I honestly have to say it was an honor and a privilege to interview the enigmatic Udo Kier in anticipation for the film he is co-starring with Dominique Swain; Fall Down Dead, which opens today. Udo plays the part of the Picasso Killer, a serial killer who considers his mutilated victims to be his works of art. Dominique’s character catches him in the middle of one of these “masterpieces” and Udo spends the rest of the film trying to kill the only person who can identify him, and makes collateral damage of anyone else who happens to get in his way.
Udo is one of those great actors who has been doing genre films so long, you may not know his name at first, but if you have seen a genre film in the last 30 years you have definitely seen him and his mesmerizing glare.  This interview was actually off to an surprising start with Udo Kier asking me about something I had posted on twitter a week prior about him, I was crowd sourcing for questions for the interview and he mentioned that he had seen the tweet, and afterwards checked out my profile. Let that be a lesson to you about what you post on the interwebs about celebrities. I had a lot of fun talking with Udo, he is very funny and easy going, and charismatic as well. Read on for more insights into this genre legend.
I read that you started you career as a model in Germany before becoming an actor, what inspired you to make the transition to acting? 
Well that actually isn’t true, I never was a model. I was in Cologne, and grew up in Cologne, and there was kind of a fashion show – an art sale for fashion and I needed money. So I went there and I got a few jobs as a model who would wear clothes. I was never a model, no.
What attracted you to the role of The Picasso Killer in Fall Down Dead?

Well, you know it’s like when I got the script of course, it was like who is acting with you? I knew the work of Dominique Swain, who is actually sitting right here in the car with me. We are both in a beautiful black Rolls Royce that belongs to the producer, just a beautiful car. We’ve been driving around, and we are just leaving the agency where we just did an interview with the Asian television.  So I knew who was playing in the film and I liked it, not only because I have been collecting art for forty years, unfortunately I do not own a Picasso, maybe that is why I was attracted to the character of the Picasso Killer.
I have a lot of art, which I collect; photographs from Robert Mapplethorpe, art by Andy Warholof course, but no Picasso. This is because when Picasso was affordable I was too young, had no money and it was way too expensive. As I am not working with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie I do not have this money, so there you have it never a Picasso. But I have a lot of books on Picasso, they are beautiful art books. I think it is a good thing not to own everything, because then you have no dreams anymore. That is a horrible feeling if you don’t have any wishes or dreams.
When I went to the studio it was wonderful, when they showed me my set. I asked if I could change it a little bit, because after all I am the Picasso Killer, I kill people and no one could ever come to my studio. So I asked for two buckets of blood and I just threw it in the air and that is why it looks quite bloody in my studio. I also asked for some brown paper because I wanted to do the paintings myself which hang in my studio.  So I put the brown paper out on the floor, dipped my hands carefully in blood and just went crazy with the right music, and that is what turned out to be the Picasso Killer’s work.
Your performance and character seemed very reminiscent of the old Italian Giallo films the black leather gloves and straight razor, what were some of the influences on your character in the film?
There was no influence; I never have any influences from films. Because I think for actors it is wrong. Because automatically as an actor when you see a great actors work there is always something you like and you tend to copy it. That’s why I never see work to be influenced by.
I like Italian Giallo films, I like the German auteurs – Fritz Lang of course, I like Hitchcock films but that doesn’t mean I copy them. For the Picasso Killer I like art there you have it, I like chess that is why I play chess with fingers. So that is what I like, I like abstract, I like Picasso.
You’ve been in so many great genre films over the years, if you had to pick one what would have to have been your favorite role you played?
If you ask an actor that question, which is their favorite film, it is always the film, which had the most success. In my case for all the horror films I did, it would be Andy Warhol’s Dracula andFrankenstein, because they changed something in my life and that is what’s important or Story of O; which changed something commercially. For the horror genre definitely Dracula, I prefer Dracula to Frankenstein.
Because Frankenstein was in 3D and to shoot a film in 1973 in 3D; it was very time consuming, and you couldn’t have any close-ups. Because you looked like Pinocchio when they did a close up. So it should have been Frankenstein meets Pinocchio. I also like Dracula better because it was more poetic, that would be the film if I had to choose one.
What do you attribute you staying power as a genre staple to, I just was at a film festival where I got to see Expose aka Trauma on the big screen and now with Fall Down Dead you really seem to keep putting in great performance after great performance?
Trauma?… that was a long time ago. The original title was The House on Straw Hill and obviously because they couldn’t sell it, they called it Trauma.  Trauma is always good isn’t it? 4 people in the movie and 3 get killed. (laughs) At least I was alive till the end. I got the role because I did an erotic movie, one of the most erotic movies, called Story of O; which was at the time in 1975, a big hit. When I went with the film to the Cannes film festival to promote Story of O the people approached me to do the House on Straw Hill. They packed everything in that film and we shot it in 3 weeks, which was very fast.
As for my staying power, in my private life; I rescue dogs, I have 3 of them. I cook for friends, and only friends of course. When I go out to make a movie like Fall Down Dead I have my whole fantasy of going crazy, because that is a wonderful thing for actors. Because if I were to do anything I do in this film; in real life the police would arrest me. In front of a camera you can do what you want and you can get paid for it. So the fantasy of the roles I just like, I pick them not knowing what is going to happen with them. Funny thing was I did Suspiria with Dario Argentoand then 20 years later I worked with his daughter Asia Argento in the Third Mother. I don’t know how I do it, I just do.  I get the offer I get the script, I am happy to be there and I like people. I do my film then I relax for a while and then I do my next film.
And my final question, have you ever visited Philadelphia?
Philadelphia, didn’t I get an award there and didn’t show up? Isn’t that Philadelphia, yes it is!  I got an award and I had to do a role, and I couldn’t go, so the award is still in Philadelphia waiting for me. That was about five or six years ago, so maybe the next time I am in town for a festival I should pick it up.