Two special guests, Will Forte and John Solomon, join the pod this week to share their fond memories of making MacGruber, including their favorite moments with the legendary Val Kilmer. We dedicate this episode to Val, who passed away on April 1, 2025, and celebrate the joy, humor, and heart he brought to the screen and to those who knew him. MacGuber trailer - https://youtu.be/xQHHHBkigDY?si=n4kXjLy7daCn6NUu Werner Herzog on Chickens - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhMo4WlBmGM MacGruber: Sensitivity Training - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPNZv8J94uA Behind the Music: Rock & Roll Heaven - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqPB1NlM4ew (Not all the clips we mention are available online; some never even aired.) If you want to see more photos and clips follow us on Instagram @lonelymeyerspod. Send us an email! [email protected] Support our sponsors: Maker's Mark This episode of The Lonely Island Podcast is brought to you by our friends at Maker's Mark. You too can celebrate the spirited women in your life with a free personalized label to go with a bottle of Maker’s Mark! Head to https://www.makersmarkpersonalize.com and fill in the details in order to create and mail your custom label. MAKER'S MARK MAKES THEIR BOURBON CAREFULLY. PLEASE ENJOY IT THAT WAY. Maker's Mark® Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky, 45% Alc./Vol. ©2025 Maker's Mark Distillery, Inc., Loretto, KY. Vuori 20% off your first purchase, but enjoy free shipping on any U.S. orders over $75 and free returns. Go to https://www.vuori.com/island and discover the versatility of Vuori Clothing. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions. Rocket Money Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to https://www.RocketMoney.com/island today. ExpressVPN Secure your online data TODAY by visiting https://www.ExpressVPN.com/ISLAND to find out how you can get up to four extra months FREE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What do the hosts say about Val Kilmer's legacy?
All right, so Yorm is today's Andy, but he's also today's Yorm, and he's also today's Akiva. Yeah. But we're joined by a couple other people. We're having a special episode of the Lonely Island and Seth Meyers podcast. We have re-invited back previous guests, John Solomon and Will Forte. Hello, gentlemen. Hello. Johnny, Will, Johnny.
We had always wanted you guys to come back on to talk about more MacGruber stuff, including the movie. And then very sadly, we had a reason to speed that process up. Our dear friend Val Kilmer passed away. I highly recommend everybody go and read a beautiful piece that Will had published in New York Magazine. It was very lovely, the way you talked about Val.
And I thought maybe we could talk about him some more on this here podcast today.
we could talk about him for a year and it wouldn't cover even a dent of who he was loaded up he's the world's deadliest villain sorry he's ruthless no speak question and brilliant straight flush damn it i'm gonna turn washington dc into a pile of ash he's known only as dieter and until now he's been unstoppable What the world needs is a hero who's so top secret, we don't even know his full name.
Hello, MacGruber.
Can we just start with the casting of Val Kilmer in MacGruber as a character, Dieter von Kunth? Yes. Dieter von Kunth. So in the very writing of the script, you have eliminated probably 85% of actors who just are going to hard no.
I think it's a testament to either he didn't read the name of the character because he did. He was at the table read. And I don't know if we talked about this, that he admitted to us afterwards that he read it cold and he nailed it. Like just absolutely nailed the part.
Yes. I think not only would 85% of actors not want to play a character named Dieter von Kuntz. I think probably 99% of agents don't want to call their clients and say, hey, there's a part I think you're perfect for. Yeah.
For people who don't know the process, we went into the table read, not having the role cast. He was just coming to the table read as a favor, like not even to any of, I don't know who he was doing the favor for because none of us knew him. So we were so excited to have him at this table read. It had to be Lauren, right? Yeah.
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Chapter 2: How did Val Kilmer get cast in MacGruber?
He was just doing a favor and we were so excited that he was even just doing the table read. But I don't think at any point we were like, oh, Val Kilmer would ever be a part of this movie.
um just because of him i mean obviously i think we were pretty excited he was doing it it was shocking like honestly just for for all of us being just such massive fans of top secret to me was the first movie that i saw where i watched it and like was doubled over most of the time i can't remember how old i was watching but thinking like i didn't know that adults could be this funny
Was my first thing. And so like, so just to have this man who like was such a part of our childhoods and that movie across from us and then finding out that he was reading it entirely bold and just crushing. Yeah. Dieter von Kant. I will say this, though. He did do the movie.
There was one joke, though, that he refused to do, which was that we did want to cut his penis off and shove it in his mouth. That was the one joke that he did not want to do.
Yeah. I think now it's especially a good decision on his part. Like, I don't think anybody... It would be even harder to talk about him now, had you guys made this poor person do this. I missed Top Secret, and I definitely saw Top Gun first. So to know him as Iceman first and then retroactively see Top Secret. I mean, those are like two of his first, what, three movies?
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Chapter 3: What funny stories did the guests share about Val Kilmer?
And he does the absolute opposite pulls of what you think someone is capable of doing. Like so deeply funny and so like heartbreakingly cool.
Were those his first three? So it was Top Secret, Real Genius, and then Top Gun?
Yeah. At the time he was telling his agent he would only do movies with Top in the title.
Chapter 4: What was Val Kilmer's approach to comedy in MacGruber?
Right.
Yeah. And then... Real genius. It was like two for me, one for you. Well, it was originally called Top Genius. Did he want you to change the name of MacGruber? He did. Yeah, we sucked him in by calling it Top Gruber Top. You know, you say, how do you get him at your table? Read like that is one of the things Lauren delivers on as he gets people, you know, valid hosted SNL in 2000.
I'm sure like a lot of people, he had an incredible experience and then felt indebted to Lauren. And so Lauren sort of probably pulled the strings to get him there. And then Will, knowing you, I would imagine during the read of MacGruber at the table, you're having a million other thoughts. You're performing. You're probably overanalyzing how the script is playing, what's good, what's bad.
Did you also give yourself space to be like, holy shit, Val Kilmer is crushing?
I usually am in too much of a state of focus. Like I'll focus on maybe things that aren't working, but I maybe won't be giving credit to the things that are. It's like all the worry space in my head goes to the parts that are. From what I remember, the table read went pretty well, but like he was fantastic. Yes, it was hard not to acknowledge how great he was doing.
For me, just because the nervousness that you have for how much energy we put into the script and how much we wanted this to work, obviously, for this is our chance to show that it can work, that it's going to be funny in front of an audience or a small audience. I remember that nervousness of for everyone, is it going to work?
The moment he said his first line, I was just like, oh my God, it's him. It's absolutely him. We were iffy on other people. It took us a second to even figure out Ryan's character and Ryan crushes it. And then to know that you're like, he's just reading it for the first time.
But that is what you learn from anybody who is in Top Secret, which is the comedy MacGruber is to play it like it's not comedy.
Yeah.
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Chapter 5: What memorable moments occurred during the filming of MacGruber?
What did he, I feel like he screamed something in the last scene, which is one of my favorite moments in MacGruber. Do you know what I'm talking about?
He screams something, but every single take he would do, he would scream and then keep his mouth open as if he was continuing to scream, but he stopped the sound part of it.
So he'd go like, MacGrupa!
He screams MacGruber and then keeps his mouth open.
What a funny take. Yeah. It's even a harder cut sound wise. It's so awesome.
He doesn't complete the word. He goes MacGruber.
I've seen MacGruber so many times and yet there's something so off the wall about the way he does that. It catches me by surprise every time. Oh God. You know what I mean? There's all, I always forget that he made that choice. Solomon, you probably were maybe more able to, at the table read, be judging how people were doing. Do you remember your bounce on what Val was like at the table?
It was just the same thing that Jorm was saying, just complete shock at how fantastically villainous he was and just also how hard to figure out what was going on in his brain, which was so fascinating and funny. Every choice he made was just fascinating.
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Chapter 6: How did Val Kilmer's unique personality influence the production?
His first line is, open it. And I remember being like, wow, that was really good. Yeah. Those two words.
Yeah. Just so much gravitas. Yeah. With all of it. And just like everything was deadly serious. He just like played it so real, all of it.
Can we just talk like just for a second? Because I know we each probably have our favorite Val stories. Oh, yeah.
Well, I can't wait to get into the behind the scenes.
Oh, my God. Well, just let me just tell you this. So in meeting him for the first time, I drove out to Malibu to meet him. And his door was open. He just wanted me to walk in. The door was open to his house on the Malibu coast, looking over this beautiful, you know, it's the beautiful sea, whatever, Pacific. And I go in the house and he's on the balcony and he's throwing something into the ocean.
He's throwing these little chips or something into the ocean. And he's going, are you a king? Are you a king? And I was like, what? And he comes back into the room. He's turned away from me. And he comes back into the room and he starts tossing these little paper chips at me. These little chips. And I'm like, what are these? And I start looking at them.
And it takes me like a couple minutes to figure out that he was invited to Mardi Gras that year to play King Baucus. The guy who leads the float. And these are little paper chips that he's supposed to be throwing out to the
to the crowd with his face on it and he was saying that he was a king but it was just the leaps of logic was he practicing no he was just messing with me i think it was just like this wonderful like i'm this is how i'm meeting the director of this film that i'm gonna work on
from jump i was like oh god this guy like he was such this wonderful we went to lunch and i was just like right after the lunch i remember driving home with mari my wife and was texting i was texting val after this lunch and i was like can i say this to it seemed like logically what i should be responding to what he just said was i was writing back my friends will kill your friends for i don't remember how we got to that part in the conversation of me texting him
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Chapter 7: What insights did the guests gain from working with Val Kilmer?
And so fun and like silly, like he'd have this way of like talking very seriously to you, but very silly, but with no wink at all. And it was so disarming and fun. And then he'd kind of then just the teeniest bit of a wink would come in at a certain point. So you're like, OK, good. He's fucking around.
This episode of the Lonely Island podcast is brought to you by our friends at Makers Mark. And I'm with some of my friends right now. Hi, guys. Hello.
Hi.
You know, Margie Samuels was a spirited woman. She was also the co-founder of Makers Mark. I don't have to tell you guys this stuff.
No. No, we'd know it. But our listeners might not. So continue.
All right. Well, in honor of Women's History Month, we wanted to toast some of the spirited women in our lives. That was my idea, actually. These guys were thinking about not doing it.
I was like, we should.
Yeah, you are in many ways as trailblazing as Margie Samuels-Yorm, and I've often said that.
Well, I kept saying, I want to mark this day with Maker's Mark. And you guys kept saying, what does that mean? I was like, it means a toast, guys.
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