For Stars Kilmer And Shue, Screen Chemistry Had Fizz

HOLLYWOOD - Before I heard Val Kilmer's voice, before I heard Elisabeth Shue's voice, I heard Eric Burdon's voice.

The voice escaping from a plush hotel suite at the trendy Mondrian hotel in West Hollywood belonged to Burdon, singing the classic 1970 tune "Spill the Wine." Then came the voices of the actors.

"What is that?" a mildy curious Shue said as she tried to read the spinning disc on the portable CD player.

"What do you mean, what is that?" Kilmer responded incredulously.

"That song," she replied.

"It's `Spill the Wine,' " Kilmer said, his mouth agape and his eyes bugged out for effect.

"I never heard of it," she said casually.

"By Eric Burdon," he said with emphasis.

"Oh," she said in an intentionally unconvincing manner.

"E . . . ric Bur . . . don," he said slowly, as if trying to jog her memory.

"Whatever," she said, making an exaggerated look and gesture to a visitor, as if to say, "Why is this guy so hyper?"

"This is a great song," an exasperated Kilmer said.

"If you say so," she said, rolling her eyes.

Val Kilmer and Elisabeth Shue are wasting their talents. They should not be spending all their time making movies. They should become a comedy team and take their act on the road.

Only good friends could have a conversation like this in front of a stranger. It is evident that Kilmer and Shue are indeed good friends, a friendship cemented on the frozen streets of Moscow, where they filmed a major part of "The Saint."

Kilmer, 37, plays the lone-wolf title character, a celebrated thief made famous by novelist Leslie Charteris in dozens of books and later in nine feature films and a television series.

Shue, 33, nominated last year for an Oscar for her portrayal of a prostitute in "Leaving Las Vegas," plays a physicist who becomes the target of Russian bad guys and Kilmer's affection.

In a recent interview, they touched on a wide range of subjects, including what attracted them to the roles, screen chemistry, and those tabloid rumors that almost broke up Shue's marriage to director David Guggenheim.

Q: Were either of you familiar with the character of "The Saint" before you read the script?

Shue: I wasn't; I knew nothing about it, nothing at all.

Kilmer: I'd read a couple of the books and I liked them, but I never saw the television series.

Q: Then what attracted you to the roles?

Shue: It was all Val's fault. I really wanted to work with him, but God knows why. I guess I respected his work, and if you are a woman in this business, you know you're generally going to work with men, and I choose whom I work with very carefully.

Kilmer: I can think of 10 very clear reasons why, but one of the most important was that this character started out as a literary figure, so I knew he would be a complete character.

Q: Define screen chemistry.

Shue: It's the force of two people's energy and commitment to the work. When both actors share that kind of energy, when they are so open to each other that they allow the energy to flow back and forth, I can't imagine there not being chemistry on screen.

Kilmer: The onscreen relationship is like any relationship, in that it can be blessed and effortless to some degree but it requires a lot of bloody hard work to keep it going. There would not have been chemistry in this movie if we hadn't done the work.

Q: Was this friendship an instant thing? (At this point, the actors have an argument over a cigarette. Shue picked up one of Kilmer's cigarettes and he physically stopped her from smoking it. Apparently, she recently broke the habit and he was being a friend.)

Shue: We had an instant respect for each other, but the friendship grew as we did the work.

Kilmer: The friendship had to take time; we started filming in Russia and all we did was run around in the cold. They weren't the best conditions for starting a friendship.

Q: Did those tabloid stories ever threaten your friendship?

Shue: I knew the friendship would survive, but I was worried about my marriage.

Kilmer: I never thought the stories were that bad.

Shue: That's because you didn't have members of two families calling you in the middle of the night to ask you about the rumors. I even had distant cousins calling to see if the stories were true.

Kilmer: I think most of that was aimed at me, and Elisabeth just got swept up in the middle because she happened to be working with me when the media decided I was their next target. They couldn't get a picture of me drooling in some disco at 3 a.m., so they made up stories about us having an affair. They invented those stories.

Q: So would you two work together again?

Shue: Definitely.

Kilmer: Definitely. Although I did hear a rumor on television yesterday that Elisabeth said she would do another film with me only for a lot of money.

Shue: I was kidding.

Kilmer: I knew you were kidding.

Shue: Then why did you say it?

Kilmer: I have no idea.