Renny Harlin has a hard and fast rule for getting actors on the sets of his films: Prep, Prep, Prep.
The veteran director sat down for a fascinating conversation last week at the Malta Mediterranean Film Festival in Valletta, during which he opened up about the creative process he relied on to produce nearly four dozen films over five decades while working with some of the biggest movie stars on the planet, from Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson to Sylvester Stallone and Val Kilmer.
“It’s all about preparation. Preparation costs nothing,” Harlin told Superintendent Stephen Weintraub Collider. But for Harlin, his preparation goes beyond scripts and storyboards. He said he is also learning how to do the extreme stunts his films require. “Whether I do Interesting ending in the mountains, die hard 2 On airplanes or Deep blue sea In water tanks, I learned how to climb mountains, I learned how to dive, and I learned how to make airplanes. Even for Interesting endingI learned how to fly a helicopter. To me, preparation is the most valuable way to spend your time, and this is where you really make yourself ready.
Harlin said this had the added advantage of allowing him to beat out some of the “toughest actors in the business, and I’ve worked with some very experienced and tenacious actors.” “That’s how you won them over, whether it was Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Sir Ben Kingsley, etc. Or Val Kilmer, who had a reputation for not being the easiest.”
“But I’ve always been able to attract them by the fact that when I come to a movie, I’m prepared and they can ask me any question about anything and I know exactly how these things are done technically and how they work,” Harlin continued. “I tell them exactly what equipment they need, how they need to use it, and gain their trust. It’s not a secret, but many actors feel insecure because they’re putting themselves out there. They stand in front of the camera and expose themselves to the world and many actors are also very intelligent. If they feel like they know the film and their characters better than the director, they tend to take charge because they feel it’s their responsibility to protect themselves and to be in control. That’s when you get the horror stories where actors run all over the directors and the whole thing ends up in chaos.”
He avoided the mess once while working with Kilmer in 2004 Mind huntersco-starring LL Cool J and Christian Slater.
“God bless his soul. We became good friends,” Harlen said of the legendary star, who passed away at the age of 65 in 2025. Val was always popular for auditioning directors because he was a member of Mensa, a very intelligent and very talented guy. His method was to test the director early enough. [in the project] To find out who was the smartest guy in the room. I think he was quite insecure as well and felt that if he didn’t feel like he could respect the director, he had to take charge because otherwise it would be a disaster.
Harleen then remembers a tense moment Mind hunterswhich follows a group of FBI trainees who are taken to a remote island for simulation training. Once they get there, they realize they are being stalked by a serial killer. Kilmer played an FBI trainer named Jake Harris.
“We actually shot one scene for one day, and everything went really well,” Harlen recalls. Then it was the second day of the same sequence and I was ready to say ‘work.’ [Val was] Study the scenario and have it [a pair of glasses] On he looks at the script. The first assistant director said: Okay, we’re ready to go, everyone please take your places. Val goes to his mark and the camera is ready to roll. He put his script away, still wearing his glasses. I said, “Hey, Val, just take the glasses off.” We are ready to go. He looks at me and says: “No.” I’m like, “What do you mean no?” He said: Well, I thought about my character last night and he’s a really hard-working type. I think it was a mistake that I didn’t wear glasses yesterday. So I got these glasses this morning and I will wear them from now on.
Harlin was quick to say that they had already shot half the scene with Kilmer not wearing glasses, so for the sake of continuity, he suddenly couldn’t wear glasses. “Well, I guess we should reshoot what we shot yesterday, but I’ll be wearing glasses from now on,” Kilmer replied.
Harleen wasn’t having it. “I just walked up to his face in front of everyone — the cameras were ready to shoot and the whole cast was there — and I looked him in the eyes and said, ‘Val, take off your damn glasses now.’ It was a test and he looked at me very seriously while everyone was tense and anxious, wondering if it was going to be a physical fight or what was going to happen. He took the glasses off and showed that snowman smile.” Top Gun“It was worth a try,” he said.
