Val Kilmer Went Violently Off-Script During His Audition For The Doors

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The recent death of Val Kilmer has occasioned a flood of passionate tributes praising the gifted actor's unforgettable work in some of the most beloved films of the 20th century. Kilmer was winningly silly in '80s comedy classics like "Top Secret!" and "Real Genius," hauntingly perfect as rock icon Jim Morrison in "The Doors," swaggeringly lethal as Old West legend Doc Holliday in "Tombstone," and every bit the equal of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in "Heat." Even in the lousiest of movies (and it's hard to get lousier than 1996's "The Island of Dr. Moreau"), Kilmer made bold, singular choices. His talent was undeniable.

Also undeniable: Kilmer rubbed a lot of people the wrong way throughout his career, particularly in the early stages of his stardom. Kilmer's difficult behavior was so well known that he has a "Reputation" section on Wikipedia detailing his poor working relationships with Joel Schumacher, John Frankenheimer, and Marlon Brando among others. But there were others who loved working with Kilmer. Hollywood nice-guy Ron Howard directed him twice (in "Willow" and "The Missing"), and he considered himself "fortunate" to have collaborated with the brilliant performer. Mira Sorvino challenged the negative perception of Kilmer head-on during a 2011 interview with The A.V. Club. "You know what, he was real easy to work with," she said. "I just hate furthering rumors about people being difficult, because it can do such enormous damage to their careers. My experience with him was nothing but positive. He was really professional and gentlemanly, and a terrific actor."

After cancer had robbed Kilmer of his voice, he made the moving documentary "Val," in which he used film and video footage he'd shot throughout his life to reflect on his journey as an artist and a human being. It felt like he'd cracked himself open to explain why he was the way he was. After watching it, however, I couldn't help but consider it incomplete. Because one time Kilmer wasn't just difficult on set, he was allegedly abusive. And this behavior badly damaged the career of a very talented actor.

Like Kilmer, Caitlin O'Heaney was a Julliard-trained actor bursting with potential. While attending the prestigious school, she played Masha in "The Seagull" and Juliet in "Romeo & Juliet." She was Tovah Feldshuh's understudy in the original 1975 Broadway production of "Yentl," and went on to find success on the stage in Los Angeles and New York City.

O'Heaney made her film debut in the exploitation horror flick "Savage Weekend," and became a cult TV fan favorite via her portrayal of U.S. spy Sarah Stickney White in the enormously entertaining, but sadly short-lived ABC adventure series "Tales of the Gold Monkey." Though O'Heaney continued to book work throughout the 1980s (mostly in television), she failed to land a major role that could showcase the full range of her abilities. So when Academy Award-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone brought her in to audition for the role of Pamela Courson, Jim Morrison's girlfriend, in "The Doors" in 1989, she likely had reason to believe that her next decade might get off to a propitious start, especially since she'd be doing her scenes opposite Kilmer (who would lose himself as Jim Morrison). She did not expect to be physically assaulted.

One of O'Heaney's audition scenes was an argument between Morrison and Courson that sharply crescendos to the two hurling objects at each other. The scene did not indicate there would be any physical violence, so O'Heaney was shocked when Kilmer struck her in the face, shook her and knocked her to the floor. "Stone just stood there the whole time laughing," she told Buzzfeed in 2017. When the audition was over, Stone walked her to the door and said, "That got kind of wild." And traumatic. O'Heaney told Buzzfeed, "I went down to my car and I cried for about 20 minutes."

A month after the audition, O'Heaney filed what Buzzfeed described as "a preliminary police report for battery" with the Los Angeles Police Department that alleged Kilmer struck her in the face with a closed fist. Kilmer also allegedly pinned her to the floor. The incident was ultimately resolved via a confidential settlement signed by all named parties. O'Heaney was presented with a check for $24,500 in exchange for her silence. The settlement also absolves Kilmer and Stone of all wrongdoing.

When O'Heaney, emboldened by the surge of accountability sought by the #MeToo movement, broke her decades-long silence, Kilmer and Stone refused to comment on the settlement. Norman Oberstein, the attorney who repped the actor and director in this case, told Buzzfeed that compared to the charges of sexual misconduct faced by the now-imprisoned likes of Harvey Weinstein, "I have no hesitation in stating this is not one of them ... for sure." He declared the incident nothing more than a "workplace mishap."

Casting director Risa Bramon Garcia, a highly respected Hollywood veteran who cast seven of Stone's films between "Wall Street" and "Natural Born Killers," rallied to her former collaborator's defense, saying, "It was way blown out of proportion. I am not somebody who takes this stuff lightly. I can tell the difference between something that's abusive and a moment that got carried away." She also said O'Heaney "seemed fine when she left."

Kilmer never addressed O'Heaney's charges, but Stone, in a memorial interview with RogerEbert.com's Matt Zoller Seitz, called her accusation "insane." According to the director,"[T]here was all this kind of nonsense about how I was the director and he was the actor and I should have controlled it. Risa dealt with it, but the accusations hung in the air. It was bulls***."

In a Twitter tribute to Kilmer posted last week, Jennifer Tilly recalled auditioning for the role of Courson, and being blown away when Kilmer roaring up to the casting office in a 1960s convertible blasting The Doors, emerging "barefoot, shirtless, and wearing nothing but a pair of tight leather pants." She didn't say if she read with Kilmer, but by closing her remembrance with "RIP King," it would appear she had nothing but fond memories of the actor.

O'Heaney told Buzzfeed she regrets signing the settlement. "I was so traumatized that, against my better judgment, I signed that document, which says I can never speak about this. If this was something that happened nowadays, I wouldn't sign it." What did she get for playing ball with one of the most powerful directors in Hollywood at the time and a young rising star? "My agent would call me and say, 'Absolutely nobody will see you. We can't even get you a reading or an audition. You're dead.'"

After booking a guest role on the TV series "Raven" in 1993, O'Heaney went nine years without acting work. She landed a small role in 2002's "The Emperor's Club," and another minor part in a werewolf movie called "Night of the Wolf." O'Heaney hasn't worked since.