It’s been over a decade since Val Kilmer and Cate Blanchett appeared together in the 2003 Western The Missing – but the actor’s admiration for his former costar has never diminished.
Kilmer went on a multi-day tweet-storm about the Oscar-winning actress over the weekend, declaring his affection for her. “Once I did a cameo just to hang w/ #cateblanchett who pickd up a shovel in our sc. I was so dazzled by HOW she picked it up I forgot my line,” he wrote in one tweet — of many, some since-deleted.
So what about Blanchett left Kilmer so in awe?
In their film The Missing, Blanchett played a rancher who must team up with her estranged father (Tommy Lee Jones) to track down her daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) who was kidnapped by Native American rebels. Kilmer portrayed Lt. Jim Ducharme, a member of the U.S. Cavalry.
The film received mixed reviews – though the performances were mostly praised – and holds a 58 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Three years after the film’s release, Kilmer gushed about Blanchett to Elle, calling the actress the famous woman he’d most like to have on speed dial. Kilmer said that although he did not tell his costar of his admiration outright, he believed that she was aware.
“I think she probably got a sense of it when I not only forgot my dialogue in the scene, I forgot that I was acting, I forgot I was on a movie set, and I just stood there staring at her,” Kilmer said.
Kilmer, 57, and Blanchett, 47, are sharing the screen once again this year in the newly released film Song to Song.
The actor makes a short cameo in the movie, which follows two couples in the Austin, Texas, music world – one pair played by Ryan Gosling and Rooney Mara, and the other by Michael Fassbender and new mom Natalie Portman.
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Of how his brief appearance came about, Kilmer told Vulture that director Terrence Malick recruited him.
He added, “Plus, I’m all the way in love with Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, so that put a little gas in the tank.”