Udo Kier

“Wow, wow, wow, wow. Blood for Dracula. I, let me tell you the story. I was in an airplane from Rome to Munich and there was a man sitting next to me, and you know in planes you talk, and he said, "What do you do for a living?" And I say, "I'm an actor." And I had already a picture and showed him my headshot and he said, "Interesting, give me your number." Took out his passport, wrote my number, and I said, "Who are you?" He said, "My name is Paul Morrissey and I work for Andy Warhol." And, and I remembered at the beginning it was Trash, Flesh, very artistic movies with Joe Dallesandro, and, okay, nice meeting you. So then a couple of weeks later I got a call: "Hey, it's Paul, you remember the man in the plane? I'm doing for Carlo Ponti, you know, the husband of Sophia Loren, I'm doing Frankenstein in 3D, and I have a little role for you." And I said, "Wow, thank you, great. What do I play?" And he said, "Frankenstein." And I thought that's not true. Anyway, it was true and I became Doctor Frankenstein. And at the end of the film, we shot the film for, we had $100,000 in three weeks in 3D, and at the end of the film, there was Fellini was shooting next door and in the cantina where all these, wonderful figures, and I was sitting there having a glass of wine and I thought, well, Andy Warhol said everybody is famous for 15 minutes, my 15 minutes are gone. So I was a little sad, and then Paul Morrissey came in and he said, "Well, I guess we have a German Dracula." And I said, "Who?" He said, "You, but you have to lose a lot of weight in one week." I said, "No problem." So I had only salad leaves and water, and when we shot the first day of Dracula, Dracula, and I was so weak that I had to sit in the wheelchair. And they were famous lines: "I, I need the blood of a virgin. The blood of these whores are killing me." So that was that.”

“I was in an airplane from Rome to Munich and there was a man sitting next to me, and you know, in planes you talk, and he said, "What do you do for a living?" And I say, "I'm an actor." And I had already a picture and showed him my head shot, and he said, "Interesting, give me your number." Took out his passport, wrote my number, and I said, "Who are you?" He said, "My name is Paul Morrissey and I work for Andy Warhol." And I remembered at the beginning it was Trash, Flesh, very artistic movies with Joe Dallesandro. And "Okay, nice meeting you." So then a couple of weeks later I got a call: "Hey, it's Paul. You remember the man in the plane? I'm doing for Carlo Ponti, you know, the husband of Sophia Loren, I'm doing Frankenstein in 3D, and I have a little role for you." And I said, "Wow, thank you, great. What do I play?" And he said, "Frankenstein." And I thought that's not true. Anyway, it was true, and I became Doctor Frankenstein. And at the end of the film, we shot the film for, we had $100,000 in three weeks in 3D, and at the end of the film, there was Fellini was shooting next door and in the cantina were all these ex, wonderful figures, and I was sitting there having a glass of wine and I thought, well, Andy Warhol said everybody is famous for 15 minutes, my 15 minutes are gone, so I was a little sad.”

“There we are. Another story, another story. I was in Berlin and a young, director came to me and he said—, I was there to see movies—and he said, "Well, my name is Gus Van Sant. I have a little movie here, Mala Noche, I made for $20,000, but my next movie, My Own Private Idaho, I'm preparing now and I would like that you play." And I thought, well, directors are always very lonely at festivals. But he wasn't lonely, he meant it, and we start writing letters to each other, and then, he got me the work permit, I became member of the union, and I went to, Portland to shoot my first film in America. Dracula and Frankenstein were American productions, but not in America, in Rome. So I made the movie and, and then I liked America, and River Phoenix was amazing and Keanu Reeves. And I came back for the premiere and I stayed with a girlfriend, Anna, and she said, "Why don't you stay in America?" I said, "No." So after a few glasses of wine I said, "It's not a bad idea." So now I'm 30 years here. So that was My Own Private Idaho, very important for me.”

“I'm a lucky man. I'm a really lucky man. I never learned how to act. I mean, I learned from great actors, but I never went to acting school. And in Germany, of course, I was very lucky that I worked with Fassbinder, who was one of the directors who showed Germany how it really was after the war, so it wasn't kind of craziness. And I went to Mannheim, is an intellectual film festival in Germany, and I had a little short film called Last Trip to Harrisburg, and it was the Opening Night film with a film of a new young director, Lars von Trier, called Epidemic. And when I saw—he wasn't there, there was a lot of directors sitting in one row with me—and when I saw The Element of Crime, I couldn't get up my seat. And I said to the directors who were invited from America, said, "We all can go home, because whoever made that film is going to win." I expected somebody like Fassbinder or Kubrick, dressed in black, scratching themselves, being in a bad mood, the eyes are closed, and there comes this student-looking young director. And we talked, we had a beer, we talked, and we exchanged a telephone number. And again, lucky man, couple of weeks later I got a call: "Hey, Lars I'm doing Medea from Carl Dreyer, and I want you to play the husband of Medea, King Jason. But there is a problem." I said, "What is the problem?" He said, "You don't look like a Vikinger. Don't wash your hair for three weeks, don't shave, and come to Denmark because I have to sell you as the king of the Vikinger." So I went, very smelly and strange looking, I went to Denmark, I got the part, and we became friends, and his wife got a baby and he wanted me to be the godfather of the baby, and now we work together 30 years.”