Trivia for
The Doors (1991)

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• Prior to the audition, Val Kilmer memorized the lyrics to all songs written by Jim Morrison. He also sent director Oliver Stone a video of him performing a few Doors songs, which Stone claimed hurt Kilmer's image as Morrison.
  
  
• Ray Manzarek turned down Stone's many requests to help in the movie. Manzarek has since said that the movie is a horrible account of the history of the band.
  
  
• Kilmer wore special contact lenses that made his pupils seem dilated in the scenes where Morrison was stoned.
  
  

• Closeup shots use Kilmer's voice, long distance shots use Morrison's.
  
  
• "Mr Mojo Risin" is an anagram of "Jim Morrison".
  
  
• John Densmore (The Doors drummer) played the recording engineer for Morrison's solo session.
  
  
• Bonnie Bramlett (of 60's group Delaney and Bonnie) played the bartender.
  
  
• Director Cameo: [Oliver Stone] Morrison's film professor.
  
  
• The poem that Jim Morrison is reading at the opening of the film is actually two selections from his book of poetry "An American Prayer": "Awake Ghost Song" and "Awake". It is the same book that Jim gives to his bandmates at the end of the film. The musical version of An American Prayer was not, however, recorded by the surviving members of the Doors until several years after Morrison's death.
  
  
• Prior to production, Val Kilmer lived and breathed Morrison for nearly a year, dressing in his clothes and hanging around at his old haunts on Sunset Strip. Jim Morrison biographer Jerry Hopkins says that he saw him one day when meeting Oliver Stone for lunch, using a payphone in the restaurant, and was so convinced by the believable image he cut that the first thought that entered his head was, "I'd forgotten how tall Jim was."
  
  
• The film kicked around for nearly twenty years before it made it into production. Amongst other actors considered for the role at various times were Tom Cruise, Jason Patric, and John Travolta. During the time Travolta was being considered he met the band (who were initially quite involved with the possible production), and they discussed reforming the band and going on tour with Travolta on vocals. In the end the band chose not to do this because they felt John Travolta was too nice to fill Morrison's shoes.
  
  
• Ian Astbury, (lead singer for the band The Cult), was considered for the role of Jim Morrison by Oliver Stone. They had lunch in Hollywood to discuss the role. In 2002 he went on tour with The Doors as lead singer.
  
  
• After the scene when Jim is being photographed, he stands in place and looks at the camera as a newspapers and magazines fly by showing The Doors' rise to fame, but also, a sculpture of a Greek figure appears over Jim's. This is a sculpture of Alexander The Great. Jim Morrison compared himself to Alexander the Great several times in his life. Director Oliver Stone would go on to direct Alexander (2004) about Alexander the Great, starring Kilmer as Alexander's father.
  
  
• Actor Trademark: [Val Kilmer] Flips coins and a drumstick on his knuckles.
  
  
• Real Doors guitarist Robby Krieger can be seen briefly walking by the group while they talk in the hallway between sets at the London Fog.
  
  
• During the filming, Doors music was constantly being played on the set.
  
  
• Billy Idol's role in the movie was originally much bigger. Prior to filming, Idol was in a motorcycle accident that left him seriously injured and unable to walk. Because of this, his role in the movie was reduced severely, and you'll notice that when he does appear in the film, he is either on crutches, sitting, or laying down.
  
  
• The real grave of Jim Morrison is shown at the end of the movie, filmed at the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France. The headstone has since been changed and the graffiti was removed from the surrounding graves at the request of Jim's parents. The bust of Jim is believed to have been stolen sometime in 1988.
  
  
• John Travolta was considered for the role of Jim Morrison in 1986.
  
  
• Jim Morrison's comment while being interviewed about spending more money on alcohol and tobacco than education is taken from "The Doors of Perception" by Aldous Huxley.
  
  
• The surviving members of "The Doors" claim that Val Kilmer did such a good job playing Jim Morrison and singing as Jim Morrison that they could not distinguish his voice from the real Morrison's.
  
  
• Doors guitarist Robby Krieger insisted that the scene showing the band rehearsing "Light My Fire" make clear that it was he, not Jim Morrison, who composed the song.
  
  
• As documented in the film, after defying Ed Sullivan and using the word "higher" on national TV, Jim Morrison and The Doors were never invited back to "Toast of the Town" (1948).
  
  
• Val Kilmer broke his arm badly when he performed a jump from the stage into the crowd and the stuntman failed to catch him, leaving Kilmer with an abnormal growth on his right elbow.
  
  
• Oliver Stone's then wife Elizabeth is mentioned in the closing credit roll as Naijo No Ko. This Japanese term means "with the help of my wife" or, more colloquially, "I owe my success to my better half".
  
  
• The scene where Jim smashes a TV while in the recording studio actually did happen. Ray Manzarek describes this scene vividly in his autobiography "Light My Fire".
  
  
• The graves in Père Lachaise that are shown before Jim's are, in order, Frédéric Chopin, Georges Bizet, Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, Honoré de Balzac, Marcel Proust, Gioacchino Rossini, and Molière.
  
  
• Robbie Krieger, the guitarist in the Doors, gave his consent and assistance to the film because Stone's earlier film Salvador (1986) was one of his favourite films and he could easily envision a film like that about the Doors.
  
  

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