Kilmer is far from the only person who can't get Morrison out of his head. As the lead singer of L.A.'s seminal '60s band, the Doors, Morrison maintains a grip on the collective pop psyche that few breathing performers can claim.
Although the Doors made only one indelible hit single, "Light My Fire" (written by guitarist Robby Krieger),Morrison has always stood as perhaps the most potent icon of everything that was sinister, seductive and self- immolating about the counterculture.
But Kilmer, young enough to have been Morrison's son, came of age after America's radical era had taken a turn toward conservatism.
Accepted at the prestigious Juilliard School's drama department, Kilmer had a good portion of Shakespeare and the Greek classics under his belt by the time he made his first big movie splash in 1984's "Top Secret!" Though the spoofy film, made by the guys responsible for "Airplane!," was something of a misfire, Kilmer had a showy role as a '50s rock star who was also an undercover agent.
The singing he did in that film, coupled with his general physical resemblance to Morrison, sold Stone on Kilmer. But the actor brought more to the party than Stone could have guessed.
"I was here in Hollywood when the Doors were happening," Kilmer said. "I had a male nanny who had just gotten back from Vietnam, and was an art student and a real fan of rock and roll. He would explain what the psychedelic art was about, interpret the songs on the radio and tell me all the secret drug/sex messages at, y'know, nine years old.
"So, I had an intimate historical knowledge of the time," Kilmer said. ''That covered a lot of ground. Oliver didn't have to tell me what to read, in other words."
