"Näd of the dead"

28 mai 2010

First of all : Frustration for everybody (yeah, I know!) I don’t want to talk about holidays in Germany. For once, THIS IS PRIVATE… But this is where I was 3 days, before to go by car to Belgium.

By the way, maybe I have to begin to write this blog in this incredible Airport-English understood by the entire Earth. I think that my style will suffer a little but I will become international with that…(Whooo. Is the “cosmopolitan” a cocktail with a vodka base? Yes!!! Go, go, go!)

So now, imagine : Angela and Näd Mika in a car!!!

No, ok, no imagination, I agree to share with you some pictures. (click on them to see them bigger) But it won’t be the same for everything.

< span style="font-size: 12pt;">For example, I let your brain travelling through this highway landscape with some Germanics churches in the middle of sweet villages. I just wanted to find a shop to buy some Lebkuchen (my favourite) but it seems that we can only find them during Christmas time! Archaic period we are living!!! So I took my revenge with Jaggermeister. Näd and me began to play at “Ab Fab”: Only liquid for breakfast.

We had an appointment at Peg’s place in Liege, Wallonia, not so far from Netherlands.

mes new roman', times;">Peg is one of the most hysterical and nice and simple and crazy and smoker and full of energy boy I ever met. Just ask me or Näd what is a morning with Peg… without coffee!!! Just this delicious cappuccino for gays (which I forgot to pay back, I just realize now, sorry Peg, I hope the Champaign from the last evening was enough to replace it…(?)

The first evening we just had a talk around the shooting for the video the next 2 days.

Yes, we were in Liege to shoot a video for the last song of Näd Mika: “Leka, Leka” but the film is named : “Näd of the dead”, a dark story about the last girl (and which girl !!!) in a city full of zombies…

And who can imagine a zombie film without me?

Honestly?!

Peg said to us that, the day before, they just shot the biginning of the video in empty streets, early in the morning to have strange images... and now we will have all the rest to do. The big game begins...

So the next morning, after testing all the beers of the neighbourhood (again, no coffee), Näd and me were taking our so simple car to go to the make up place. This was the producer’s office. There we realize that the staff was around 13 people, plus the ones for the make up! Well, for me everything is natural and they didn’t have a lot of work, just to rub out the excesses’ marks off course, but I won’t say the same for other zombies.They realize a very professional and amazing work to create this army I always dreamt about. I was a part of this army but in a special troop.

Actually, Näd will be the only real human girl (even if she looks like a very greek or polish drag) and 3 zombies had to be her special gang. Not only to defend her against the others, because she’s strong enough, but to… well, I never understood completely but we were with her : me as the bride and the 2 brother and sister. A word about them : First, Anael and Melissa are incredibly brother and sister even if they don't in real life and they were both of them really beautifull with their clear eyes. And in the same time, I have to admit that everything seemed to be really simple for them, natural zombie in a way. And so nice.

Ok, sometimes the drag, sometimes the queen

Doesn't she looks like Elvira, Misstress of the dark...?

But before to look like that, Näd and me needed a…? COFFEE !!! So we went to the bar at the corner of the street. I think they specially decorate this place just for us. It was a cliché in brown but a so sweet one. Everybody is so nice in Belgium. I talk to some people who found that this country is hard to live because people are not polite and gentle anymore… They never seen Paris but through the TV screen!!! Everything is so calm there. And you can smoke inside (as in Germany by the way. It sounds that finally, we are the only country to VERBOTEN that.)

The staff recreates in the basement a kind of backstage. The strangest and darkest as mummy backstage you ever seen. Around the mirror, some of our favourite freaks (but friends) were here : all the duck-lips like Amanda Lepore or Pete Burns, Cher off course, but Eartha Kitt too, because she died (like Michael Jackson or Farah Fawcett who were there too) and Romero as a tribute. But you’ll see others (maybe).

Zombies, I already said something like that, are always doing what they used to do during their life but without conscience. And I had at this time a picture of Angela Landsbury, this bitch who imitate me or who I want to look like, I don’t really remember. And Peg found me a part of Pete Burn’s lips which I try to put on mine. Näd was doing her make up and the guywas brushing his doll-head (!). I try to tell this entire scene because it was the

first and we had a lot of fun in this basement. (when Näd Mika was so stressed that she really wanted to kill me with scissors. I try to explain to her that it won’t have no effect on me, she justargue that she needed it. Pfff !!! OK!!!) And above all, it seems that finally, this scene will take 5 seconds on your screen. So I tried to stop the time a little bit with these words… (Is there the title of my next song? “I try to stop the time with these words”…? Not so baaaad…)

In the afternoon, we had to move and shot outside. This is a very hard work to be an actor! Sorry for these weather considerations but we were in May and the temperature was around 8°C. And the bride was almost naked… (as usual, did you realize it? Weird!)

Anyway, we shot in an empty field in the middle of buildings. This was the dirtiest place I ever seen except my grave and the buildings we saw after. We can not even see grass sometimes!!! Paper, metal boxes, food, syringes and even shit. Human shit, I’m sure. And in the middle of that a poor little cat was screaming all the time, it was absolutely terrible, it broke our heart. (Until the last day where we learned that somebody use to give him some food. So the “food” was for him…and I don’t want to be a cat anymore).

There, we shot some insane scenes between nature and trashes and then we gone to see THE building where the zombie army waited. Just for the joke : in another time (as you can see) this place was entirely dedicated to teeth surgery.

Scary!

Day off , liquid, smoke, sleep, wake up, liquid.

Make up at La Zone, a punk club where Peg use to organize his parties “Drag Attack”. A very cool place indeed.

Shooting outside at the building place, and inside La Zone to finish.

This day, this famous buildig gave us one of the best scene when the girl feed them... she's so nice!

When we arrived at the dirty place again, I saw a woman, a beautifull one who seemed to have the same story than me. I saw quickly that something special happenend to her. She was wearing an immaculate dress, very classy and too much indeed... I learned few minutes later that it was her wedding dress from her first wedding and she wanted to have the pleasure to destry it, to make it dirty, to thrash it to end something in her story and mind. I din't know that but I was impressed to see that when something special is happening, you always feel or smell it... And by the way, she was really amazing as you can see... and this story may add something to her beauty.

And about the scene in La Zone, I cannot explain or describe everything, you have to see the film. I just can say that we had a scene, which is not in, where Peg try to jump on the stage to catch Näd. And, as a member of Näd’s gang, I thought I have to defend her. I stand at a corner of the stage, look like a dead doll and when I saw Peg jumping, I just reach out my arms to him to impeach him to attempt Näd, but … it was to hard for a zombie, all this energy, jumping, screaming all the time… I abandoned.

From there start the joke : “Angela, do something!”

and Angela can nothing but say “heeeuuuurgh”, reach out her arms and let them down…

When Peg ring the bell of the end of the shooting, we applauded a lot with this little sadness in the heart but happy to remember that all this time was so cool. I never saw somebody under pressure or putting somebody else under pressure. Never a word loader, never stress, always kindness and patience, always happy to be there. Peg had to manage 45 zombies + the staff and everything was so nice. Näd said to me that never something like that can happen in Germany…Do you believe it can happen in Paris? (I said Paris, not France). Everybody did that for free but at the end, all the people who were zombies or part of the staff went to say thank you Peg and Näd.

Because they had good time.

And it is true. We had such a good time all together.

I learned a lot during this shooting. A lot. About me, my work, about people and life.

The day after, I had a coffee at a bar just close to Peg’s place. Alone with my mind. Two croissants with speculoos-cream inside (!!!). Then Peg, a friend and Näd picked me up to clean La Zone which won her name this day!!!

And in the afternoon, Näd and me had just a walk in the city to finally discover that Liege is surprisingly beautiful. We eat some French fries, which are better in Belgium. (and they are not cooked in horse fat as some people said me 9 years before when I was too young and when my face used to become red each time somebody talked to me) And at the end of the day we went at the flat of Jonathan to see the making off and drink Champaign.

A 1h30 making off.