"L'étrange
couleur des larmes de ton corps" is a sonic and visual
bombardment of the senses. Wild flashes of color, blood and torture,
and a cryptic plot keeps you guessing along with the main character
as he searches for his wife. One actor is onscreen in almost every
scene and carries much of the film on his shoulders. He's Klaus
Tange, a danish actor, but before we get to the Cattet/Forzani
directed film I sat down with him to get the story of how he ended up
here.
Klaus
Tange has a face etched in stone. Deep lines tell tales of a life
lived fully. As we meet in the beautiful kitchen of his home for a
talk over coffee and cigarettes he is friendly, open and honest. As
the smoke rises slowly towards the ceiling he tells me that the
desire to be an actor and performer has been there since he could
walk. He would do performances at home in the living room, joined
amateur theaters, started dancing, singing in a choir, and in general
sought to be the center of attention. Even while posing for family
photos he couldn't help performing to the annoyance of his siblings.
A dream of becoming a ballet dancer was crushed due to a back
problem. Then acting was the natural choice.
His
family moved around a lot, going to different countries. This made
him somewhat of an outsider and also quenched his desire to make
friends. He would use neighborhood children in his amateur theatre
productions. He would direct, act in, and even make costumes for only
to toss everything aside when the production was over. His parents
recognized his creative side and would always provide him with a
workroom in every house they inhabited. They
supported him fully. From the age of 8 he could sing Schubert's
lieder, all of The Sound of Music, and every Simon &
Garfunkel song. His
mother would accompany him on the piano. There was no pressure to
become a businessman like his father and his mother would collect
everything he did in a scrap book. He moved out at age 16 and started
supporting himself. He started working with kids and doing plays with
them.
While
Klaus talks he looks off into the distance, reminiscing about the
past. He laughs a lot. Smiles. Is very present in the conversation.
He left school after 10th grade
and moved to Aarhus where he started doing theatre, took acting
classes, and read the curriculum for the first 2 years at Dramaturgy
at university. At this point in time he also started singing and
playing the bass in a band that did Patti Smith covers.
He
wanted to go to Pina Bausch's school in Wuppertal after seeing one of
her productions as a young man. He
therefore decided to use the entry exam from Aarhus theatre school as
preparation for the entry exam for Pina's school.
For the entry exams he did Romeo & Juliet, a junkie role from
a Poliakoff play and sang one of his songs. He blew through all the
exams and gained entry at age 18.
“There
was a fundamental passion for acting, a need, a desire that I still
have after 30 years. That in spite of common sense is still present
and it is in acting that I feel 100% alive. I've had the passion for
film acting from an early age, but the door wouldn't open fully.”
Once
he got accepted to the school he decided to stay and studied acting
in Aarhus. The experience was not a completely enjoyable one.
“You
shouldn't go to acting school when you're 18 and everyone else is 26
and just want to get drunk and have sex. You really shouldn't. So it
was a difficult time at acting school. I was the good student who
really wanted to do well. The fact is that I only really learned how
to become an actor after school. I got some basic skills like
stagefight, voice, dramaturgy, and practical stage experience. Got a
job at Aarhus theater as the only student from my class.”
Now
he was doing 4 plays a year. Small roles as well as big roles. He
learned a lot there. Had the looks to play main hunk, but was also
cute pretty in a way that made people think of him as superficial and
empty. His looks actually worked against him and he got caught in the
blonde syndrome. He
even worked as a model in Paris during the summer breaks to avoid
loans while studying. The
theatre didn't want to cast him in the most obvious roles, like
Romeo.
So he started getting character roles like the weirdos and the
psychos. He never got the roles he thought he would.
“It
took me a long time to accept that I would be judged primarily on my
looks and people have a hard time seeing what lies beneath the
surface. At an audition I was told that I was too pretty and good
looking.”
At
the same time he was perceived as slightly cold, as opposed to the
boy next door.
He started adjusting his expectations of what he could do, and this
led to a time with lots of makeup, fake noses, prosthetics, humps and
wigs.
At
this point he was offered a job at the royal theatre but turns it
down. Instead he moves to Rome at age 24. He
falls in love, and love seems more important than work and career.
He gets a spot at the prestigious Teatro Liceo where he starts doing
plays along with the occasional film. A lot of the projects he did in
Italy gave him experience but they were of a low artistic quality and
he's glad that many of them can't be found today. Roles included a
spy in a Roman Holiday remake and several nazi roles. He befriends
director and writer Alison Bagnall and they make a short film
together. Several
times his film career in Italy comes close to taking off,
but it always falls through at the last possible moment. He
learns Italian for a play, and receives an award for best young
talent in Rome's theatre for the part.
Goes on tour with the play all over Italy. It is also in this period
that he does a Coca-Cola Superbowl commercial that pays so well that
he can live off it for a year. He starts feeling frustration with his
situation so when the director of Aarhus theatre contacts him and
offers him a steady gig he accepts. This prompts his return to
Denmark after 6 years in Italy. After some time in Aarhus he moves to
Copenhagen and gets the role as Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar at
Det Ny Teater. Next up is a Tennessee Williams play at Betty Nansen
and then Hair which also plays in Paris for 3 months of sold out
performances.
