Here’s a way to give an interesting jolt to your workweek: Hang out on a yacht with Val Kilmer. The actor will be in Fort Lauderdale Wednesday evening for a charity event benefiting The Bougainvilla House, a safe haven for youths dealing with substance abuse.

Kilmer, 52, got involved in the cause because he thinks society is tougher these days for young people.

“Our kids are aware that there’s a different kind of truth now,” he says, referring to social media. “They’re talking on a different level than we did.”

The divorced father of two (a daughter, 21, and son, 17, with ex wife actress Joanne Whalley) thinks another issue is materialism.

“It’s nice to have things. We’re lucky as a nation to be wealthy, but we all go through life having to confront the truth that money doesn’t buy happiness. I think drugs are a symptom of longing. People who do them are trying to get out of the pain of mortality. It’s something to be pitied, not judged.”

Kilmer, who has been in a boatload of movies from Top Gun, The Doors and Tombstone to most recently Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and MacGruber, is living a simpler existence in his 50s, having moved back to his native Los Angeles after spending some years in New Mexico.

“I watch the sunset by the ocean; I go see my kids. That’s how I’ve been living.”

As for the upcoming holidays, Kilmer, being part Cherokee, views Thanksgiving differently.

“I try to do something serious and hang out with my Native American friends,” he says. “I think it’s a pretty weird ritual; basically people being thankful for surviving.”

Tickets: 954-527-3334 ext. 309. or www.TheBougainvillaHouse.com.