A Delicate Fucking Flower

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Jason Mecier's portrait of Tyrrell, made with parrot feathers, bones, jewelry, and rusted keys

Rex Reed once wrote that Susan Tyrrell had "a body like an unmade bed." He must have been talking about her performance in 1982 cult classic Forbidden Zone, which screened at the Alamo South last night. Tyrrell plays a hot-tempered, lustful netherworld queen who's constantly spilling out of her dress. It says alot about the roles she's chosen.

The night was in honor of Tyrrell, or "SuSu" as she prefers, who recently moved to town and was debuting a decade-old collection of phallic and vaginal-themed paintings at the HighBall. Earlier, a colorized version of Forbidden Zone screened, and the Q&A following was as raw and honest and deadpan as you'd expect.

Tyrrell, dressed in all black save for a bejeweled jacket resting over her legs with "Alamo" written across the back, answered questions about the movie, her career, and what she's been up to since a near-death scare in 2000, when her legs were amputated. Some highlights from the Q&A below, plus video of Tyrrell introducing the Octopus Project, who played a short set during the art show, via an odd story about her vagina and Montana. Memoir, please.

On relocating to Austin: "I'm just stopping through on my way to Mexico, where I'll end it all."

On rumors of a Forbidden Zone 2: "It's probably that sad Rick Elfman ... He is a Scientologist though, so he knows best!"

On live-in lover Hervé Villechaize: "I miss him terribly. He was really into hydroponic gardening, and he would wear a big hat and overalls ... He always wanted to take his picture next to the biggest gourd or watermelon."

On the perks on filming Cry-Baby: "They didn't tell me I was going to the Mason-Dixon line. I'd never seen actual black people before. Black men. Let me just say, I had a good time ... It was me, Johnny, and Iggy, all on the same floor [of the hotel] for three months, doors wide open the whole time."