Norman Reedus
by Daniel Robert Epstein for SuicideGirls (http://suicidegirls.com/)

SuicideGirls loves Norman Reedus. Don’t try to deny it, I’ve seen the message boards. That’s why when I got the chance to talk to the (mostly) cult film actor. Reedus has starred in Blade II, Boondock Saints and most recently the German serial killer film Antibodies. Reedus is very down to earth, funny and didn’t even mind joking about his major vehicular accident.

Check out the official site for Antibodies

Daniel Robert Epstein: How did you get involved with Antibodies?

Norman Reedus: That director, Christian Alvart, contacted me when I was in Copenhagen. He was also interested in this one Danish actor named Kim Bodnia so he flew to Copenhagen and met me there for a film he’s making called Killer Queen. Part of the financing team for Killer Queen also put together the money for Antibodies so he asked me to be a part of it. Christian still remains one of my friends and I went to see him for the Berlin Film Festival. I was there for some thing called the Rising Stars program or some crap like that. I’ve been a rising star for a long fucking time. I went there again for the following festival and I got hit by a bus the first night that I was there. That was about a year ago today.

DRE: How are you doing?

NR: I still see spots. I had acupuncture the other day for the first time which was pretty weird. I’d never had acupuncture before but they give me these little strange black tablets that look like what I feed my fish back home. But I see spots out of my left eye. They call them floaters and I see them all the time. The whole world’s in speckles all the time. Its real weird.

DRE: Is it getting better?

NR: I don’t know if it’s getting better. I’m still seeing all the speckles and I have headaches all the time. I now look the same. I didn’t for a while. I have a metal plate at the bottom half of my eye socket on the left side. It’s pretty hardcore. You can’t tell anymore. I had 45 stitches across my left eyebrow so now I have a cool scar across my eyebrow Christian actually checked me out of the hospital a little bit early. I went to Los Angeles directed a little film that got into the New York Film Festival this year. So out of a bad situation I got a little directing credit.

DRE: What is the film about?

NR: It is about what was on in Miles Davis’ on the way to rehearse his music. I got the idea from stories I’ve heard about Miles Davis. I was also thinking of people like Jimi Hendrix. Sometimes they had to clear their minds of the everyday bullshit of life so they could tap into a higher power and let their art pass through them.

DRE: I believe a metal plate and scars will make SuicideGirls like you that much more.

NR: Oh good. Yes, I have lots of scars.

DRE: SuicideGirls love Boondock Saints then this year you’re in the Bettie Page movie.

NR: Oh nice. I haven’t even seen the Bettie Page movie. I kind of forgot I did that movie. I jumped into some other things and this friend of mine texted me from the theater and he goes, “Dude you just bitch-slapped Bettie Page.”

DRE: Were you just on the movie for three or four days?

NR: Yeah, it was really quick. Mary Harron was out there as the director. I play Bettie’s jealous abusive husband. He was a hick but there wasn’t much out there on the guy.

DRE: Do you like playing guys like that?

NR: I have a pile of scripts here and on top of each script is a note saying “Another killer.” I’m laughing at these scripts. I was just on the phone with a friend of mine, I was like, “Man that’s all I’m offered is to kill people.”

DRE: Do you ever feel frustrated?

NR: No, did you ever see that movie Mystery Train?

DRE: Yeah, great movie.

NR: There is that kid who’s smoking cigarettes and he’s got the lipstick all over his face and he’s sitting there with his girlfriend. She goes, “Why are you so sad?” He says, “I’m not sad, that’s just how my face is.” I think I’m like that. I guess I look like a mean guy but I’m really nice. So I’m not frustrated.

DRE: How is Troy Duffy doing?

NR: He’s doing great man. I’m not really at liberty to say what the status of Boondock Saints is but I can say it’s good for the sequel. There was a whole lot of stuff that needed to get cleared up and he got it cleared up, which is great. But he’s doing really good. He just got this new house, he’s got a new car, he’s getting married. I just went over there for a barbecue last night.

DRE: Good. I did see that documentary that his ex-friends made.

NR: That documentary is just such crap. Those guys were friends of his and if you notice I’m the only person they didn’t interview because I wouldn’t sit down with them. I didn’t trust them. I think I’m only in it for a second in the background saying something to Billy Connolly. But they were sneaky about it. You can take home footage of Santa Claus and if you edit it the right way you can make him look like the devil.

DRE: Yeah, of course. I asked Willem Dafoe about it and he said he talked to those guys for six hours and they used 30 seconds.

NR: Yeah they got Troy all wrong. He’s a pussycat.

DRE: Do people come up to you almost every day about Boondock Saints?

NR: I think it’s every day least five times. I’m always waiting for someone to come up to me and say “Hey you’re that asshole in that movie.” It hasn’t happened yet. I was actually walking with my kid, Mingus, not too long ago and a bunch of skateboarders come up to me and they had a picture of me on a t-shirt. My kid was like, “Why are you on that t-shirt?” He couldn’t understand.

DRE: Will you and Sean [Patrick Flanery] been the sequel?

NR: Yeah we will. We’re going to introduce a third saint who is helping us. I think [David Della] Rocco is coming back in a dream flashback. The script is really great. I know Troy has done a lot of changes on it but the last script I read was amazing.

DRE: I read that you were a model before you were an actor.

NR: No, I did a movie called Six Ways to Sunday. Ellen von Unwerth shot my press photos for me. Then she went to dinner with Miuccia Prada who owns Prada and at that time Prada was having a series of actors do work on her campaign. John Malkovich did it, Joaquin Phoenix did it. At that dinner Miuccia kept saying “Who should I get to be this next actor to do my campaign?” Ellen showed her the photos that she had taken for Six Ways to Sunday. So to make a long story short I get a phone call that says “you’ve got a Prada campaign.” At that time I was like, “What’s Prada?” I just had one suit. But they gave me a bunch of clothes and a bunch of money. I think more people saw that campaign than they did my first couple of films.

DRE: Did you always want to be an actor?

NR: I didn’t always want to be an actor. I followed a girl to Los Angeles but she ended up getting married and running off with somebody else. So I was just living in LA and I got a job fixing motorcycles at a place. Then I went to a party and this lady asked me if I wanted to be in a play. I ended up quitting my job and a lady from William Morris who was a casting agent saw me in this play and started sending me out for movies. I started booking movies right away and I just enjoyed it.

DRE: By coincidence I interviewed Drew McWeeny the guy who co-wrote your episode of Masters of Horror. I asked him this same thing, was it your choice or was it the director’s choice for you not to really react when you saw the angel?

NR: Well, what do you do when you see an angel? Do you gasp in horror? Do you go “What the fuck is that?” It was just so creepy. I’d never really done anything like that.

DRE: You got to work with Udo Kier though!

NR: He’s so much fun. I did Masters of Horror with him and then I did a television pilot for Fox with him, which I brought him onto. When we met on the Masters of Horror we hit it off right off the bat. I still talk to him all the time. While we were shooting the Masters of Horror episode he took me to breakfast one morning really early and he’s reciting his lines. All these old people were around us eating and he started reciting his lines really loud. He thought that was so funny and then he got really loud. He goes “I take my gun, I shove it up your pussy and blow your brains out!” All these old people are staring at him. He’s just laughing and saying it louder and louder.

DRE: Do you want to write and direct feature films?

NR: Yes, I’ve written two scripts and I have another script that I want to rewrite. There’s one in particular that I want to do first.

DRE: What are they about?

NR: The first one I want to do is called Anonymous Moon and it’s about people who travel who are not necessarily bums or hobos but it’s people who are just looking for something. They are looking to belong somewhere and figure out their life.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck

web address: http://suicidegirls.com/words/Norman+Reedus/