Original subtitles

I grew up in Germany, with my mother, alone.

There was not much food and only cold water.

And I went to school.

And We didn't have money that I could go to a high school.

So, I got the permission from my mother at 18

to go to England. I wanted to learn English.

I did not want to be an actor at all.

So, I went to England, and then somebody had a coffee,

came to me and said, "We're making a movie.

My name is Mike Same and I'm making my first little movie,

4O minutes, and I want you to play."

And I said, "Oh, how can I play?

I've never done a movie in my life."

The film was called Road to St. Tropez.

When the film came out,

the magazines wrote "a new phase of cinema,

the most beautiful man in the World."

I got a contract with William Morris,

the biggest agency in the world, by the way.

And as a poor boy, I liked the attention.

So, that was the beginning.

[soft Orchestral music]

- [Udo Kier] One day I had to fly from Rome to Munich,

and next to me, there was an American man.

He said to me, "What do you do for living?"

And I said, "I am an actor."

And when I said, "I'm an actor,"

I had already two fingers on my headshots in my bag,

and I put it out in front of his face.

And he said, "Interesting, give rne your number."

And then he took out his American passport

and he wrote my number on the last page of his passport.

There was no other number.

And I said... I was thinking, "Wow!"

And I said to him, "Who are you?"

He said, "My name is Paul Morrissey.

I am a film director for Andy Warhol."

And Andy Warhol, at that moment,

was becoming very famous as an artist.

And he had... Paul had made four indie famous films,

like Trash, Flesh, Heat, with Joe Dallesandro.

And then I said, "Okay, nice meeting you."

And then a couple of weeks later, I got a call.

"Hey, it's Paul from New York.

You remember the guy in the plane sitting next to you?

I'm doing a film for Carlo Ponti.

You know, the husband of Sophia Loren.

Frankenstein in 3D.

And I have a role for you."

And I said, "Wow, thank you so much.

What do I play?"

He said, "Frankenstein."

Then he said, "I'm coming to Munich.

I have to promote the film Heat

with Sylvia Miles and Joe, come to the press conference."

So, I went to the press conference,

and it was all the German press.

And they know me but they couldn't care about me,

you know, making films.

And then came the final question, they said,

"Mr Morrissey, we heard you're doing Frankenstein.

Who is going to play Frankenstein?"

And then came like the Michael Angelo finger,

he said, "Mr. Kier."

And of course, the whole room changed.

They all came to me.

"Oh, we have to do an interview.

Oh, we have to do a photo shoot."

So all of a sudden, a star was born.

We did Frankenstein for $300,000 in three weeks.

We shot in an amazing studio in Cinecitta in Rome,

which is the most wonderful studio.

There was not really a script.

There was an outline of a story,

and we did not know, actually, what happened the next day.

- Did you clean all the bottles and test tubes

in the laboratory?

- Yes, Baron, I did.

I worked the whole night to clean up everything.

- Then why does the studio look in such a mess, then?

- [Udo Kier] I didn't speak English like now.

I mean, I'm still not perfect, but I speak.

But then, I didn't. So, I mixed up certain sayings,

and that's Why the line...

Just saying it was a mistake, but it's very funny.

When I say it to my assistant,

"To know death, Otto,

you have to fuck life in the gallbladder,"

and I didn't know what a gallbladder was.

- My experiments are disturbed.

And you were the only one who knew something about it.

And I thought you were only interested in sex.

- [Udo Keir] I had an amazing time with the actors.

I had met in Saint Tropez, in a bar,

a beautiful woman with a beautiful man.

And that was Monique van Vooren.

And I didn't know that she was an actress or anything.

She was a very good looking blonde.

And then I saw her in Rome,

where We met for dinner before the movie,

and we realized that we both knew each other

when I wasn't an actor.

And then, of course, I met Joe.

A very nice a man, very natural, which I liked.

So, there wasn't...

It was Cinecitta, it was Andy Warhol,

but it wasn't any star system.

We all got treated the same way.

Ancl actually, We lived together in a villa,

in Villa Appia Antica.

There was another German actor, Arno JiJrging,

and his mother actually went to Andy Warhol

and said, "You have to use my son."

So, he was playing my assistant. Very good, very good.

Unfortunately, later on, many years after,

he, I think, jumped out of the window.

- Beautiful. We're very fortunate to find

such a perfect torso in one piece.

- [Udo Keir] Well, Frankenstein, of course,

when I had to operate on the woman and go inside

to every pose of my hand and have an orgasm,

that was kind of a little bit...

not strange, but you do have this naked, beautiful woman.

And then you cut slowly, with the scissors.

Your assistant is smaller than you, big eyes.

And he looks, and you go inside with your hand,

and you say, "liver..."

You touched the organs and you have an orgasm.

I think that was one of the strongest moments

I ever did in my life in a movie.

And the thing was, they put real liver and stuff inside.

And I had to take it out.

And because of the heat of the studio, they went all bad.

So, I still had to take it out to have an orgasm.

It was beautiful.

So, that was the strongest moment, I guess, for me.

The nudity was art.

If you like Bertolucci or Fellini,

if you show naked people, it's done with taste.

That's the difference.

If you do, "Yes, that is the moment, now, let them fuck,"

I'm sorry, "let them fuck,"

that's the difference.

But for Paul, this scene... in both films also,

when he has sex with the girls in Dracula,

that was very aesthetic.

There was a Mr. Colonel Binya,

the inventor of the 3D camera.

And he sold it, but he had a contract.

Whenever they use 3D, they have to use him.

He came with his wife and he was put in every scene.

He had a little metal case, open it up,

took the lens out and put it in front of the camera.

And all the camera men, everybody wants to know.

Because it's a very simple thing.

A 3D camera has two lenses. They're next to each other.

Then, at the end of the movie,

when he put his spear through my body

and my liver is hanging on top,

which is of the 3D effect right in front of the audience.

My liver is going up and down in front of your face.

And they had to guide me with a stick.

So, I looked at him,

but I was guided by a stick to move my body more to the left

or more to the right. If I would have moved like that,

the 3D effect would have gone.

So, every day, it was an adventure.

The last day of shooting Frankenstein,

I went to the canteen, ordered a little glass of wine

and I thought, "Okay."

Andy Warhol said, "Everybody is famous for 'I5 minutes."

So my 'I5 minutes was gone.

And then Paul Morrissey came in and he said,

"Well, I guess we have a German Dracula."

And then I said, "Who?"

And he said, "You.

But you have to lose 1 O pounds in one week."

Because it was always planned to have just one production.

Carlo Ponti produced $300,000 Frankenstein,

five days rest, three weeks, $300,000 for Dracula.

So, it was one same cameraman, same set designer,

all the same people, all the actors.

And I said, "Who?"

And he said, "You, but you have to lose 1O pounds."

I said, "No problem."

So, I didn't eat anymore. Only salad leaves and water.

And when the first day of shooting came,

with Vittorio De Sica, I was sitting in a wheelchair,

and I roll in. And when I get out, I fall down.

But we are here to talk about Frankenstein,

not about Dracula.

I had a great time and it was, also,

basically, at the beginning of my career,

and I hadn't done many films,

but it did lead to films.

I went to the premier of Frankenstein.

To Paris, Champs-Elysées,

and I was staying at the most beautiful hotel plaza.

And I was there, and... and half an hour... the film is...

nobody told me anything.

Ancl I called and I say, "ls Paul Morrissey in the hotel?"

"No, but Mr. Polanski is in the hotel."

I said, "Could I speak to him?"

So, I... And Roman said to me,

"Oh, come up, I'm on the seventh floor.

We'll have a glass of champagne

and you can go with me to the premiere."

So, I went with him to the premiere,

saw the movie, liked it.

And then We went to a nightclub.

With Roman, not with Paul.

And then We were sitting there and a man came and said,

"Hello, my name is Carlo D'Silva.

We're doing The Story Of O

and We want to offer you the leading part."

And I said, "I don't do pornos."

And everybody under the table,

including Polanski, was kicking me.

And then I didn't know why they were kicking me.

And then the guy... when the other guy...

I said, "Okay, give me your card."

And then when the guy went, they said, "Are you crazy?

That's the biggest erotic book ever written.

It's forbidden in France! And a mega movie.

And you're the leading man, the fiance of O.

Everybody will know you."

So, I called the next day and I said to Mr. Carlo D'Silva,

I said, "Okay, I want to meet the director."

So, I met the director who was very famous at that time,

because he had made Emmanuelle.

The biggest erotic hit with Sylvia Kristel from...

I remember all the names! So, my brain is working.

So, I made the movie.

I cannot tell you if I liked the movie or not,

but it was a commercial, worldwide success.

So, Frankenstein is, for the period of that film was made,

sensational.

And I just want to tell you something,

because it's important for this interview.

I am a lucky man.

I have never asked a director,

"I would like to work with you."

Imagine you said to David Lynch...

I had dinner with David Lynch and Isabella Rossellini

many years ago.

Imagine if I would say to David Lynch,

"I would like to work with you."

And he would answer, "Who doesn't?"

I would have gone under the table.

So, I'm a lucky man.

I was in Berlin and a young director...

I didn't know he was a director.

He introduced himself to me and he said,

"Hello. My name is Gus van Sant.

I have a little movie here I made for $20,000,

but my next movie is a bigger projection for New Line,

with Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix,

and I have a role for you."

And I thought, directors always talk at festivals.

No, he didn't talk.

Thanks to him, we're sitting here now and talking,

you and me. You're standing. I'm sitting.

Because he really meant it.

And I made my first American picture in Portland.

That's why I like to say that word. I am a lucky man,

because all of these amazing directors.

And there is directors who are...

Maybe one I like more than the others.

I like Paul Morrissey because he discovered me,

to become from daily paper into glamour paper,

and I like Gus van Sant because he discovered me,

and I made my first American film.

And thanks to him, I'm still here.

[soft Piano music]