Iggy Pop, Alex Lifeson 'Suck' Up Their Cameos in Vampire Flick

Posted on Sep 11th 2009 6:00PM by Liisa Ladouceur
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When it comes to preying on dreams of eternal life, vampires share a lot with the music business.

Director Rob Stefaniuk's new comedy/horror 'Suck,' which has its world premiere this week at the Toronto International Film Festival, thrusts a band of no-hit wonders trying to get to a CMJ showcase -- ironically called the Winners -- into the clutches of a vampire clan with predictably bloody results. To really drive the point (or more specifically, flying V-stake) home, 'Suck' features a slew of real life rock 'n' rollers in a variety of cheeky guest cameos: Alice Cooper as a Satanic bartender, Henry Rollins as an obnoxious shock radio jock, Moby as the lead singer of a band that likes to be belted with raw meat, and Iggy Pop as a wizened record producer who tries to warn them that "Fame is not what it's cracked up to be -- cops arrest you and ask for your autograph."

Pop, who was the first rocker on board for the project and chose his role over the script's more nefarious types, tells Spinner he brought that line of dialogue to the shoot, based on his own experience with the police. "I was in a gas station in Miami Beach and two squad cars came screeching up and surrounded my car," he recounts. "I was really scared, like 'Oh my God, what did I do? What do they know?!' They just wanted my autograph. I don't mind when that happens. It's a lot more fun to be down with cops than the reverse."

Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson also appears in the film as the border guard who decides whether or not the Winners will be allowed into the United States. Like Pop, he says it was easy to draw on his own life. "Quite often when I cross the border and say I'm a musician, I'd say 90 percent of border agents have heard of my band," Lifeson explains. "So usually the conversation is about recording, or telling me they saw Rush in 1985. Occasionally, it leads to secondary inspection. But usually it works in our favour."

Both rockers have more big screen plans: Lifeson guest stars in the upcoming Trailer Park Boys film 'Countdown to Liquor Day' as a cross-dressing cop. "I've had some trouble with authority," he says, referring to his arrest after a drunken escapade in Florida in 2004, "so I suppose directors think I'll enjoy the role reversal." Pop, whose credits include 'The Crow: City of Angels,' 'Tank Girl' and voice acting in 'L'il Bush' and 'Rugrats,' says he recently read for a part in the new M. Night Shyalaman film. "It's really a kick to have a side-line so I'm not just touring, recording, touring," says Pop. "For some reason I get a lot of those horror movie scripts. There are a certain number of people who think I'm scary I guess."

'Suck' stars Jessica Pare, as well as Dmitri Coats from Burning Brides, who will appear in a special free concert celebrating the film's world premiere on Sept. 11 at Toronto's Yonge-Dundas Square.