Tight leather pants: Val Kilmer confesses what “probably killed” Jim Morrison
Val Kilmer has performed in a number of impressive roles in films like Heat, Batman Forever (in which he played the titular hero), the 1993 western Tombstone and True Romance. However, it was Kilmer’s performance as The Doors’ singer Jim Morrison in Oliver Stones’ 1991 biopic The Doors that drew critical acclaim to Kilmer’s acting talents.
Discussing Morrison with David Letterman, Kilmer once noted, “He was an extraordinary guy. It was very fun to get to jump on people and get paid for it, which he did. And also, he could get into a very serious discussion about God or vomit on you. Musicians, as you know, are very strange.”
Kilmer admitted that he wasn’t a massive fan of The Doors, other than their big hits, so he spent his time preparing for the role by listening to their back catalogue. “Getting into the music was a lot of fun,” he said. “I wasn’t familiar with a lot of it that wasn’t on the radio, so that’s what I did in preparation. Mainly, just learn all of the songs.”
He also humorously suggested that Morrison’s clothing choices were likely what led to his early death. “The leathers, probably what killed him, he quipped. “Very hard to breathe in those pants,” before adding, “But doing the concerts was a pleasure, singing live and often they had hired nude dancers. With no clothing on to exemplify the joy of the 1960s.”
At that point, Letterman misheard Kilmer, thinking he said “new dancers”, but Kilmer corrected him by saying that Stone got into the spirit of the 1960s by having naked dancers on set. He then explained that even the crew got in on the act. “The first assistant director would get the blow horn out there and say, ‘okay, take it off’, and everyone would, including people that weren’t being paid for it, like the crew,” he said. “It was a free for all.”
Of course, Morrison was known to have a penchant for all kinds of mind-expanding drugs, so Kilmer had to, ahem, ‘prepare’ for that too, with the help of some eager yet dopey Morrison enthusiasts. “[I had to wear] contacts to simulate being stoned,” he admitted. “A lot of people that came up to me helped me imagine what that was like. Even now, they come up and say, ‘Jim was… he did something one night… that was so important… What were you talking about?’ I get that a lot.”
As to whether performing as Morrison gave him an appreciation for the iconic singer, Kilmer admitted that he never really thought about it in that way. “I was mainly inside of it,” he said, adding, “and Oliver Stone likes to get in the mood of whatever the scene is, so when he started degenerating, that’s what it was about. I told him not to clean my clothes, for example, to get that unwashed hardcore feeling of rock and roll.”
