What could shock-rocker Marilyn Manson and delicate supermodel Lily Cole have in common? The unlikely answer is movie-making; Manson’s arty version of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’ stories stars Cole as the eponymous heroine.
But when we spoke to her at last week’s Empire Awards, Cole explained that this isn’t going to be the Wonderland story we all know and love – although that might come later. “He’s hoping to make a second film that would be Alice in Wonderland,” she said. “This is more the prelude to it that sets the understanding of the narrator.”
Would she return for the sequel? “It’s all vagaries and ideas right now. I mean, yes, hypothetically, but it’s not in production and it’s not scripted yet.” One film at a time, we suppose.
The dainty-looking Cole previously starred in the White Stripes’ music video ‘Get Behind me Satan’ as a giant gothic rag-doll. Alice promises to be very much in the same vein; what she calls an “arty, intellectual sort of horror.”
Ironically, Cole isn’t a fan of horror films in general, but is reassured by Manson’s take on the matter. “I think he loves the fact that I don’t like horror,” she explains, “because I think he knows that I’m going to play the reaction of being horrified quite well. It’s an evolving process. I’m starting to convince myself that as long as I’m not carrying out any of the horror then it’s alright morally.”