Val Kilmer Had To Undergo Therapy To Get Out Of Jim Morrison Character

We all know that successful actors have to take their job seriously in order to be great at what they do, but there are certain acting masters who like to go that extra mile in order to depict their characters flawlessly.

Brad Pitt spent weeks in a mental institution to prepare for his 12 Monkeys role; Christian Bale sacrificed his body so many times for various roles that we don’t know how he is actually supposed to look like…

And we recently found out that Val Kilmer also took method acting to the extreme in order to nail the role of Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s movie “The Doors”.

He Almost Didn’t Get The Part

Although Kilmer admitted he never was a fan of the band, he wanted to make his performance as authentic as possible, so the first thing he decided to do is learn 50 of Morrison’s songs.

He supposedly spent days in the studio listening to his songs and trying to enter the depths Morrison’s mindset and his unique approach to life and art itself.

However, Oliver Stone wasn’t impressed with his first pitch.

According to thevintagenews.com: “Prior to the audition, Val Kilmer spent thousands of dollars to produce his own video, shot in his rented Laurel Canyon home with professional assistance in order to get the role. Oliver Stone wasn’t impressed with the video, but the producer Paul Rothchild found the home video more intriguing and he convinced Oliver Stone that Val was the right person for the role.”

Luckily, Val Kilmer ended up getting the role, and rest was history.

Delving Into The Elusive Mind Of Jim Morrison

In order to prepare for this complex role Val Kilmer spent a whole year living like Jim Morrison.

He dressed like him, listened to his music, and watched videos of him so he could copy the way the star talked, walked and behaved.

The actor allegedly spent hundreds of hours talking to Paul Rothchild, the producer for the iconic rock band and one of the main consultants on the biopic.

Once the production started, he even had everyone on set referring to him as “Jim”.

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Eventually, the actor knew more about the rock star than anybody else working on this film, which resulted in one of the best performances we have ever seen, but also in Kilmer having to undergo therapy once the filming was over, just to get out of the character.

What other actors you know who nailed their method acting?