 UDO KIERA survior against all odds by david beebe photography greg gorman grooming glenn alfonso published in venice magazine, march 2001 issue “I don’t have to lie during interviews because my life has been so interesting,” explains distinguished actor Udo Kier. In order to understand just how interesting Kier’s life has been both personally and professionally, you have to begin before he was even born, where his entrance into the world was just as dramatic as many of his roles. The date is Saturday, October 14, 1944, and the place is Cologne, Germany. World War II is in full force and Udo is about to enter the world. His mother is in labor and on her way to the hospital. She crosses over a bridge and moments later the bridge is destroyed by a bomb. She makes it to the hospital and safely gives birth to Udo. After being allowed some time with her newborn, the nurse insists that Udo be taken back to the nursery for some rest, but his mother asks to spend a few more minutes with her baby. Moments later the nursery is bombed, killing all the babies except for Udo, who is safe in his mother’s arms under a crumbled wall. “It was very hard for my mother to talk about what had happened. But many years later she told me the story and said after the bombing she was able to stick her arm out of a hole of the wall and wave to the nurses who rescued us. What a day that was,” proclaims Kier. “I don’t remember much about my childhood because it was a horrible time to be growing up, so I only see flashes of it. It was a very rough time,” Kier remarks. At the age of 18, Udo was allowed to leave Germany, embarking on a trip to London and Paris. During his travels, he went to school, studied foreign language, and worked as an accountant. “One day at school, a friend told me there were some people looking for someone to play in a movie called Road to St. Tropez (1966). I never had an interest in acting, but I tried out anyway. I went to a meeting and got the part, with absolutely no experience. After that movie, I was offered a seven-year contract to work in America, but I didn’t take it. I did a few more movies and then I slowly started liking it, so I thought I would give it a try,” Kier recalls. It was his role in Mark of the Devil (1970) that many consider his first “big hit.” The film was rated V for violence and moviegoers were offered vomit bags on the way into the theater. Mark of the Devil was banned in 31 countries and spawned two sequels (both without Udo). The film is notorious for its exploitation of sex and violence. “You can still rent it in video stores all over,” laughs Kier. It was on a plane trip when Kier met director Paul Morrissey and was offered the lead role in Andy Warhol’s Flesh for Frankenstein (1974). It was Frankenstein, along with its sister film, Blood for Dracula (1974), that made Udo a “cult figure.” Udo continued to build his film reputation in R and X-rated films such as the vividly explicit Story of O (1975). Udo’s career continued to rise as he took on more vampire-type roles and eventually expanded into other exotic projects. You might remember him as the undraped center of attention in several choice photos in Madonna’s best selling 1992 tome, Sex, and he also was in the sexually explicit music video “Super Tramp.” In the 90’s Udo started to appear in many prominent movies such as My Own Private Idaho (1989), For Love or Money (1993), Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993), Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), Barbed Wire (1996), Kingdom 1 & 2, Breaking the Waves (1996), Blade (1998), Armageddon (1998), The New Adventures of Pinocchio (1999), and Dancer in the Dark (2000). As of last count, Udo had over 122 films on his resume and has worked with several brilliant directors: Paul Morrissey, Wim Wenders, Charles Matton, Dario Argento, Lars Von Trier, Gus Van Sant, Rainer Werner Fassbinder (whom he met in a bar as a teenager), and Walerian Boroczyk. Kier adds another U.S. film to this list as he returns to the big screen in Lions Gate Films release of Shadow of the Vampire, based on the making of the 1922 silent classic, F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu. With an original screenplay by Steven Katz and directed by E. Elias Merhige (Begotten), Shadow of the Vampire stars John Malkovich as Murnau, a man so consumed by his art that he will stop at nothing, not even death, to get his vision on film. Willem Dafoe (Oscar-nominated for his performance) stars as the grotesque Max Schreck, the “actor” cast by Murnau for the all-important role of Count Orlock. Catherine McCormack stars as the divinely decadent object of Schreck’s desire, Cary Elwes plays the cinematographer, and Eddie Izzard is the hapless leading man confronted with the most horrifying co-star ever, and Kier takes up plenty of screen time as the film’s harried producer. “Making Shadow of the Vampire reminded me of the times when people made movies just for the joy of making movies. They didn’t care about how much money it made or how many people saw it. Back then it was people with true passion for filmmaking,” states Kier. He also had a great time working with everyone in the cast, as well. “What I think is so unique was that all the actors were there from morning until night, all working in a group, all at the same time. In America you would never have that. You would have actors asking ‘when is my time, when is his time,’ and so on. They would never be there together. We really had a wonderful cast,” Kier says with a smile. Kier has just completed a starring role in All the Queens Men, a comedy/drama about a mismatched team of British Special Services agents that is led by an American who must infiltrate, in disguise, a female-run factory in Berlin and bring back the decoding device that will end the war. It also stars Matt LeBlanc and Eddie Izzard. Besides his numerous other projects, Kier is fortunate to have a 30-year acting contract with a project entitled Dimensions. “I think it’s any actors dream to have a 30-year contract. I will never run out of work,” laughs Kier. Dimensions is a project that gathers several actors together each year and films them for 3 minutes. The idea is to see how people age over a 30-year span. “We always shoot around Christmas time, so it’s nice because we all get a chance to get together and have a nice dinner. Hopefully, I will be around for the premiere which is scheduled for 2024,” says Kier. Not much else is known about Dimensions since it’s a hush project and all the actors have been encouraged to keep their lips sealed about it. Throughout his remarkable life and career, Kier recalls one vision that has remained with him since he as a young boy and one that he chuckles about now. “When I was growing up in Germany, no one in my family really had money, except my aunt who lived in Hollywood. She used to send postcards to me all the time, and I would see the Hollywood sign and all the palm trees, and I always wanted to be a part of that. Now I can say I am; it’s like going from postcard to reality. But now that I’m here, I really don’t like saying I live in Hollywood, because that sounds like you’re having lunch with Arnold Schwarzenegger and having tea at the pool with Joan Collins—so I just say I live in Los Angeles,” Kier concludes. |