Interview: Pandie Suicide

Pandie Suicide, based in Los Angeles but hailing from New Zealand, got her start as a model with the popular www.suicidegirls.com website. At the same time, she also worked as a music journalist for various publications.

These days, Pandie Suicide is one of the most in-demand names in music videos (she’s appeared in videos for the likes of Taylor Swift and David Lynch) and films and TV series including Joe Dante’s Burying the Ex, Community, and All Together Now). Her latest project is Massacre, which she also wrote; she’ll also appear later this year in Sweethearts and Low Riders.

How did you get involved with the Suicide Girls?

I became a Suicide Girl many, many moons ago when I was living back home in New Zealand. There were no other Suicide Girls in the country so I decided to try out and sent in some photos, and the rest is history! I love being a part of such a great community of badass babes!

You wrote and directed “Massacre,” what was that like for you?

It was great! I didn’t actually direct it myself, I wrote it, produced and played the lead role of ‘Marianne James’ a girl who wakes up at the site of a grisly mass murder and can’t remember what happened. It was a lot of fun to play her with my awesome rock star co-stars, Billy Morrison, who plays guitar in Billy Idol and played ‘The Paramedic’, and London May, who plays bass/drums in Glenn Danzig’s band ‘Samhain’, our ‘Detective.’ London and Billy are both excellent to work with and brought something special to their roles. The film was directed by Erik Boccio who is very much an upcoming director and one to watch, not just in horror but in all things. He recently directed a Western themed comedy short called ‘The West Files’ which is going to be premiering with Massacre next week in Los Angeles on the 17th of September which I’m quite excited about! It’s a free event at Busby’s East in LA and should be a pretty big thing!

What can you tell us about “Massacre” so far?

The film, which is 11 short bloody minutes long, had its first screening last month at the Fantasmagorical Film Fest at Fandom Fest in Louisville, KY and picked up its first award for its soundtrack which I am very stoked about! The score was composed by Jeordie White and Rob Patterson who are both such amazing musicians who are in or have played in some pretty big bands like Marilyn Manson and Korn. They did such an amazing job with the music, and not only that but they also both make a cameo in the film! Next its playing this Friday September 11 at the Horrorhound Weekend in Indianapolis on the Friday, London May will be in attendance to introduce the film! If you’re interested in finding out more about Massacre you can follow on instagram/twitter: @massacremovie or facebook.com/massacrethemovie!

What was working with David Lynch like for you?

It was simply amazing! It was a while back now, but I was in his music video for his own song ‘Crazy Clown Time’ off the album of the same name. His music is really cool, very strange and unique, just like you’d expect from a man like David Lynch! He was very hands on as a director, and extremely polite, I’d love to work with him again, he’s a visionary!

You have worked in a lot of music videos. What is it like working in a music video vs a film?

Working on a music video can mean very, very long hours ! So can film but it’s usually spread out more over days, weeks, or months. A music video is often shot in a couple days, often just one, so there’s a lot more to get done in such a short space of time! That said, the art form of the music video does allow for great creativity which can make it quite interesting to work on one. There are so many marvelous music video directors out there, like Zach Mercks who I worked with on the video for Pantera ‘Piss’, he’s really great, I even worked with Salma Hayek once on a music video she was directing for Jada Pinkett Smith! I don’t think I made it into the final cut of the video but it was a pretty amazing experience to be directed by her, plus she’s a total babe! I’m really into metal though, especially death metal and black metal, it would be great to work on some more metal music videos!

What challenges did you face directing & writing “Massacre?”

Writing Massacre wasn’t so much of a challenge as it simply came to me in a dream one day! Producing it was a whole other thing though! I learned an awful lot making this film that’s for sure. There were all kinds of hiccups along the way with various directors and producers and others dropping in or out of the project, losing locations last minute, costs adding up, all that kind of thing, but in the end we did it, we made the film and I am so glad we did. I’m pretty happy with our bloody offering to the world and I hope others are too!

Who inspires you professionally?

Everyone! Anyone who is following their dreams and doing it! Of course David Lynch is a hug inspiration, so many wonderful filmmakers out there are, I really like what the Soska sisters are doing with horror films, I don’t feel like there are enough female directors out there so I love it, plus I thought ‘American Mary’ was a beautifully twisted masterpiece.

Who are some of your favorite directors and who would you like to work with, that you have not worked with yet?

I have so many! I am a huge slasher movie fan and I love films like Hostel – working with Eli Roth would be a dream come true – I also really liked his show ‘Hemlock Grove’, the second season in particular. James Wan is another director whose work I really admire, I like the ‘Saw’ franchise of films a lot, probably because of all the violence! Then of course there’s the Soska sisters whom I’ve already mentioned, if Peter Jackson ever makes another splatter flick I’d love to be involved in that! David Cronenberg, Tobe Hooper, Lucio Fulci (if only he were still around!), Sam Raimi, Tim Burton, Kathryn Bigelow, I have so many favorite directors, I hope to work with them all!

You have an extensive resume and you are hardworking. What advice would you offer to someone that would want to be in the industry and maintain longevity?

Thank you for saying that! I’d say just keep going, decide what you want to do and then do it! Never stop following your dreams, even if the only step you can take towards them today is a microscopic one, just keep going and you’ll end up somewhere fantastic. Life is short, so to borrow from Nike, just do it! One thing with the film industry in particular though is to get comfortable with rejection! Perhaps you might be lucky enough to book every audition you go out for, and I really hope you are, but often this is a numbers game where you just have to keep going to auditions, shooting, just keep going, keep doing, keep creating, and one day you’ll wake up and realize that you’re doing the thing that you set out to do, good luck!

Please tell us what projects you are working on next?

One project I’ excited to work on is a project called ‘Sweethearts’ directed by a female horror photographer and director named Ama Lea. I am really excited to see how this vision of hers comes out on the screen because she is so very talented and has some really original ideas. I’m going to be playing just a small role but it’s a fun one – I’m playing a Goth girl named ‘Luna’. I also have several projects of my own I’m developing – a feature based on ‘Massacre’, another short entitled ‘Blood Bath’ and a Tv show called ‘Teeth.’

What was it like working with Joe Dante on “Burying the Ex?”

That was only a brief little thing but it was a great experience as he is a talented director! I also ran into my Massacre co-star London May on the set there too which was fun!

You have some amazing tattoos. Who are some of your favorite tattoo artists and what was your first tattoo?

Thank you! My first tattoo was a small script tattoo in french on my right inner forearm that reads “l’art pour l’art” which is essentially ‘art for art’s sake’. I am very lucky to have been tattooed by some amazingly talented artists, both back home in New Zealand and here in Los Angeles. Some of my work is by Simon Morse, Connor Garritty, Brian Gonzalez, Dean Sacred, Dan Smith, Tim Kern and more. These are all some of my favourite artists too, I would also love to get a black and grey portrait from Kat Von D some day, she’s amazing at those!

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