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jessesookiereeves) wrote2006-02-25 01:22 am
jessesookiereeves) wrote2006-02-25 01:22 am
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Random QotD Interview
This is from one of the many links I'd posted ages ago. So to keep it I'll post it here.
from Latino Review
Excerpts from the Interview with Director Michael Rymer Producer Jorge Saralegui, Stuart Townsend, Marguerite Moreau and Aaliyah's Brother Rashad Haughton.
by Monica Partridge
Enthusiasm was high at the press junket for the latest installment of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles film, Queen of the Damned. Needless to say, irrespective of the enthusiasm generated by the director, producer, and stars, Aaliyah's presence was sorely missed throughout the afternoon.
Queen of the Damned got off the ground in 1998, when Michael Rymer was attached to direct and Jorge Saralegui was later brought on to produce.
In regard to why it took so long to develop a sequel to Interview with the Vampire, Saralegui says the novel was "really hard to adapt." Interview was successful enough that the studio wanted a sequel, but it took a while for the project to come together. "Neil Jordan worked on a version of the Vampire Lestat, and it just died. And that was it. It was on the shelf."
Michael Rymer is "a big Anne Rice fan," and was thrilled to be working on the project. "I tend to agree that the best of the three novels is the Vampire Lestat. But, it's also the most episodic and the hardest to make into a feature film. Hard to compress. Queen of the Damned is not an easy matter, either, because it involves many different story lines and travels thousands of years, with many different characters. It is extremely gory in a way that we just didn't want to go there."
Both Rymer and Saralegui were incredibly pleased with Anne Rice's response to the film once she viewed it. "Anne was resoundingly positive," says Rymer. "She was very objective. Once she read the script, she knew the hard part was over. She knew that it wasn't going to be the book and she was prepared to view the movie as it's own and say 'did it work.' And, I'm a big Anne Rice fan, and I had felt that I worked really hard in trying to get at the spirit of the book. And I think she agreed. She gave us a very flattering review on her Web site." Saralegui adds, "After she viewed the movie, she said, 'You can call it 'Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned.'' She was pleased enough to offer the use of her name and possessory credit in our marketing materials."
The film manages to keep an ironic sense of humor that is successful and plays with the characters in the film. The director indicated that "tone of the movie is more determined by the characters." The tone of Interview with the Vampire was different, more serious because "in the first book, Louis is very ambivalent about being a vampire and having to kill people. He spends a lot of time soul searching and angsty, darker. Lestat loves being a vampire. He has no qualms about that. His issue is having to hide in the shadows. His irreverent energy informs the tone of the film."
Saralegui addresses the aftermath of Aaliyah's death and how it affected the production as a whole. "After Aaliya's death, at first we decided to do nothing [with the project]. There was no action on the film for a month." However, there was a lot of continued interest in the film from Aaliyah's extensive fan base, who were eagerly awaiting the release of the film. However, Saralegui says that out of respect for Aaliyah and her family, "we didn't do that much to fan the flames." Untimately, it was the family who brought momentum to push forward with the project. "The family wanted to make sure it gets out there." Saralegui says that their thought on the film was "that's the part of her that's still here and is successful." Her family was a driving force in the film's successful release. They wanted to share all of Aaliyah's passion for her work with her audiences.
On Aaliyah as Queen Akasha
Each member of the project spoke with respect, love and care of Aaliyah and her passionate involvement in the Queen of the Damned. Producer Jorge Saralegui says, "Aaliyah was the first person we cast, and no one else was considered for that role."
He recalls, "One of my favorite memories of her was how much she was Akasha while the camera was rolling - deep voice, commanding presence - but then, the second the director yelled "cut," she would make a funny face, or stick out her tongue, or do something to let you know that she was Aaliyah, not Akasha." Stuart Townsend mirrors this sentiment, adding, "She'd just be giggling between takes and yet nailing it every time."
Townsend says, "You've probably never heard a bad word about her, and that's the way it goes. Really dedicated. She was going to do everything. This was her second film. And it was like straight in there and so excited. We spent a month together doing pre-production with wirework and voice and certain movements. She was on such a role, she just came in every day, and there were never any dramas, and just fun, you know."
"I've had deaths in my own family," he continued, "and the first thing was the family, because those are the ones that are left behind. And they were so close, you know, they all came to Melbourne. And, that was hard, too. I just couldn't imagine. They were a four-person unit. I just couldn't get my head around that. And, that's where my head was - how are they? Thankfully, they've been amazing. Just really supportive. She did such an amazing job. She was so happy in it. I think they want the public to see it."
Marguerite Moreau, who stars as Jesse, says of Aaliyah, "she was easy as pie" to work with, "and she was seductive in that she had a presence, an ease, and a confidence, and just a personality that was innocent. I was just drawn to her. She loved to laugh and would always walk around singing, which I do." When asked if they sang together, she laughed, saying, no, "I would sing backup to that lovely lady!"
Moreau continues, saying, "We had wonderful moments together. She's the one that got me to rent Rosemary's Baby. She'd say, "You've never seen scary movies? I love scary movies. Okay, the best thing to do is to rent them and to scare yourself silly. So, that's what we would do, and I was like, 'uh, okay, I'll make dinner.' So, she comes over, and I'm like, 'okay we're doing this vampire movie, I have to scare myself silly, it'll be great,' and then she falls asleep. She's laying on the floor, and I was like, 'you can't go home.' And, Rashad was there, laughing. He's like, 'She does this all the time.'"
From the perspective of her personal growth and change, Moreau regards Aaliyah's death as incredibly significant "in terms of the things I learned. If you're going to be taken so young, to do what she did - it's a definite example of what we can do. She was one of the good ones, for sure." Moreau teared up in talking about the loss of her friend.
She continues, saying, "This morning before I came I saw her new video on MTV, and it's so good, and it's one where she has her hair pulled back, and it's more the Aaliyah I knew than the Aaliyah of her music career. And, at first I was like, 'Oh, God,' and then I thought, 'Go. She's telling us to go.' She just loved it. She did it with a passion. So, I think that's what there is to do."
The most touching reminder of Aaliyah's continued commitment to the film was the appearance of her brother, Rashad Haughton. "It was definitely a dream come true for her to do this role." He appears in the film in the dream sequence when he comes to Akasha as a slave back in Egypt. He plays one of the slaves Akasha eats.
A recent graduate of Hoffstra Film school, Rashad says he wants to "keep her legacy alive in whatever work I do from now on. That's my mission." In regard to performing and entertainment, Rashad says, "If it's in your blood, you have to do it." Rashad aims to hone his craft of directing in intimate, character-driven stories. He also writes as well.
Rashad says, "Aaliyah was always nervous before performing. After Romeo Must Die, Aaliyah caught the acting bug big time."
Rashad was with Aaliyah, whom he called 'Baby Girl' and 'LeeLee,' for the duration of the shoot in Australia. "The film brought both the Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned stories together well in a two-hour film.It was a great experience to be there [on set], watching everything come together."
Aaliyah was ecstatic about the notion of contributing a song to the production. The film offered her a chance to expand her musical horizons. "She was so excited to work with Jonathan - she was a huge fan of KoRn. That's what her career was about, was always pushing the limits, to do something not expected."
When asked if she didn't ask to be called Queen at all, smiling, Rashad answered, "No, that definitely wasn't Aaliyah. The great thing about art is you can go away from reality and explore parts of yourself. It's a journey to take."
The family plans to present a collection of unreleased tracks to please her fans. A tribute album is in the works. "If there's still work out there, it will be heard."
About her death and release of the film, Rashad says, "It's sometimes difficult for people to separate fantasy and reality. It's a film. I think everything has been done tastefully."
Aaliyah was a huge fan of horror movies, which it why it was particularly fun for her to play Akasha. In particular, she loved Interview with the Vampire and Nosferatu. She and Rashad also loved the Evil Dead series, Wes Craven, the Exorcist and Clive Barker.
Ancient Egypt was always of interest to Aaliyah, so she had a considerable amount of exposure to the period before attaching herself to the project. She had a dialect coach, whereupon she learned an Egyptian dialect, and a movement and dance coach to teach her hand and body motions so she could be very cat-like and affected.
In regards to the crash and ongoing investigation, "It happened outside of America, so they're still trying to get to the bottom of it."
Rashad says of Aaliyah, "She would want to be remembered as someone who was able to achieve a lot and maintain a sense of self, values and family."
On Stuart Townsend as the Vampire Lestat
In coming to the material, magnetic, swarthy Irish actor Stuart Townsend says, "the main thing was Lestat. I loved the character." Townsend, of Resurrection Man, looked to old vampire movies for inspiration on how to best approach the character of Lestat. "We did these rock videos that we incorporated into the film, and we were going to make the theme for one of them The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and the other was Nosferatu, and I did the whole Bella Legosi sort of dance. So yeah, I watched a lot of them."
In relation to his performance as Lestat, he says, "The one thing is how vampy can you go, because there's no realistic basis. I love that. It's nice to not have to deal with pretty realism, it's nice to kind of vamp it up and do the movement or whatever. But there's always a side of me that goes, I hope someone tells me if I'm way over the wrong side. Because you're the vampire, you can really vamp it up and go off the deep end."
However, as for the rock star inspiration, his greatest was "David Bowie performance- wise." Ironically, "the rock star thing terrified me. I just tried to ignore that it was every going to really happen. And the concert didn't happen for a few months, so that was always in the back of my head - you're going to have to get up in from of a few thousand people. I was terrified, which was great, though, because it turned out to be the best night. You know, if it's something you're the most afraid of, and it turns out great, that's the best."
Anne Rice had an amazing supernatural connection to Stuart Townsend even before they had ever met. Townsend says, "She'd read a New Yorker review of me and it was really good, and that was the first, that was like, whew, that's good. No full page in Variety, 'I hate Stuart Townsend.' But then, I met her, and that was wild.
"I went to New Orleans, went to her house. I got the guided tour of this incredible house. I'd been there 10 minutes and she gave me Queen of the Damned and The Witching Hour, and it said, 'To Stuart, Love, Anne.' And she was like, 'The Witching Hour, you're on page 486.' I picked it up, and page 486 is 'The Life of Stuart Townsend.' And I was like, 'Wow, God, Anne, that's absolutely amazing! You put me as a character in your book - I'm so touched to be in your new novel.' And she was like, 'No, I wrote this 11 years ago.' And I was like, phew! Then I was walking around New Orleans like a detective, watching my back.'
Michael Rymer says of Townsend, "I saw him on stage, actually, in London when he was doing Orpheus Descending with Helen Meren. He was playing the character popularized by Brando, the sort of sexy male sex symbol. And all the women are salivating over him all through the play. He was really convincing in that role. So, it was a no brainer. I thought, he can pull that off."
When asked, "Can you sing, do you do any of the signing in the movie?" Townsend responded, "Fuck no. But, I tried hard. They asked me, would I do Jonathan Davis, because they were having their own legal battles, so they asked me, it might happen that I might have to do his voice, and I was like, 'you've got to be kidding me.' But I mimed his voice for 2 days and I couldn't speak. I started to get into it, and my voice was just gone."
Townsend really enjoyed the experience of living and working in Melbourne, Australia. "We were all in Australia, we were all away from our families. The crew were amazing. On the weekend everyone would hang out. It was really nice."
On Marguerite Moreau as Jesse Reeves
As the only non-vampire character, the human audience was able to relate most readily with Marguerite Moreau's character of Jesse. However, as a human, more of her performance was limited to reality. She wasn't able to play as much with the supernatural. She says, "I was jealous a lot. I was put in an environment where I was isolated and everyone else was getting to do all the fun stuff. I had to be very patient until Michael would give me my own stuff."
Moreau hadn't read any of the novels when she was approached with the project, and actually postponed reading them until after she was cast in the role. "I didn't want to get my hopes up and become too attached to the whole genre until after I had signed my name on the dotted line."
She was particularly interested in the material and film because, she says, "I've always been a big fan of vampires. I think that they are so hot and sexy. The whole attraction I have to that sort of underworld and immortality is being fearless and so unquestioning in your focus of what you want, and when you bore down on your prey the way this guy does, right, it's such an unquestioning confidence that's seriously attractive, I think."
Moreau says in regard to the character of Lestat, "This was a guy who just couldn't lose,
because after the album stuff, then he's still got the whole immortality thing to play." She thought they could have focused even more screen time to the vampire as rock star, saying, "They could have played that up even more - more strutting down Sunset Boulevard. I think the ego that a vampire has, how Anne Rice has written Lestat is to be with this sort of cocky, campy confidence."
The project came to Moreau through the script primarily. "I have a couple of really good friends who work with me, who were tracking it and said, 'to be part of it, to try to put you in it would be a dream come true,' so I had them behind me. Then when I read the script, it was like, 'I have to do this.' When I met Michael, we had long discussions about the relevance of Jesse. We put her in, we created this story that was different from the book. How do we make her relevant, really, when it's called The Queen of the Damned, and we have to ultimately prove whether or not we believe in life and to keep striving for a purpose, or to feed into his [Lestat's] own belief of self discovery as power, as what he wants to experience. I think that Jesse finds her power in that it's life we're living for, and it's ironic that she says that she wants to end her entire life in the mortal realm, but she feels that the only way for her to actually participate in life is through and in the underworld."
The project changed "huge amounts from the script I signed on to." She speculates this was "because I think it was a huge task in itself" to make "one little movie out of two huge novels. There's like how many characters? I don't even know. It changed a lot, I thought."
In retrospect, after the film's completion, Moreau " would have loved Jesse to incorporate the supernatural powers she does have in the book. It solidifies her knowledge and I think would have helped the audience in knowing her. I feel most as an audience member, when you see it, at the end, you go, 'Oh, I see, that's who she is. That's what she wanted, and now I see just who she is.'"
"That's one of my favorite parts of the entire movie," Moreau says in reference to the nods to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in one of the three music videos of the film. "I was trying to work my way into one of the videos. There was no way. But, man, did I try."
Moreau notes that some of her favorite horror films are Rosemary's Baby, which she first watched with Aaliyah, Lost Boys, Blade, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu and Carrie.
When asked if she is tempted by eternal life, Moreau answered, "Sometimes. I sometimes wonder, if you had the decision to make right now, would you do it? The producer, Jorge, and I were probably more fans of it than Stuart, but he was happy to play it. I think I'd do it. If you asked me right now, I'd say, 'Hey, let's check it out.' Of course, there's no going back, but I'd like to have an opportunity to go for it."
On working and living in Australia, Moreau said, "It was magic. If we're not careful, our entire industry's going there. It's very much like Southern California. The culture is much more relaxed, much slower. I was living by the sea. In every way it was fun; it was great."
Moreau was a child actor, but decided to take a break from acting to attend Vassar College in New England. She graduated with her BA in political science with a minor in theatre. "I had an understanding of what I wanted to do, but I didn't know how to do it. In order for me to create ambition, more study had to be involved. I still think more study has to be involved. I really wanted an environment where I was uninterrupted, and it was one of the best experiences of my entire life. I don't think college is for everyone, but I think that for my mind and my goals and what my needs are, I absolutely loved it."
Initially, Moreau gravitated toward public policy, "but as I studied more, I studied US policy and then went on to the UN and studied international affairs and never really realized how everything was set up. I just became so disheartened. I thought I could probably do better in this environment [entertainment] and not become bitter. I think acting is about telling the truth, and unfortunately politicking is really in dealing in lying, and I would have become a different person. It was also nice to know by my 4th year that this will be a part of my life that's not my life's work."
A Southern California native, Moreau jokingly says she got into acting because she was "craving attention. I needed an after-school hobby. Mom, I've chosen and after-school hobby that will make me enough money to buy a car. Isn't this practical? Aren't you proud of my practical mind? And, for some reason she bought it."
Of her acting background, Moreau says, "The more I acted, the more I found out who I was. I love it. I think it's very good for the soul."
When questioned as to whether she finds the grind of the studio system boring, she responded, "Any job can be boring. Every job has that. When you have to go in that mode of fighting boredom, fighting tedium, somewhere you just get on a role, and you just start going, and then you're just off and running. The adrenaline is unmatched. When you decide to focus and stop complaining, and just go, and say, 'Okay, this is what it is,' and breathe through it, it's so empowering. I love it."
Moreau was able to hone her craft and grow through the experience of working on Queen of the Damned. "Everything is not the world. The world only exists in one stage corner, and everything around you can distract you. I think I'm learning more and more how to create the power that comes across on screen in that small space, to be able to communicate that."
Moreau is starring as the firestarter Charlie McGee in the upcoming the sci-fi channel miniseries, which picks up the story by Stephen King, Firestarter: Rekindled with Dennis Hopper.
Moreau was privileged to work with Dennis Hopper on the miniseries. "The majority of my scenes were with him, so I was really lucky. I remember we were doing this one scene in this huge train station, and it's a conversation, and I'm in the middle of the scene." Due to the location, a crowd gathered "in the space, and I realized everyone is watching, it's like theatre, because it's Hopper. And he's sitting across the table from me. And, I'm just doing my lines, and I'm thinking, 'we are going head to head. Bring it on.' It was so exciting."
On Dennis Hopper, Moreau recalls, "He is dapper and dashing and he's got these blue eyes that are incredibly intoxicating, and then he's crazy. And then he's like, 'let me tell you about the beautiful women of my life.'"
Queen of the Damned Music
Jonathan Davis, lead singer and front man of the band KoRn, composed all of the music for the film with Richard Gibbs, formerly of Oingo Boingo. The music is excellent and gives the film a full, authentic feel. While Davis sings the songs performed in the film, due to contractual limitations, he was not able to sing on the album.
Davis was very excited to be a part of this project, and says, "I've always wanted to score movies, to work with an orchestra and do original songs." The five original songs include "Forsaken," "Redeemer," "System," "Slept So Long," and "Not Meant For Me."
Working on the film was a new and different experience for him. "When we write with KoRn, there are 5 members in the band and it's more heady. With this, I got to be a different person. I got to get my mind into the feel of a vampire, the Vampire Lestat, and what his rock band would be like. I got to make it up and do something different. It was fun doing it. I was on tour the whole time, and we wrote it in the back of the bus, going down the road doing 80. It was a great experience and I'm really proud of it."
Although the music in the novel is Goth of the 1980s, the film wanted a current feel and sound. "That's why they brought me on, because they wanted it to be now. It could have been really, really cheesy if it hadn't been done right."
"We wrote ten songs and we picked five of the best ones. Originally our plan was to do a Vampire Lestat album, to have an actual band. But, you know, things got all mixed up." As Davis wasn't allowed to perform on the album, other musicians were brought in for the album cuts. The musicians performing on the album include Marilyn Manson, Static-X's Wayne Static, Disturbed's David Draiman, Linkin Park's Chester Bennington and Orgy's Jay Gordon.
Shifting gears to discuss some current issues of relevance to musicians in today's world, Davis was asked about musicians and standard contract terms. "I don't think it's right for musicians to be different from actors or anyone else. Actors have the right to renegotiate their contracts whenever they want. Us, we can't negotiate ever until our contract's up. We can go for 12 years and we're still stuck. We're signed for. We could sell a gazillion albums and we only get this. We have no right to negotiate. I don't think that's right. It's wrong. That's crazy, ripping artists off. The music business is the biggest rip off in the world. Artists don't get anything. The only way we make money is by touring. And they [the labels] make everything." Further, Davis adds, "With artist royalties, we don't make anything because it all goes into this big pipeline to pay back the record companies, they hold it for years in this pipeline for, I don't know why. I don't understand why they do it. It's really crazy."
As far as working as a composer, Davis says, "All I did was make a good amount of money by sitting and writing, doing something I like. I didn't have to go out on the road. I could just sit with my son in my guest house and write, and be happy, and I get paid and I make royalties, and all kinds of stuff."
As a composer, one's rights are protected. However, as a musician, they are not. "The record labels have the RIAA [Recording Industry Association of America], and congress thinks that they fight for us, but all they do is fight for the labels. The labels give them tons of money, so all they do is fight for the interests. Composers have their own [union]. That's why they get residuals. Musicians don't get that. I haven't made a penny off of record sales."
An active supporter of digital distribution, Davis says, "I think it's awesome. I mean, when you're in a band, all you want s for your music to be heard. Since I don't make shit off of records anyways, it's like, who cares? As long as he downloads it and likes it and tells his friend, then it's fine."
It was originally planned that Aaliyah would also contribute some songs to the film. "We were going to produce and do some songs for her, because I liked the way she was heading with her musical career. In some of her songs she was starting to get dark and vampiric, but it was still an R&B pop kind of thing. We were going to try to take it more dark and do some cool things. We gave her a couple songs. She was so excited."
Davis says of Aaliyah's unfortunate passing, "It was really sad that it happened that way."
Unfortunately, due to Aaliyah's death, they never got to get into the studio with her. Davis says, "But, I got to do a song with Rashad [Aaliyah's brother, Rashad Houghton]. We built a really great friendship, so I'm helping him out."
When asked about his cameo appearance in the film, Davis says, "I'm all down for it. I liked it - it was fun because I was a ticket scalper. I see those fuckers outside my show all the time. Yeah, they make some money, man. I love music, it's what I do, but for a change, little cameos here and there, I think it's fun."
On his favorite music artists, David says, "You know, I really don't listen to music. All I do is 24 hours a day live music. And work on the band, producing right now. I don't really have time to sit down and put the headphones on and listen to music."
David admits, "The biggest thing that ever influenced me in my life was Andrew Lloyd Weber's Jesus Christ Superstar. And that totally set me up for wanting to be in music.
I listen to that - my cell phone rings it. I'm fascinated by that musical."
In fact, Davis is so inspired by Jesus Christ Superstar that he has it "in the pipeline to do a rock opera." This project will be a collaboration with horror guru Clive Barker, of whom Davis is a huge fan. "I'm a big Hellraiser freak. I think he's a really talented guy." At his home, Davis has a private collection of props and items from Hellraiser. Davis says that "once he [Barker] writes the story line, that's when I come in and do the lyrics and the music. It becomes just like this whole collaboration." When asked if the collaborative venture will come to fruition before the end of the year, Davis says, "I've got to go on tour and do KoRn stuff. But, you know what, once Clive writes it, we can go from there." We'll be hearing more about that next year for sure.
"I grew up in the theatre. My mom was a dancer and my dad a musician. After the theatre, my dad opened up a music store and a music school. I've been around that my whole life. Basically, I was in music my whole life. It's all I know."
His son is 6 years old, and Davis takes an active interest in teaching him about music. "I just like sitting in the studio and teaching him like my dad did with me. It's really weird when you're with your little boy and you say to yourself, 'this is my son,' and what you pass on, and you're like, 'oh man, this is trippy.' I'm just happy he likes music. That's all I care about. I want him to do what he wants to do, but I want music to be a big part of his life, because it was in mine." When asked if his son listens to KoRn, he says, "He loves it. His favorite band, though, is Tool. That's awesome."
"I'm from Bakersfield. I know you're all like, 'Oh God.'" Does Davis only sing about terrible childhoods? "I wouldn't say my childhood was great growing up. Divorced families, the normal things that people go through. But the only way for me to get it out was through my music. A lot of people like can relate with it. I don't think I'm like anything special. Everybody goes through it; everybody has those things."
Davis is actively working now in the studio on KoRn's next album.
Queen of the Damned Location, Digital Effects, Body Casting and Prosthetics
The rumors that Rashad Houghton, Aaliyah's brother, did body doubling for her are incorrect. He did do some voice work, which was later coupled with her own voice and then altered with digital effects. However, he did not double for Aaliyah in the film. He does appear in the film as an Egyptian slave, however.
Rashad explained that Aaliyah was burdened with special colored contact lenses, uncomfortable costumes, prosthetics and wiring. "She was often sore, but she took it all in stride." She never complained and enjoyed most of the process. "Aaliyah had 5 months with wire work."
As many of her costumes were body plates, each had to be cast to fit her body, so she had to get a plaster cast made in order for them to make the armor. "She had to breathe through two straws in her nose for the body casting."
Most of the film was shot in and around Melbourne, Australia. Michael Rymer, an Aussie, says, "It was all about budget. Getting the movie down to a price. In Australia, you double your money. My argument was the acting community there, because I could draw talent. They wanted a bit of fun to be in a vampire movie. Also the architecture in Melbourne could double more easily than in Vancounver." It was cheaper for the production to reconstruct major sets in Australia than for them to shoot on location in the US and Europe. Saralegui says, "We had Lestat and Jesse flying into the Griffith Observatory. We could not have done that at the real location."
As to on-site locations, "We did some shots at the Griffith Observatory [in Hollywood, CA], some shots in London, the aerial stuff over the desert. It's not all Melbourne. But, most of the action was in Melbourne."
The Goth concert, modeled after Burning Man, was shot at a concrete quarry outside Melbourne. "Melbourne is the Goth capitol of the world. A lot of the crowd was digital as well. We had 3000 real Goth, who stayed there all night. We bussed them out there. People don't get it - they think they're going to a party. They don't get it. It's a movie shoot - it's a very arduous, boring thing. We gave them fabulous Goth acts, a full on Goth thing. They have Goth clubs that are active in Melbourne."
Much of the look of the film was digitized. Particularly, many of the skin effects were a product of heavy make up coupled with lighting and digitization. Rymer says, "It's a simple process of grabbing a particular color and causing it to glow. We had full body makeup on everybody. Aaliyah had a gold color. It wasn't enough on its own."
Rymer continues, saying, "The design of the film was to get away from that very monochromatic, extremely dark look that most American films have these days, and go for a richer color scheme, so the lighting was generally soft and flat. We were getting a lot of our ideas from the models in magazines - soft molded light that drops away. That was the design, to sell the makeup, that sort of approach."
About the prosthetic teeth, Townsend says, "We had the day-to-day wear, and then we had the big saber attack teeth. With the saber attack teeth you had to be careful - occasionally you'd get a nick. But, the day-to-day wear, you didn't even notice they were in."
Townsend had a great sense of humor about the experience. He continued, "The worst was the white paint, the body stuff. Because that took an hour, and you could never do it in the trailer, you had to be outside. And it was freezing, and you had to be spray painted with this cold, white paint. And then you'd be picking white things out of your nose for a few days." When asked, 'wasn't there somebody on set to do that for you?', Townsend responded: "No, not if you're not Tom Cruise, no."
As much of the film involved a significant amount of CGI work, Townsend became experienced in the art of standing in front of a green screen. "It's really weird, that stuff. I mean, you go into a room, and there'd be a still photographer there, and you'd get up on this platform that was like marked out, stand there behind this screen, and they'd take one shot, and then get someone to move you on the platform, take another shot, all the way around. And then they'd say, 'Okay, thank you.' And you're like, 'Alright. What does that mean?' You know? It was really bizarre. And then there were all these things around, these black and white things that meant something - markers - against the green screen, and pink balls. It was pretty odd. And, we did that billboard scene not on Sunset Blvd. but at four in the morning at a chocolate factory outside of Melbourne. It was mad."
Townsend explained how they filmed the wall crawl scene wherein he crawls on the ceiling. It was a rigged set. "As you put your one hand on the actual vertical wall, the whole gimble set would move and go horizontal." Later, they digitally added the girls.
In regard to the rose-petal bath scene with Aaliyah and the pleasures of being an actor, Townsend says jokingly, "You have no idea. Sitting in a bath in front of a hundred people."
Queen of the Damned Sound
The film had some problems with sound that became significant issues in post-production. In regard to the extent of the sound problems, Townsend says, "Somebody forgot to fire the sound man."
Townsend was disappointed with the sound experience on the film. "I did a few weeks of post dubbing. Everyone had to do it, but I had to do more of it than everyone. It was a nightmare because you had to go into the copper mine. But I had worked so hard and was happy with what I had done [on set]. When I had done it I was into the whole vocal thing, and suddenly six months later I'm in Hollywood, and I have to remember all of this again and try and emote while you're standing there in a room with speakers. It's strange."
He continues, "Every line was pretty much dubbed. With a couple lines, I was like, 'Guys, I just can't do,' like at the concert scene with 'You want more!' There was no way I could get that there, so they were like, 'Okay.'"
Rymer says that when they got into post production, they saw that "the waves are everywhere. It's like white noise." This was part of the reason the sound problems were significant. He admits, "It was an amazing feat of mixing to be able to salvage Aaliyah."
Saralegui says, "The plan was to do something tricky with the voices. Aaliya's voice is there 100%, but there's only a whisper of Rashad underneath, and echoing effect underneath." Thus, he explains, the total effect is "Aaliyah's original performance, plus Rashad's whisper, plus the echoing effect."
Rashad approached the voice-over work with fear and uncertainty. "They called me in to do her voice in a whisper. Michael assured me it would work, that the ADR would be okay." However, "Mom assured me it was something she wanted me to do under the circumstances." Rymer says, "There's only a little bit of Rashad."
On The Forthcoming Queen of the Damned DVD
Rymer and Saralegui promise a quality DVD, filled with a lot of outtakes plus bonus stuff. There were some scenes taken out of the movie that Moreau particularly liked that will be available on the DVD.
Saralegui plans to include the full bar scene when Aaliyah dances. "It's incredible." This scene was too long for the film, because it became too much like a music video. However, it will be uncut on the DVD and is several minutes longer than in the movie version.
Additionally, the DVD plans to include all three of the music videos. Saralegui says, "We made three Lestat music videos. The videos are seen in part in the movie. They are of Lestat and his band, so no one else from the cast, including Aaliyah, is in them. In other words, they aren't QUEEN OF THE DAMNED videos (which could include Aaliyah); they are videos from the band "The Vampire Lestat" (aka "Satan's Night Out"). For those who care, they each have a classic horror-movie theme: THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, Murnau's NOSFERATU, and Browning's DRACULA. These were filmed in Melbourne just before the start of production."
Also, the DVD is planned to include interviews with the cast and filmmakers, more concert footage, additional outtakes, the Ancients and the band.
from Latino Review
Excerpts from the Interview with Director Michael Rymer Producer Jorge Saralegui, Stuart Townsend, Marguerite Moreau and Aaliyah's Brother Rashad Haughton.
by Monica Partridge
Enthusiasm was high at the press junket for the latest installment of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles film, Queen of the Damned. Needless to say, irrespective of the enthusiasm generated by the director, producer, and stars, Aaliyah's presence was sorely missed throughout the afternoon.
Queen of the Damned got off the ground in 1998, when Michael Rymer was attached to direct and Jorge Saralegui was later brought on to produce.
In regard to why it took so long to develop a sequel to Interview with the Vampire, Saralegui says the novel was "really hard to adapt." Interview was successful enough that the studio wanted a sequel, but it took a while for the project to come together. "Neil Jordan worked on a version of the Vampire Lestat, and it just died. And that was it. It was on the shelf."
Michael Rymer is "a big Anne Rice fan," and was thrilled to be working on the project. "I tend to agree that the best of the three novels is the Vampire Lestat. But, it's also the most episodic and the hardest to make into a feature film. Hard to compress. Queen of the Damned is not an easy matter, either, because it involves many different story lines and travels thousands of years, with many different characters. It is extremely gory in a way that we just didn't want to go there."
Both Rymer and Saralegui were incredibly pleased with Anne Rice's response to the film once she viewed it. "Anne was resoundingly positive," says Rymer. "She was very objective. Once she read the script, she knew the hard part was over. She knew that it wasn't going to be the book and she was prepared to view the movie as it's own and say 'did it work.' And, I'm a big Anne Rice fan, and I had felt that I worked really hard in trying to get at the spirit of the book. And I think she agreed. She gave us a very flattering review on her Web site." Saralegui adds, "After she viewed the movie, she said, 'You can call it 'Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned.'' She was pleased enough to offer the use of her name and possessory credit in our marketing materials."
The film manages to keep an ironic sense of humor that is successful and plays with the characters in the film. The director indicated that "tone of the movie is more determined by the characters." The tone of Interview with the Vampire was different, more serious because "in the first book, Louis is very ambivalent about being a vampire and having to kill people. He spends a lot of time soul searching and angsty, darker. Lestat loves being a vampire. He has no qualms about that. His issue is having to hide in the shadows. His irreverent energy informs the tone of the film."
Saralegui addresses the aftermath of Aaliyah's death and how it affected the production as a whole. "After Aaliya's death, at first we decided to do nothing [with the project]. There was no action on the film for a month." However, there was a lot of continued interest in the film from Aaliyah's extensive fan base, who were eagerly awaiting the release of the film. However, Saralegui says that out of respect for Aaliyah and her family, "we didn't do that much to fan the flames." Untimately, it was the family who brought momentum to push forward with the project. "The family wanted to make sure it gets out there." Saralegui says that their thought on the film was "that's the part of her that's still here and is successful." Her family was a driving force in the film's successful release. They wanted to share all of Aaliyah's passion for her work with her audiences.
On Aaliyah as Queen Akasha
Each member of the project spoke with respect, love and care of Aaliyah and her passionate involvement in the Queen of the Damned. Producer Jorge Saralegui says, "Aaliyah was the first person we cast, and no one else was considered for that role."
He recalls, "One of my favorite memories of her was how much she was Akasha while the camera was rolling - deep voice, commanding presence - but then, the second the director yelled "cut," she would make a funny face, or stick out her tongue, or do something to let you know that she was Aaliyah, not Akasha." Stuart Townsend mirrors this sentiment, adding, "She'd just be giggling between takes and yet nailing it every time."
Townsend says, "You've probably never heard a bad word about her, and that's the way it goes. Really dedicated. She was going to do everything. This was her second film. And it was like straight in there and so excited. We spent a month together doing pre-production with wirework and voice and certain movements. She was on such a role, she just came in every day, and there were never any dramas, and just fun, you know."
"I've had deaths in my own family," he continued, "and the first thing was the family, because those are the ones that are left behind. And they were so close, you know, they all came to Melbourne. And, that was hard, too. I just couldn't imagine. They were a four-person unit. I just couldn't get my head around that. And, that's where my head was - how are they? Thankfully, they've been amazing. Just really supportive. She did such an amazing job. She was so happy in it. I think they want the public to see it."
Marguerite Moreau, who stars as Jesse, says of Aaliyah, "she was easy as pie" to work with, "and she was seductive in that she had a presence, an ease, and a confidence, and just a personality that was innocent. I was just drawn to her. She loved to laugh and would always walk around singing, which I do." When asked if they sang together, she laughed, saying, no, "I would sing backup to that lovely lady!"
Moreau continues, saying, "We had wonderful moments together. She's the one that got me to rent Rosemary's Baby. She'd say, "You've never seen scary movies? I love scary movies. Okay, the best thing to do is to rent them and to scare yourself silly. So, that's what we would do, and I was like, 'uh, okay, I'll make dinner.' So, she comes over, and I'm like, 'okay we're doing this vampire movie, I have to scare myself silly, it'll be great,' and then she falls asleep. She's laying on the floor, and I was like, 'you can't go home.' And, Rashad was there, laughing. He's like, 'She does this all the time.'"
From the perspective of her personal growth and change, Moreau regards Aaliyah's death as incredibly significant "in terms of the things I learned. If you're going to be taken so young, to do what she did - it's a definite example of what we can do. She was one of the good ones, for sure." Moreau teared up in talking about the loss of her friend.
She continues, saying, "This morning before I came I saw her new video on MTV, and it's so good, and it's one where she has her hair pulled back, and it's more the Aaliyah I knew than the Aaliyah of her music career. And, at first I was like, 'Oh, God,' and then I thought, 'Go. She's telling us to go.' She just loved it. She did it with a passion. So, I think that's what there is to do."
The most touching reminder of Aaliyah's continued commitment to the film was the appearance of her brother, Rashad Haughton. "It was definitely a dream come true for her to do this role." He appears in the film in the dream sequence when he comes to Akasha as a slave back in Egypt. He plays one of the slaves Akasha eats.
A recent graduate of Hoffstra Film school, Rashad says he wants to "keep her legacy alive in whatever work I do from now on. That's my mission." In regard to performing and entertainment, Rashad says, "If it's in your blood, you have to do it." Rashad aims to hone his craft of directing in intimate, character-driven stories. He also writes as well.
Rashad says, "Aaliyah was always nervous before performing. After Romeo Must Die, Aaliyah caught the acting bug big time."
Rashad was with Aaliyah, whom he called 'Baby Girl' and 'LeeLee,' for the duration of the shoot in Australia. "The film brought both the Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned stories together well in a two-hour film.It was a great experience to be there [on set], watching everything come together."
Aaliyah was ecstatic about the notion of contributing a song to the production. The film offered her a chance to expand her musical horizons. "She was so excited to work with Jonathan - she was a huge fan of KoRn. That's what her career was about, was always pushing the limits, to do something not expected."
When asked if she didn't ask to be called Queen at all, smiling, Rashad answered, "No, that definitely wasn't Aaliyah. The great thing about art is you can go away from reality and explore parts of yourself. It's a journey to take."
The family plans to present a collection of unreleased tracks to please her fans. A tribute album is in the works. "If there's still work out there, it will be heard."
About her death and release of the film, Rashad says, "It's sometimes difficult for people to separate fantasy and reality. It's a film. I think everything has been done tastefully."
Aaliyah was a huge fan of horror movies, which it why it was particularly fun for her to play Akasha. In particular, she loved Interview with the Vampire and Nosferatu. She and Rashad also loved the Evil Dead series, Wes Craven, the Exorcist and Clive Barker.
Ancient Egypt was always of interest to Aaliyah, so she had a considerable amount of exposure to the period before attaching herself to the project. She had a dialect coach, whereupon she learned an Egyptian dialect, and a movement and dance coach to teach her hand and body motions so she could be very cat-like and affected.
In regards to the crash and ongoing investigation, "It happened outside of America, so they're still trying to get to the bottom of it."
Rashad says of Aaliyah, "She would want to be remembered as someone who was able to achieve a lot and maintain a sense of self, values and family."
On Stuart Townsend as the Vampire Lestat
In coming to the material, magnetic, swarthy Irish actor Stuart Townsend says, "the main thing was Lestat. I loved the character." Townsend, of Resurrection Man, looked to old vampire movies for inspiration on how to best approach the character of Lestat. "We did these rock videos that we incorporated into the film, and we were going to make the theme for one of them The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and the other was Nosferatu, and I did the whole Bella Legosi sort of dance. So yeah, I watched a lot of them."
In relation to his performance as Lestat, he says, "The one thing is how vampy can you go, because there's no realistic basis. I love that. It's nice to not have to deal with pretty realism, it's nice to kind of vamp it up and do the movement or whatever. But there's always a side of me that goes, I hope someone tells me if I'm way over the wrong side. Because you're the vampire, you can really vamp it up and go off the deep end."
However, as for the rock star inspiration, his greatest was "David Bowie performance- wise." Ironically, "the rock star thing terrified me. I just tried to ignore that it was every going to really happen. And the concert didn't happen for a few months, so that was always in the back of my head - you're going to have to get up in from of a few thousand people. I was terrified, which was great, though, because it turned out to be the best night. You know, if it's something you're the most afraid of, and it turns out great, that's the best."
Anne Rice had an amazing supernatural connection to Stuart Townsend even before they had ever met. Townsend says, "She'd read a New Yorker review of me and it was really good, and that was the first, that was like, whew, that's good. No full page in Variety, 'I hate Stuart Townsend.' But then, I met her, and that was wild.
"I went to New Orleans, went to her house. I got the guided tour of this incredible house. I'd been there 10 minutes and she gave me Queen of the Damned and The Witching Hour, and it said, 'To Stuart, Love, Anne.' And she was like, 'The Witching Hour, you're on page 486.' I picked it up, and page 486 is 'The Life of Stuart Townsend.' And I was like, 'Wow, God, Anne, that's absolutely amazing! You put me as a character in your book - I'm so touched to be in your new novel.' And she was like, 'No, I wrote this 11 years ago.' And I was like, phew! Then I was walking around New Orleans like a detective, watching my back.'
Michael Rymer says of Townsend, "I saw him on stage, actually, in London when he was doing Orpheus Descending with Helen Meren. He was playing the character popularized by Brando, the sort of sexy male sex symbol. And all the women are salivating over him all through the play. He was really convincing in that role. So, it was a no brainer. I thought, he can pull that off."
When asked, "Can you sing, do you do any of the signing in the movie?" Townsend responded, "Fuck no. But, I tried hard. They asked me, would I do Jonathan Davis, because they were having their own legal battles, so they asked me, it might happen that I might have to do his voice, and I was like, 'you've got to be kidding me.' But I mimed his voice for 2 days and I couldn't speak. I started to get into it, and my voice was just gone."
Townsend really enjoyed the experience of living and working in Melbourne, Australia. "We were all in Australia, we were all away from our families. The crew were amazing. On the weekend everyone would hang out. It was really nice."
On Marguerite Moreau as Jesse Reeves
As the only non-vampire character, the human audience was able to relate most readily with Marguerite Moreau's character of Jesse. However, as a human, more of her performance was limited to reality. She wasn't able to play as much with the supernatural. She says, "I was jealous a lot. I was put in an environment where I was isolated and everyone else was getting to do all the fun stuff. I had to be very patient until Michael would give me my own stuff."
Moreau hadn't read any of the novels when she was approached with the project, and actually postponed reading them until after she was cast in the role. "I didn't want to get my hopes up and become too attached to the whole genre until after I had signed my name on the dotted line."
She was particularly interested in the material and film because, she says, "I've always been a big fan of vampires. I think that they are so hot and sexy. The whole attraction I have to that sort of underworld and immortality is being fearless and so unquestioning in your focus of what you want, and when you bore down on your prey the way this guy does, right, it's such an unquestioning confidence that's seriously attractive, I think."
Moreau says in regard to the character of Lestat, "This was a guy who just couldn't lose,
because after the album stuff, then he's still got the whole immortality thing to play." She thought they could have focused even more screen time to the vampire as rock star, saying, "They could have played that up even more - more strutting down Sunset Boulevard. I think the ego that a vampire has, how Anne Rice has written Lestat is to be with this sort of cocky, campy confidence."
The project came to Moreau through the script primarily. "I have a couple of really good friends who work with me, who were tracking it and said, 'to be part of it, to try to put you in it would be a dream come true,' so I had them behind me. Then when I read the script, it was like, 'I have to do this.' When I met Michael, we had long discussions about the relevance of Jesse. We put her in, we created this story that was different from the book. How do we make her relevant, really, when it's called The Queen of the Damned, and we have to ultimately prove whether or not we believe in life and to keep striving for a purpose, or to feed into his [Lestat's] own belief of self discovery as power, as what he wants to experience. I think that Jesse finds her power in that it's life we're living for, and it's ironic that she says that she wants to end her entire life in the mortal realm, but she feels that the only way for her to actually participate in life is through and in the underworld."
The project changed "huge amounts from the script I signed on to." She speculates this was "because I think it was a huge task in itself" to make "one little movie out of two huge novels. There's like how many characters? I don't even know. It changed a lot, I thought."
In retrospect, after the film's completion, Moreau " would have loved Jesse to incorporate the supernatural powers she does have in the book. It solidifies her knowledge and I think would have helped the audience in knowing her. I feel most as an audience member, when you see it, at the end, you go, 'Oh, I see, that's who she is. That's what she wanted, and now I see just who she is.'"
"That's one of my favorite parts of the entire movie," Moreau says in reference to the nods to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in one of the three music videos of the film. "I was trying to work my way into one of the videos. There was no way. But, man, did I try."
Moreau notes that some of her favorite horror films are Rosemary's Baby, which she first watched with Aaliyah, Lost Boys, Blade, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu and Carrie.
When asked if she is tempted by eternal life, Moreau answered, "Sometimes. I sometimes wonder, if you had the decision to make right now, would you do it? The producer, Jorge, and I were probably more fans of it than Stuart, but he was happy to play it. I think I'd do it. If you asked me right now, I'd say, 'Hey, let's check it out.' Of course, there's no going back, but I'd like to have an opportunity to go for it."
On working and living in Australia, Moreau said, "It was magic. If we're not careful, our entire industry's going there. It's very much like Southern California. The culture is much more relaxed, much slower. I was living by the sea. In every way it was fun; it was great."
Moreau was a child actor, but decided to take a break from acting to attend Vassar College in New England. She graduated with her BA in political science with a minor in theatre. "I had an understanding of what I wanted to do, but I didn't know how to do it. In order for me to create ambition, more study had to be involved. I still think more study has to be involved. I really wanted an environment where I was uninterrupted, and it was one of the best experiences of my entire life. I don't think college is for everyone, but I think that for my mind and my goals and what my needs are, I absolutely loved it."
Initially, Moreau gravitated toward public policy, "but as I studied more, I studied US policy and then went on to the UN and studied international affairs and never really realized how everything was set up. I just became so disheartened. I thought I could probably do better in this environment [entertainment] and not become bitter. I think acting is about telling the truth, and unfortunately politicking is really in dealing in lying, and I would have become a different person. It was also nice to know by my 4th year that this will be a part of my life that's not my life's work."
A Southern California native, Moreau jokingly says she got into acting because she was "craving attention. I needed an after-school hobby. Mom, I've chosen and after-school hobby that will make me enough money to buy a car. Isn't this practical? Aren't you proud of my practical mind? And, for some reason she bought it."
Of her acting background, Moreau says, "The more I acted, the more I found out who I was. I love it. I think it's very good for the soul."
When questioned as to whether she finds the grind of the studio system boring, she responded, "Any job can be boring. Every job has that. When you have to go in that mode of fighting boredom, fighting tedium, somewhere you just get on a role, and you just start going, and then you're just off and running. The adrenaline is unmatched. When you decide to focus and stop complaining, and just go, and say, 'Okay, this is what it is,' and breathe through it, it's so empowering. I love it."
Moreau was able to hone her craft and grow through the experience of working on Queen of the Damned. "Everything is not the world. The world only exists in one stage corner, and everything around you can distract you. I think I'm learning more and more how to create the power that comes across on screen in that small space, to be able to communicate that."
Moreau is starring as the firestarter Charlie McGee in the upcoming the sci-fi channel miniseries, which picks up the story by Stephen King, Firestarter: Rekindled with Dennis Hopper.
Moreau was privileged to work with Dennis Hopper on the miniseries. "The majority of my scenes were with him, so I was really lucky. I remember we were doing this one scene in this huge train station, and it's a conversation, and I'm in the middle of the scene." Due to the location, a crowd gathered "in the space, and I realized everyone is watching, it's like theatre, because it's Hopper. And he's sitting across the table from me. And, I'm just doing my lines, and I'm thinking, 'we are going head to head. Bring it on.' It was so exciting."
On Dennis Hopper, Moreau recalls, "He is dapper and dashing and he's got these blue eyes that are incredibly intoxicating, and then he's crazy. And then he's like, 'let me tell you about the beautiful women of my life.'"
Queen of the Damned Music
Jonathan Davis, lead singer and front man of the band KoRn, composed all of the music for the film with Richard Gibbs, formerly of Oingo Boingo. The music is excellent and gives the film a full, authentic feel. While Davis sings the songs performed in the film, due to contractual limitations, he was not able to sing on the album.
Davis was very excited to be a part of this project, and says, "I've always wanted to score movies, to work with an orchestra and do original songs." The five original songs include "Forsaken," "Redeemer," "System," "Slept So Long," and "Not Meant For Me."
Working on the film was a new and different experience for him. "When we write with KoRn, there are 5 members in the band and it's more heady. With this, I got to be a different person. I got to get my mind into the feel of a vampire, the Vampire Lestat, and what his rock band would be like. I got to make it up and do something different. It was fun doing it. I was on tour the whole time, and we wrote it in the back of the bus, going down the road doing 80. It was a great experience and I'm really proud of it."
Although the music in the novel is Goth of the 1980s, the film wanted a current feel and sound. "That's why they brought me on, because they wanted it to be now. It could have been really, really cheesy if it hadn't been done right."
"We wrote ten songs and we picked five of the best ones. Originally our plan was to do a Vampire Lestat album, to have an actual band. But, you know, things got all mixed up." As Davis wasn't allowed to perform on the album, other musicians were brought in for the album cuts. The musicians performing on the album include Marilyn Manson, Static-X's Wayne Static, Disturbed's David Draiman, Linkin Park's Chester Bennington and Orgy's Jay Gordon.
Shifting gears to discuss some current issues of relevance to musicians in today's world, Davis was asked about musicians and standard contract terms. "I don't think it's right for musicians to be different from actors or anyone else. Actors have the right to renegotiate their contracts whenever they want. Us, we can't negotiate ever until our contract's up. We can go for 12 years and we're still stuck. We're signed for. We could sell a gazillion albums and we only get this. We have no right to negotiate. I don't think that's right. It's wrong. That's crazy, ripping artists off. The music business is the biggest rip off in the world. Artists don't get anything. The only way we make money is by touring. And they [the labels] make everything." Further, Davis adds, "With artist royalties, we don't make anything because it all goes into this big pipeline to pay back the record companies, they hold it for years in this pipeline for, I don't know why. I don't understand why they do it. It's really crazy."
As far as working as a composer, Davis says, "All I did was make a good amount of money by sitting and writing, doing something I like. I didn't have to go out on the road. I could just sit with my son in my guest house and write, and be happy, and I get paid and I make royalties, and all kinds of stuff."
As a composer, one's rights are protected. However, as a musician, they are not. "The record labels have the RIAA [Recording Industry Association of America], and congress thinks that they fight for us, but all they do is fight for the labels. The labels give them tons of money, so all they do is fight for the interests. Composers have their own [union]. That's why they get residuals. Musicians don't get that. I haven't made a penny off of record sales."
An active supporter of digital distribution, Davis says, "I think it's awesome. I mean, when you're in a band, all you want s for your music to be heard. Since I don't make shit off of records anyways, it's like, who cares? As long as he downloads it and likes it and tells his friend, then it's fine."
It was originally planned that Aaliyah would also contribute some songs to the film. "We were going to produce and do some songs for her, because I liked the way she was heading with her musical career. In some of her songs she was starting to get dark and vampiric, but it was still an R&B pop kind of thing. We were going to try to take it more dark and do some cool things. We gave her a couple songs. She was so excited."
Davis says of Aaliyah's unfortunate passing, "It was really sad that it happened that way."
Unfortunately, due to Aaliyah's death, they never got to get into the studio with her. Davis says, "But, I got to do a song with Rashad [Aaliyah's brother, Rashad Houghton]. We built a really great friendship, so I'm helping him out."
When asked about his cameo appearance in the film, Davis says, "I'm all down for it. I liked it - it was fun because I was a ticket scalper. I see those fuckers outside my show all the time. Yeah, they make some money, man. I love music, it's what I do, but for a change, little cameos here and there, I think it's fun."
On his favorite music artists, David says, "You know, I really don't listen to music. All I do is 24 hours a day live music. And work on the band, producing right now. I don't really have time to sit down and put the headphones on and listen to music."
David admits, "The biggest thing that ever influenced me in my life was Andrew Lloyd Weber's Jesus Christ Superstar. And that totally set me up for wanting to be in music.
I listen to that - my cell phone rings it. I'm fascinated by that musical."
In fact, Davis is so inspired by Jesus Christ Superstar that he has it "in the pipeline to do a rock opera." This project will be a collaboration with horror guru Clive Barker, of whom Davis is a huge fan. "I'm a big Hellraiser freak. I think he's a really talented guy." At his home, Davis has a private collection of props and items from Hellraiser. Davis says that "once he [Barker] writes the story line, that's when I come in and do the lyrics and the music. It becomes just like this whole collaboration." When asked if the collaborative venture will come to fruition before the end of the year, Davis says, "I've got to go on tour and do KoRn stuff. But, you know what, once Clive writes it, we can go from there." We'll be hearing more about that next year for sure.
"I grew up in the theatre. My mom was a dancer and my dad a musician. After the theatre, my dad opened up a music store and a music school. I've been around that my whole life. Basically, I was in music my whole life. It's all I know."
His son is 6 years old, and Davis takes an active interest in teaching him about music. "I just like sitting in the studio and teaching him like my dad did with me. It's really weird when you're with your little boy and you say to yourself, 'this is my son,' and what you pass on, and you're like, 'oh man, this is trippy.' I'm just happy he likes music. That's all I care about. I want him to do what he wants to do, but I want music to be a big part of his life, because it was in mine." When asked if his son listens to KoRn, he says, "He loves it. His favorite band, though, is Tool. That's awesome."
"I'm from Bakersfield. I know you're all like, 'Oh God.'" Does Davis only sing about terrible childhoods? "I wouldn't say my childhood was great growing up. Divorced families, the normal things that people go through. But the only way for me to get it out was through my music. A lot of people like can relate with it. I don't think I'm like anything special. Everybody goes through it; everybody has those things."
Davis is actively working now in the studio on KoRn's next album.
Queen of the Damned Location, Digital Effects, Body Casting and Prosthetics
The rumors that Rashad Houghton, Aaliyah's brother, did body doubling for her are incorrect. He did do some voice work, which was later coupled with her own voice and then altered with digital effects. However, he did not double for Aaliyah in the film. He does appear in the film as an Egyptian slave, however.
Rashad explained that Aaliyah was burdened with special colored contact lenses, uncomfortable costumes, prosthetics and wiring. "She was often sore, but she took it all in stride." She never complained and enjoyed most of the process. "Aaliyah had 5 months with wire work."
As many of her costumes were body plates, each had to be cast to fit her body, so she had to get a plaster cast made in order for them to make the armor. "She had to breathe through two straws in her nose for the body casting."
Most of the film was shot in and around Melbourne, Australia. Michael Rymer, an Aussie, says, "It was all about budget. Getting the movie down to a price. In Australia, you double your money. My argument was the acting community there, because I could draw talent. They wanted a bit of fun to be in a vampire movie. Also the architecture in Melbourne could double more easily than in Vancounver." It was cheaper for the production to reconstruct major sets in Australia than for them to shoot on location in the US and Europe. Saralegui says, "We had Lestat and Jesse flying into the Griffith Observatory. We could not have done that at the real location."
As to on-site locations, "We did some shots at the Griffith Observatory [in Hollywood, CA], some shots in London, the aerial stuff over the desert. It's not all Melbourne. But, most of the action was in Melbourne."
The Goth concert, modeled after Burning Man, was shot at a concrete quarry outside Melbourne. "Melbourne is the Goth capitol of the world. A lot of the crowd was digital as well. We had 3000 real Goth, who stayed there all night. We bussed them out there. People don't get it - they think they're going to a party. They don't get it. It's a movie shoot - it's a very arduous, boring thing. We gave them fabulous Goth acts, a full on Goth thing. They have Goth clubs that are active in Melbourne."
Much of the look of the film was digitized. Particularly, many of the skin effects were a product of heavy make up coupled with lighting and digitization. Rymer says, "It's a simple process of grabbing a particular color and causing it to glow. We had full body makeup on everybody. Aaliyah had a gold color. It wasn't enough on its own."
Rymer continues, saying, "The design of the film was to get away from that very monochromatic, extremely dark look that most American films have these days, and go for a richer color scheme, so the lighting was generally soft and flat. We were getting a lot of our ideas from the models in magazines - soft molded light that drops away. That was the design, to sell the makeup, that sort of approach."
About the prosthetic teeth, Townsend says, "We had the day-to-day wear, and then we had the big saber attack teeth. With the saber attack teeth you had to be careful - occasionally you'd get a nick. But, the day-to-day wear, you didn't even notice they were in."
Townsend had a great sense of humor about the experience. He continued, "The worst was the white paint, the body stuff. Because that took an hour, and you could never do it in the trailer, you had to be outside. And it was freezing, and you had to be spray painted with this cold, white paint. And then you'd be picking white things out of your nose for a few days." When asked, 'wasn't there somebody on set to do that for you?', Townsend responded: "No, not if you're not Tom Cruise, no."
As much of the film involved a significant amount of CGI work, Townsend became experienced in the art of standing in front of a green screen. "It's really weird, that stuff. I mean, you go into a room, and there'd be a still photographer there, and you'd get up on this platform that was like marked out, stand there behind this screen, and they'd take one shot, and then get someone to move you on the platform, take another shot, all the way around. And then they'd say, 'Okay, thank you.' And you're like, 'Alright. What does that mean?' You know? It was really bizarre. And then there were all these things around, these black and white things that meant something - markers - against the green screen, and pink balls. It was pretty odd. And, we did that billboard scene not on Sunset Blvd. but at four in the morning at a chocolate factory outside of Melbourne. It was mad."
Townsend explained how they filmed the wall crawl scene wherein he crawls on the ceiling. It was a rigged set. "As you put your one hand on the actual vertical wall, the whole gimble set would move and go horizontal." Later, they digitally added the girls.
In regard to the rose-petal bath scene with Aaliyah and the pleasures of being an actor, Townsend says jokingly, "You have no idea. Sitting in a bath in front of a hundred people."
Queen of the Damned Sound
The film had some problems with sound that became significant issues in post-production. In regard to the extent of the sound problems, Townsend says, "Somebody forgot to fire the sound man."
Townsend was disappointed with the sound experience on the film. "I did a few weeks of post dubbing. Everyone had to do it, but I had to do more of it than everyone. It was a nightmare because you had to go into the copper mine. But I had worked so hard and was happy with what I had done [on set]. When I had done it I was into the whole vocal thing, and suddenly six months later I'm in Hollywood, and I have to remember all of this again and try and emote while you're standing there in a room with speakers. It's strange."
He continues, "Every line was pretty much dubbed. With a couple lines, I was like, 'Guys, I just can't do,' like at the concert scene with 'You want more!' There was no way I could get that there, so they were like, 'Okay.'"
Rymer says that when they got into post production, they saw that "the waves are everywhere. It's like white noise." This was part of the reason the sound problems were significant. He admits, "It was an amazing feat of mixing to be able to salvage Aaliyah."
Saralegui says, "The plan was to do something tricky with the voices. Aaliya's voice is there 100%, but there's only a whisper of Rashad underneath, and echoing effect underneath." Thus, he explains, the total effect is "Aaliyah's original performance, plus Rashad's whisper, plus the echoing effect."
Rashad approached the voice-over work with fear and uncertainty. "They called me in to do her voice in a whisper. Michael assured me it would work, that the ADR would be okay." However, "Mom assured me it was something she wanted me to do under the circumstances." Rymer says, "There's only a little bit of Rashad."
On The Forthcoming Queen of the Damned DVD
Rymer and Saralegui promise a quality DVD, filled with a lot of outtakes plus bonus stuff. There were some scenes taken out of the movie that Moreau particularly liked that will be available on the DVD.
Saralegui plans to include the full bar scene when Aaliyah dances. "It's incredible." This scene was too long for the film, because it became too much like a music video. However, it will be uncut on the DVD and is several minutes longer than in the movie version.
Additionally, the DVD plans to include all three of the music videos. Saralegui says, "We made three Lestat music videos. The videos are seen in part in the movie. They are of Lestat and his band, so no one else from the cast, including Aaliyah, is in them. In other words, they aren't QUEEN OF THE DAMNED videos (which could include Aaliyah); they are videos from the band "The Vampire Lestat" (aka "Satan's Night Out"). For those who care, they each have a classic horror-movie theme: THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, Murnau's NOSFERATU, and Browning's DRACULA. These were filmed in Melbourne just before the start of production."
Also, the DVD is planned to include interviews with the cast and filmmakers, more concert footage, additional outtakes, the Ancients and the band.