Word: queens
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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TIME critic Christopher John Farley interviewed hip-hop superstar Aaliyah shortly before she died last August in a plane crash. This week, in an excerpt from his forthcoming book, Aaliyah: More Than a Woman, Farley looks at her last movie role, as the vampire Akasha in Queen of the Damned, at time.com/sampler...
Just before Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were deposed by the French Revolution, a woman named Jeanne de la Motte-Valois engaged in a historically murky, slightly incomprehensible plot to peddle an elaborate and hugely expensive necklace to the Queen and keep the profits, even though she did not own the jewelry. When she was placed on trial for this crime, much about the decadence and indifference of the monarchy came out and helped swell revolutionary passions among the populace...
...Aaliyah was able to draw on her experiences in videos for her last movie, the film adaptation of the Anne Rice movie, "The Queen of the Damned." In that film, which is due out in February of 2002, Aaliyah plays Akasha, an ancient -but eternally youthful - vampire...
...Aaliyah's last role will shock some of her fans because it's such a contrast to her "sweet but street" image. "The Queen of the Damned" was filmed in and around Melbourne, Australia. The first scene Aaliyah shot was a striking one. Her character goes into a vampire bar, flirts outrageously with some of the patrons, ends up ripping one poor guy's heart out, and then goes on to incinerate the rest of the clientele. Afterwards, Aaliyah's character struts away, happy and satisfied with the mayhem she has just brought about. "It's a very cool scene...
...last scene Aaliyah filmed for "The Queen of the Damned" has, since her passing, taken on an unexpected emotional dimension. In the scene, Aaliyah's character appears in statue form. The makeup artists spent three hours painting her with alabaster to gave her the appearance of something made of stone. The cast and crew gasped when Aaliyah came onto the set, looking like some mythic creature. Even her eyes were covered with alabaster contacts (which, according to Rymer had been extremely painful to wear). Without a word, as silent as the statue she was playing, Aaliyah took her place...