Val Kilmer’s Citizen Twain Film Examines Mark Twain’s Feud With Christian Science Founder Mary Baker Eddy

For American readers in the first decade of the 20th century, the feud between Mark Twain and Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy was popular entertainment. Eddy, who had achieved considerable success as an evangelist and founded a worldwide church, was a natural subject for the aging author’s satire. In 1907 Twain published *Christian Science*, which denounced the movement as a fraud and a swindle, and described it as Christianity in name only. He faulted it for lacking the injunction to charity that he saw as central to more traditional religious teaching. Twain also remarked of the religion, “There isn’t anything so grotesque or so incredible that the average human being can’t believe it.”

The source notes that this late chapter of Twain’s career is often given little attention in accounts of his life. For actor Val Kilmer, however, Twain’s fascination with Eddy reveals something essential about the writer and reflects Eddy’s importance as a rare example of female spirituality leading to worldly authority. Kilmer, who has followed Christian Science since childhood, credits his faith with healing a recent bout with cancer. *Citizen Twain* is the latest product of a multi-year project he has undertaken to bring Twain’s relationship with Eddy and her beliefs to a wider audience.

In an emailed interview, Kilmer said his interest in the story is primarily spiritual. He described Twain as deeply devoted yet conflicted, saying that Twain admired Eddy greatly, but that his pride and playful irreverence often prevailed. According to Kilmer, Twain privately told his daughter he intended a full retraction but never made that retraction public, a gap between private and public speech (Ephesians 4:15). Kilmer also said he had spent years developing the script and had spoken with actress Cate Blanchett during that time. He declined to name the actress he has in mind for Eddy.

Kilmer said that Twain’s story speaks to the United States today. He described Twain as showing with humor “how awful we are” while also presenting a hope that a shared spiritual core could unite people, a vision he said Eddy worked to convey in her words and work.

*Citizen Twain* will be presented by Kilmer at the Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido St., on Friday, June 30. Tickets and information are available by calling (805) 963-0761 or at lobero.org.

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