tony Scott is inspiring because he is as successful as you could possibly be and yet he is still the nicest guy. He learns every person's name on the set and their girlfriend's name and their dog's name. And you can be a supporting actor, not necessarily the star, and he will still come and apologize if a shot is taking too long and explain why. He's also the first one there and the last one to leave. I saw him filming once when the crew had already gone home. He was just sitting there filming a wall all by himself.

Q: What's your take on the phenomenon of déjà vu? In the film there's the suggestion that it may have something to do with the existence of parallel universes.

Kilmer: Apparently some scientists have put that theory forward. At the very least, I think things happen to us all the time to indicate that life is more interesting and mysterious than our regular five senses lead us to suppose. I was just finishing up a series of tasks before coming out to do these interviews and I thought of this friend I haven't talked to in six months. So I stopped what I was doing and called her and she said, I can't believe it because I just got through saying your name to another friend. And that sort of thing happens all the time. I think it's the writer Milan Kundera who's got a wonderful description of what he calls a movie moment when you're humming a sonata and you turn on the radio and it's playing.

Q: Among the interesting things about "Déjà Vu" is that it's a thriller where we already know who committed the crime.

Kilmer: I liked that aspect of the plot and its complexity. I think that complexity applies to the characters as well. It was certainly fun for me to play a character that is enigmatic and mysterious, someone who has secrets, whereas in the typical thriller your obligation is to make everything very clear and simple. Even the name of my character is complicated [laughs]: Special Agent Pryzwarra. I said to Tony Scott, just once I would like somebody to remember the name of my character. But it's like a tic with him. In "Top Gun" I was Kawolski. Why not Smith or Jones for a change?

Q: You've been making films for twenty years now. How have you changed in that time?

Kilmer: As far as my work goes, I just feel increasingly grateful because I made these very personal choices about acting and pursued whatever happened to interest me at a particular moment and I've been able to continue to do that. Now that I'm older I realize how lucky I've been. There are lots of fine actors who can't get jobs. Gary Oldman is doing very well now because of "Harry Potter," but I think there was a point when it was really hard for him to get work, which is kind of criminal, because he's a wonderful, wonderful actor.

Q: And how have you changed personally in twenty years?

Kilmer: I still dress like a bum [laughs] and don't have much of a sense of style, though I got a lot of complimentary calls from friends back East when I got onto People Magazine's Worst Dressed List. I think I was wearing a purple velour tracksuit in the photo and even I thought wow that takes some courage to wear that.

(Opening soon across the Philippines, "Deja Vu" is distributed by Buena Vista International through Columbia Pictures.)