tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley.tonight, a conversation with val kilmer. he has played batman, morrison, and doc holliday. now he is taking on a man he calls not an american, but the american, mark twain, touring in a show about that writer called "citizen twain." 10th season on pbs. we continue to introduce you to some of the folks who make this show possible. please join my man tom freeman. he does everything to keep us on schedule and on budget. you can imagine how much i appreciate and love him. >> thank you so much. it is an honor to be on your team after all of these years

and be a part of these great conversations you bring to viewers each and every night. i feel like i am in college every single night when i see your show. tavis: hi, winnie. >> we are glad you have joined us for a conversation with val kilmer, coming up right now. it's a beautiful day and i cannot stop myself from smiling i know there is no denying it is a beautiful day ♪ to youry contributions pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

tavis: any actor who decides to embody mark twain not only has to match that man's larger than life persona, but he also has to compete with hal holbrook's masterful depiction of wayne. he was credited with writing the first great american novel, "huckleberry finn." let's take a look look at a scene from "citizen twain." >> i know this is true because i have tested the theory. but i was young. about 11 years old. we had a terrible teacher, mrs. strickland. she stood there with a switch behind her back, right in front of class, standing up there so proud and said, "now then, class. are there any idiots in

the room? if there are, please stand up." she was staring right at me for quite a long silence. i stood up. a "oh my, young samuel clements, why do you think you are an idiot?" ma'am, iactually, don't. i just hate to see you standing up there all by yourself." [laughter] ivis: i told you how excited was to see the play when it opens in los angeles. you said to me, i think it is worthy of being seen, which is not always the case in this town. why is this worthy of being seen? , ii do not mean this town just mean it is rare to have really great material. mark twain is so prolific.

i would even call him a profound figure. he is probably the most quoted american. as a scholar said, although he said i could use it, i love this idea, that mark twain is an honorary founding father. his sensibility is so distinctly american. he is so original. what he is so funny. and about such a wide range of subjects that are important. the most important that he conquered that is sadly still with us, race, he turned fact too art in a humorous style convey something profound about where we were at as americans after the worst thing that happened to our nation besides allowing our nation to begin with slavery, the civil war. and this great masterpiece,

"huckleberry finn." , liketh humor and love shakespeare said, held a mirror up to nature. he showed us who we are in such a loving way. i do not think you can be as racist if you are a racist after you read that book. he finds a way to reassure us that who we really are is ok. that is really important. it is worthy because it is timely and sometimes plays are great for a laugh or a diversion if you need some entertainment. that has a place because life is tough. i think it is a good word, worthy. tavis: you used the word profound a couple of times now. i do not disagree with you at all. but how does his profundity

speak to you as an artist? i could maybe rephrase what i just said. not justa way to be commercially viable, but wildly, mythically successful and being original. wild catkind of confidence that is displayed -- that is distinctly american. to history or acting like it even though he was a real student of his craft. he is justsonally, reassuring that things that we all believe as artists, creative people, it is important to be yourself.

what are does for everyone is help you understand yourself in a distilled way, whether it is a painting or a scene in acting or a joke. it distills something about everyday life that can be important to you. mark twain, for example, i mentioned "huckleberry finn." he had a sure fire hit with "tom sawyer." he went back to work and put it away for many years because he had not come up with something that was valuable enough for him. wasook a trip, i think it his last trip down the mississippi. he saw the failure of the civil ,18 all ourragically

racism was still alive and well and needed addressing. he finished out the story addressing it more ahead on then i think he originally planned and created a masterpiece. tavis: i want to go back to mark twain specifically in just a second. but you mentioned that he had a sure fire hit, put it on the shelf, does some more work. how did you know, because you are not just a star, this is your baby, this project. every piece of it is you. how did you know that you had gotten this right and ready for the stage? .> it just becomes a threshold abouts a lot of aspects my development, telling a story about mark twain from tradition.

-- is kind of backwards from tradition. i started and wrote this film about mark twain and mary baker eddy, another genius and contemporary of twain that he was obsessed with. tavis: explain who she is. >> she was an author thomas but she founded a religion called christian science. at in the last 10 years of his life, he really thought a lot about her and wrote a lot about her. the only person that he wrote a book about. i was looking for a story to direct a film, which i have always been interested in doing. i came on this way of telling a thingsbout america and we are passionate about through these two american -- these two fascinating characters, mark twain and mary baker eddy. it was hard to turn down big movies and i had a lot of things

happening at the same time personally as well that made it myficult to just transfer interest into writing and directing. it is easy for some people. for me, it took a long time. they are both difficult, complicated characters. creating the character of mark twain on stage because i love the theater. the sequences in the movie where he is on stage, because that is where he started. he was a newspaper man and got a job as a correspondent and he came back to san francisco and his stories were so funny. friend said, you ought to rent a stage and tell your stories on stage. as a lecturer. in many ways, he was the first

standup. you kind of forget what your history teacher told you about mark twain. he was very radical, the same or chris richard pryor rock or louis ck, these really the-thinking men that are also really funny. and a bit nasty. twain.not mark >> yeah. he said, "when my book was first a list, it was banned at the library in concorde, massachusetts. one of the happiest days of my life." word oversing the n- 200 times, but for describing what people who treat people --

"they call my folks trash. not for using the n-word, but for describing what treating people like trash implies the implies." what halifferent from holbrook has done is going for more of a behind the scenes version, a more 3-d version of the character. it is really a character study. holbrook has a particular aspect of his character. said that. glad you i owe you an apology. i read something at the start of this conversation that i do not believe. i approved of this copy, but when i read it, i should have look at it a little more closely. i do not believe that artists compete against each other. that youed at the top had to compete with hal holbrook. for the last 10 minutes, i have

been regretting my own words. i do not believe that artists have to compete. it does raise questions when somebody has portrayed a character for so long and so well how you find the courage to not be intimidated to try and give us a more complex, multidimensional character, when everybody knows that hal holbrook is mark twain. >> sure. he has been very kind about, even supportive of, what i am doing. and what ienplay intend to direct is a very specific point in his life. eddy represented, not just to mark twain, but the nation and the world, very radical ideas. i would call it a love story , that is think it is

her life story. it is about love, understanding love in a profound way as a primary synonym of god and that twain was both in love with her ideas and hated her tenacity. many things, he was just jealous as a writer. she was a millionaire and he won via fortunes and lost them his own hubris. i think that the film represents, to me, through these two great americans, a quintessential story about understanding america, where we are at now. we have had great forces of kind of bombastic, not kind of, but an aspect of our character is very physical and loud.

with geniustrong and courage and declared our independence. , the kind of prowess that is rare in human history. still leaving the world with that kind of consciousness. am looking ati more the feminine side of it. solving a problem with more sensitivity than the way mark twain would go about it. tavis: and not shock and all. -- and awe. , a differentivity problem solving in battle. a different way of looking at the world that is now her destiny. that is what that movie is about. with mark twain on stage, he addresses some of the harder

questions, but not willingly. -- it to think of them is not fair to look at his entire life as a split personality, but he did make up this guy, mark twain, who has a betty white wig look and a colonel sanders suit. he made who samuel clemens is, you can look at him as the more sensible, sensitive, that genius aspect and eight deep- thinking, very patriotic am a very humble american. maybe samuel clemens is like thomas jefferson and mark twain is like uncle sam. sticking his finger in our face saying, i want your child. he wants the laughs when he is

some quotesstage. of his, some things i wrote are found, people start clapping. they say, i love it. i love, laments. i was born modest, but it wore off. if you cannot give yourself a compliment in in any other way, just do like donruss. give your self one. do it right now. i love compliments. although i am also embarrassed to say what i think when i get a compliment. i so often feel they have not gone far enough. you know, he is a funny guy. and about virtually anything. one, so do not go looking for it, what there are dictionaries of twain quotes. that would come in handy for your occupation. you can look up anything, dog,

cats. "i like cats, they are quieter than children. although you pick up a cat and you learn something about life that you cannot learn any other way." he is funny about anything. tavis: i am going to be looking for that book and if you do not, i will be stalking you backstage at kirk douglas. i want to talk about something that is not as funny, but is still -- >> betty white, i know what you are thinking. tavis: no, no. >> she stole my grammy. .avis: that is funny do you want to vent about that? >> no, that is all right. kevin bacon, too. i am probably the only person that has beef with betty white. does not have enough love

and accolades? she has got to steal my grammy? she knows what she did. tavis: i like betty white. >> yeah, everyone does. come on my show, betty. we will talk. wouldn't you like to see betty white and mark twain go at it? betty is tough. tavis: speaking of fighting, the n-word. i hate saying the n-word. >> makes you feel bad, doesn't it? word takesing the n- stinghe animus and the and the meaning of what the word was trying to portray. but this is an issue that has been hotly debated to this day. classic though it is, there is still debate about whether or not wayne ought to be read. some schools are down with it,

some schools are not. some libraries stock it, some not do not stock it. having played and embodied this character, or you have a sense about what you feel about this debate about the n-word 200 times? >> i do not know if it is hotly debated. i would say it is foolishly debated. language is about intention. mark twain, samuel clemens was raised in a community where -- meant an object. it is property. that is how i get into it in this story. i have an ex slave just say it. jim, ise of a guy, -- aunt polly's slave. then he brings it up. that word, maybe i will explain

that in my play, mark twain is dead and he knows he is dead, which is something that he wrote about very humorously. he is talking about today and he says, "quentin tarantino used that word over 100 times. he said, i used it over 200 times in "huckleberry finn." he uses it so often that you understand and forget about a human being is that. it is an object in the story. without language and the specific use of that language, you just do not understand as accurately the point where it -- the point. it is behind the words, just like what is very legitimately hotly debated right now with gun laws. , the subject is fear

and violence. ,o address that effectively there is the common sense logic that you cannot debate. when i was younger, the nuclear debate was on. have relaxed about it, it is easier for us to accept it. a nuclear bomb explodes both ways. it is not as a device and without an agenda behind it, analyzing it just like you analyze the gun laws. there are obvious conclusions to be reached on both sides of the debate where we will be safer. our nation has expressed how they feel about that. we have a whole that will turn into votes. that: what is it emboldens you to not shy away

from playing these larger than life characters, whether we are talking morrison, holiday, twain, batman? >> well, i played moses, too. that was risky. i still cannot believe i said yes. i did that here in los angeles. well, you have got to challenge yourself as an actor. i just grew up that way. , a very hardrd get to aperfect, to point in any endeavor where you could say the person is an artist. it is a good aspiration. i do not use that word lightly. as aner to be an artist tackling the classics and

theater as well as film, there is lots of discipline, lots of work. marknd this story about twain and mary baker eddy. it is something that i know i have been passionate about for years and years. with twain, i really love character acting. there is something -- think about this. there are jokes that i came across 13 years ago that still made me laugh. i have been doing this all day long, every day for three years. remember deniro in his basement in "the king of comedy." in my basement laughing at my own jokes or three years and you go a little crazy. it is very satisfying to get validated out on stage.

this is finding the play worthy. tavis: speaking of the mirror, i think i see you every night or every other night lifting the heat on one of these channels. or now, we will appreciate val kilmer for the role that he is starring in at the current douglas theatre. it is coming to town june 28. he will be there, starring in "citizen twain." i am gracious to see it. glad to have you on. that is our show for tonight. angst for watching. as always, keep the faith. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley.join me next time for a conversation with morgan spurlock and michael mckean. that is next time. we will see you then.

iit is a beautiful day and cannot stop myself from smiling i know there is no denying to sendbeautiful day this up where you display it you won't hear this boy complaining it's a beautiful day ♪ >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. pbs.

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