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Rodriguezwould go on to embody the rolefor eight seasons and three sequel films.
Here, Rodriguez unpacks Kilmers profound influence on the show and his life.
My father is one of them.
Val Kilmer is another.
Val Kilmer is unequivocally my boyhood idol.
I dont even have to be that clever about it.
I dont have to sneak Chris Knightisms in Im going to approach it like itisChris Knight.
Thats what I told Steve Franks when we met.
As he was writing, he was leaning into a Ferris Bueller dynamic.
I said, I love that too, how about I meet you in the middle?
And thats how Shawn Spencer was born.
If you dont feel that warmth, I dont think this show wouldve lasted very long.
Shawn wouldve been a grating dude that you wanted to slap the hell out of.
You never once wanted to slap Chris Knight.
You just wanted him to come back onscreen when he wasnt in a scene.
I wantedPsychto be the same thing, amid the television landscape, and thats how I approached it unapologetically.
Val was always the north star for me.
I did some sniffing before certain lines as a little wink toward Iceman inTop Guns locker room.
But the most Val aspects of that role were the opportunities to play characters within a character.
He had to play a dozen characters, wear prosthetics, and be silly.
I didnt wantPsychto just be a silly show.
I wanted it to be more than that.
I was constantly challenging myself to be as good as I could possibly be.
We didnt attempt to get Val before our series finale.
I never felt like it was an achievable goal.
There was a part of me that was like,Ive heard the stories.
Ive read the articles.
When we were nearing the end, it happened to be when Val was touring hisone-man Mark Twain show.
My dear friend Jimmi Simpson and I went to see it whenPsychwas on a filming hiatus.
I met Val afterwards.
He couldnt have been nicer.
And by the way, nobody has been referenced onPsychmore than you.
And I love you.
Dule Hill and I cut together a sizzle reel of every Val reference in eight years.
We sent it off.
He was flattered and a bit moved.
Hes a strange guy, but hes deep and loved the impact art could have.
So it was a yes.
We werent going to make him fly to Canada to say two lines.
We wrapped production onPsych,everybody felt all those feelings, and we came back to Los Angeles.
That was the last thing we ever shot for the series, which was poetic.
He never went back to his trailer.
I dont want Val to be a guy I get a text from on my birthday.
I want Val to be the icon that helped form me into the performer I am.
I wanted to keep him on a pedestal.
