| I
like to think of Vincent Perez as my own private special secret that I
only share with my female friends when I think they’d be interested in
a beautiful, smoldering green-eyed, talented foreign actor who has no problem
with full frontal nudity. I first discovered him in the stunningly
emotional 1997 film “Swept From The Sea” in which he starred with the beautiful
Rachel Weisz and inimitable Ian McKellen. After seeing that film
(more than once), I hunted down every movie I could find that Vincent was
in. He’s just that compelling to watch!
Born
in Lausanne, Switzerland on June 10, 1964 to a Spanish father and a German
mother, Vincent is not only multi-cultural, but multi-talented as well.
He speaks French, Spanish, German, Italian and English and is a sculptor,
painter, photographer, actor, writer and director. He is an expert
fencer who does his own stunts in the many period/costume films he’s in
and a well known arthouse favourite in France. The charismatic Perez
is married to Senegalese model/actress Karine Silla who he knew for ten
years before marrying and with whom he has three children, including twins.
Karine also has an older daughter with Gérard Depardieu.
Vincent
made his American film debut by replacing the late Brandon Lee in “The
Crow: City of Angels” (1996), and although he followed that dark feature
with several other US productions including “I Dreamed of Africa” (2000)
with Kim Basinger, “Bride of the Wind” (2001) with 24’s Sarah Wynter and
“The Queen of the Damned” (2002) with Stuart Townsend in which he played
Anne Rice’s ancient vampire Marius, his potential has yet to be fully realized
in North America.
I suggest
watching this exotic, sensual man in the excellent French subtitled films:
“Cyrano de Bergerac” (1990) with the fantastic Gérard Depardieu,
the Oscar winning “Indochine” (1992) with Catherine Deneuve, and my favourite,
“La Reine Margot” (1994) with Isabelle Adjani (Vincent bears ALL in this
one, ladies!). He’s also excellent in the 1998 US/Spanish film “Talk
of Angels” with Polly Walker who is currently starring in the new HBO series
“Rome” and the Canadian/US television film “Shot Through The Heart” co-starring
Linus Roache. Perez more recently appeared with Penélope Cruz
as a swashbuckling lover in the French remake of “Fanfan la tulipe”, the
Canadian filmed “Nouvelle-France” with Depardieu, Tim Roth and Colm Meaney
and the 2004 made for TV version of “Frankenstein” with Parker Posey and
Michael Madsen (who will be the subject of a future Actor’s Spotlight as
I love him, stinky B films and all).
Earlier
this year, Perez completed shooting in Montreal and Sherbrooke on “The
Secret”, a horror thriller he directed starring David Duchovny and Lili
Taylor. The movie is in post-production and is expected to be released
in 2006.
It
is my sincere hope that Vincent Perez will soon land starring roles in
well received North American feature films so that everyone in the West
can discover what Europe has known for a long time. He’s magnificent!
In the meantime, I’ll scour video stores for their foreign stock and review
his films that I own. If you expand your movie watching horizons
to include foreign films you won’t be sorry. They are worth the effort
it takes to read the subtitles and you may just discover a breathtaking
“new” face as well! Start with Classic Video on Clarence Street as
they probably have the best foreign collection in Kingston.
The
best and only website for all things about Vincent can be found at www.vincentperez.com.
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