Interview by Jeff Conner

IN 1994 VINCENT PEREZ WAS A YOUNG FRENCH ACTOR READY TO MAKE THE MOVE TO HOLLYWOOD, and the Los Angles based Pressman Productions was searching for a talent to star in their upcoming movie The Crow: City of Angels. The Pressmen team found their angel when director tim Pope saw Perez in La Reine Margot (Queen Margot), a 1994 Miramax art house hit.

The character of Ashe Corven demanded someone who could challenge the conventional role of action hero. A sophisticated actor and veteran of such movies as Cyrano de Bergerac and the 1993 Oscar-winner Indochine, Perez had the look, the physical ability and the talent needed to become the new Crow. Relying on the depth of his ability rather than muscles on his chest, Vincent Perez was able to bring out Ashe's humanity.

How were you first approached about The Crow?

I think it was because of Queen Margot. My agent organized a meeting. I saw Tim Pope, and we talked. Tim's intelligence really caught me. I felt that he had a vision. If the director doesn't have a vision, I don't go into the film. I'm not interested.

Were you familiar with the comic book at all?

No. I discovered the comic book during the perparatiuon of the movie. I'm not really into comics but I have to say it's very powerful.

Why do you think this comic book translates so well to film?

The comic book was created because of pain - real emotion. The comic book is a catharsis. I'm sure when James O'Barr did the comic in the beginning, it was just coming out of him. We talked together, and I feel that the film is based on that real emotion.

Did you watch the first film, or did you choose not to watch it?

I saw just before meeting with Ed Pressman. I had my ideas on what I would like to do and what I wanted to avoid. I thought that the first film was really good - especially Brandon Lee's work. I think he did an amazing job. The story and the tragic ending were something I had to think about before accepting the role in City of Angels.

I finally realized that City of Angels is another movie. It's based on the comic book, but it's something else. It's another director. I'm another actor. I did it my own way. But sometimes I had the feeling that I was on the same journey as Brandon Lee, because this is the same kind of atmosphere. The same kind of world. The same relationship with death.

In the Crow mythos, a certain type of character with intense capacity for love can transcend death. Would you say that the first film sets that up and the second expands on it??

I don't know if it's the beginning of a new legend. But we are reaching the end of the century - everybody is afraid of the year 2000. I think we are losing our tales, losing our references, we're losing our stories. We don't have any story to tell.

The only way of being in touch with what made us as we are todayis through these symbols, going back into fairy tales and mythology. The Crow, in a very strange way, is connecting us with a mythological fairy tale, and I think people need that.

Everybody can project themselves into this story. It's very easy to project your own fears, your own questions. I think people need that. When I see movies, I often feel that there is a lack of personal involvement in the story. We're just witnessing a story. We're never concerned. That's the feeling that I have in a lot of movies, especially big blockbusters.

What was the most physically demanding part of making the film? You did most of your own stunts, which is unusual in Hollywood filmmaking.

That's what people told me. But if I can do something, I will do it. The most taxing thing. I would say, was when I stayed eight hours in the water. Eight hours, in and out. That was really tough.

A lot of the craft of acting revolves around problem-solving. What were the major issues for you in that?

Each killing was very important issue for me. I had to become a mirror. I was going into the weaknesses of my victims. But I have to understand them to be able to kill them. Each time, we had to find a new reason and a different journey into each killing.

The movie's also about rituals. I'm a guide. I'm guiding these people into death. And I'm joking with death. It's very intimate. Like when I'm killing Curve. It was like a communion of some kind. It was like we were very close to one another until the last.

Tim Pope was always saying: it's like drug trip. You're taking the dope, at the beginning, you have the excitement, but after that, you're a little bit scared. You're not enjoying it. You go into this nightmare. Children's movies do it like that. That feeling was quite difficult to find, because it was very precise. I really needed the help of the Crow's mask to be different in each killing. I'm somebody else in each killing because I'm becoming them.

So, each victim is being, in a sense, killed by themselves.

Exactly. Or I was killing something in myself, because I really do think Ashe wants to die. The last victim is himself, because Judah is his shadow, and his shadow is also the crow. Ashe has to kill his own shadow. At the end he's carrying all the sadness, the pain of the world. It's his pain. This is the nightmare for him. he has to be there. Standing up.

But I love the idea of being a ghost, I have to say. I really like this idea. though Ashe is notreally a ghost.

Is Ashe an angel?

A black angel. I think my point with the movie, which is very personal, is that all the characters in the movie are angels.

Would you like to do some more Crow films after this?

We will see. Why not? If it's different. if it's better, which is going to be difficult because this movie is very good. I really enjoyed myself on this movie.