Zoë Lund

Zoë Lund (née Tamerlis; February 9, 1962 – April 16, 1999), also known as Zoë Tamerlaine, was an American musician, model, actress, author, producer, political activist, and screenwriter. She was best known for her association in two films with film director Abel Ferrara: Ms .45, in which she starred, and Bad Lieutenant (1992), for which she co-wrote the screenplay.

Early life Lund was born Zoë Tamerlis Her mother was of Swedish descent She dropped out of college. Lund also agreed to appear in the film, playing the woman who helps Harvey Keitel's title character first smoke, then shoot heroin.

According to Lund, "There was a lot of rewriting done on the set. Two other characters were cut, and my character modulated and took on more and more. A lot of things had to be changed and improvised. The vampire speech – which is crucial to the Lieutenant – was written two minutes before it was shot. I memorized it and did it in one take. The speech is important because she is acute in knowing the journey the Lieutenant makes. She shoots him up, sends him off, knowing of his passion, she lets him go." She also claimed that she co-directed several scenes in Bad Lieutenant.

Later career As a director, Lund made two shorts: The Innocent Tribunal (1986) and Hot Ticket (1996). In 1996, Lund also wrote the first draft of Abel Ferrara’s New Rose Hotel (1998), based on William Gibson's 1984 short story of the same name.

"I've known a lot of serious drug users, but Zoë was Queen," Richard Hell, a friend of Lund's, recalled in 2002. "You've got to admire someone as committed to it as she was. She didn't just LOVE heroin, she believed in it." After Laurot's death in 1993, Lund bequeathed the manuscript of a novel Laurot had written to Jonas Mekas.

In 1986, she started dating her future husband, Robert Lund. They lived together in an apartment located on 10th Street, and according to Paul Rachman, the Lunds reportedly owned "dozens of roaming pet rats." The couple were married on October 31, 1986, at the NYC Municipal Building with one witness in attendance, their friend Lenny Ferrari. That same year, Lund got an abortion.

Although they never got divorced, Lund and her husband separated in 1997, when Lund moved to Paris where she lived with "her new boyfriend" until her death in 1999. She was 37.

Legacy In 2007, experimental group Bodega System released the album Blood Pyx. The cover features Lund as photographed by her widower, Robert Lund.

In the early 2000s, American Hardcore director Paul Rachman made two documentary shorts about Lund's life: Zoe XO (2004) and Zoe Rising (2009). In the former short, Robert Lund discusses their relationship, while in the latter Zoë's mother Barbara Lekberg focuses more on her childhood.

Abel Ferrara said of Lund in a 2012 interview, "Zoë was a brilliant, creative person before the drugs; the drugs just killed her."

Filmography