Directed by Oliver Stone, the 1991 film The Doors remains one of the most visually striking biopics of the era, famously starring Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison and Meg Ryan as his longtime companion, Pamela Courson. While Kilmer received near-universal acclaim for his “eerie” transformation, the pairing of these two actors on set represented a fascinating collision of two very different Hollywood trajectories in the early 1990s.
Kilmer’s dedication to the role is legendary in film history. To prepare for the part, he lived like Morrison. He spent a year dressing in Morrison’s clothes and frequenting his old haunts on the Sunset Strip. To achieve Morrison’s look, Kilmer lost weight to play the younger version and later gained significant weight to portray the singer’s later years. He also reportedly burned a mole off his face for better resemblance.
Kilmer spent a year training his voice and learning 50 of the band’s songs. He sang all the performance vocals in the film himself. His voice was so close to the original that the surviving members of The Doors reportedly had trouble distinguishing his recordings from Morrison’s.
Val Kilmer was famously immersive in the role, refusing to break character between shots. Meg Ryan later noted that his intense, “electric” performance often made her feel as though she were working with the real Jim Morrison rather than an actor. After filming wrapped, Kilmer famously sought therapy to “get Jim out of his system” because he had lived in character for so long.
At the time of filming, Meg Ryan was the reigning queen of romantic comedies following the massive success of When Harry Met Sally... (1989). Her role as Pamela Courson was a deliberate attempt to break away from her “girl next door” image. She swapped her feathered blonde bob for long, fiery red hair and Bohemian “hippie” fashion, though critics at the time noted her look still felt very “1991 trying to be 1969.”
The Doors was released theatrically by Tri-Star Pictures on March 1, 1991 and debuted at number 2 at the box office. The film grossed $34.4 million in the United States and Canada on a $32 million production budget. The film received mixed reviews from critics; while Kilmer’s performance, the supporting cast, the cinematography, the production design and Stone’s directing were praised, criticism was centered on its historical inaccuracy and depiction of Morrison.
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