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The process of making The Doors was troubled, partly for standard Hollywood reasons (Val Kilmer was “just annoying,” according to director Oliver Stone) as well as some far more troubling incidents. Despite these issues, however, Stone seems to have a lot of respect for Kilmer, although he did admit in a new interview with RogerEbert.com that the late actor was “considered by many people to be, I guess, an asshole, you know?” But, despite his reputation, Stone—who directed Kilmer in both The Doors (1991) and Alexander (2004)—said he “liked him. He was rocky. He was stormy. Tumultuous.”
Still, Kilmer’s famed irascibility did cause some problems for Stone when the two collaborated in the ’90s. “We finished [The Doors] on a poor note,” Stone recalled, after sharing that Kilmer was occasionally so exhausted by the physical demands of playing Doors frontman Jim Morrison that he “couldn’t come out of his trailer.”
“He did a great job, but he was not happy with me or himself, and he was very troubled in many ways,” Stone continued. “He was not grateful. He was not grateful to have [gotten] the role. And although he became allies in making the movie, at the end of the movie, he hurt me by saying things to me that were not kind. It was a bitter experience in a sense, you know: ‘Goodbye.’ ‘Go to hell.’ That kind of thing. He didn’t say very nice things to me because he didn’t like me in the end.”
Thankfully, it didn’t stay that way. While the movie underperformed at the box office, the two men’s relationship changed as the project received more widespread acclaim over the years. “Everyone liked Val’s performance more than they liked the movie!” Stone quipped. “He got tremendous credit for it. And he gets back in touch with me, and he just tells me how much he likes working with me. And I guess he’d had some reversals of fortune?”
Kilmer went on to star in Stone’s historic epic Alexander, which Stone said suited him “perfectly.” Despite how it ended, Kilmer also made some true friends on the Doors set. In a sweet tribute last week, his co-star, Kyle MacLachlan, posted, “You’ll always be my Jim. See you on the other side my friend,” along with some photos of the two.
As for Stone, despite the tough years, the director “never really felt like [he] was [Kilmer’s] enemy.” He continued: “He was a handful. You move on and let the years go by.” You can check out Stone’s full interview here.
