Trailer
Plot summary
In 1965, Jim Morrison is drawn into the Venice Beach scene. He studies film at UCLA and takes up with Pamela Courson, and there he also meets Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore, with whom he forms the Doors. Jim talks his bandmates into a trip to Death Valley to experience psychedelic drugs. Back in Los Angeles, they play shows at the Whisky a Go Go and build a following, until his onstage antics and a lewd performance of "The End" anger the club's owners, who throw the band out. They are then approached by Jac Holzman of Elektra Records and the producer Paul A. Rothchild, who offer them a deal to record a first album.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Doors (1991)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Stone had Val Kilmer in mind after seeing him in Willow, and Kilmer spent several thousand dollars of his own money on an eight-minute audition video; to prepare he lost weight and rehearsed Doors songs every day for six months, learning 50 songs, 15 of which are performed in the film.
- A memo circulated among cast and crew listing rules for how Kilmer was to be treated during principal photography: nobody was to approach him on set without good reason, address him by his own name while he was in character or stare at him. An upset Stone called Kilmer's agent, and the actor said it was a misunderstanding.
- Kilmer met Krieger and Densmore, but Manzarek refused to talk to him; when the Doors heard Kilmer singing they could not tell whether the voice was Kilmer's or Morrison's.
- Courson's parents had inherited Morrison's poems when their daughter died, so Stone had to accept restrictions on his portrayal of her in exchange for the rights to the poetry, agreeing to avoid any suggestion that she was responsible for Morrison's death, though Alain Ronay and Courson herself had both said she was.
- Drummer John Densmore said Kilmer "miraculously played Jim [Morrison]", and later wrote that Val's channeling of Jim was so close it gave him the creeps on the set of Oliver Stone's biopic, adding that he should have been nominated for an Oscar as Best Actor.
- Playing Jim Morrison took such a hold on Kilmer that he had to go to therapy after he finished filming in order to recover properly.
