ER’s Shane West will be Darby Crash, front man for “The Germs & Darby Crash” in Rodger Grossman’s What We Do Is Secret [Via Punk Rock Confidential: sept, 2005, pg.33]. The x-treme punk rocker Crash made a name for himself in the Hollywood punk rock scene in the late 70’s early 80’s by his acts of self-mutilation, bleeding, off stage antics and wild boy life style. Crash committed suicied by drug overdose at the age of 21 and only released one full album with the Germs in 1979 (GI).
“The idea came to me after film school,” director Rodger Grossman tells Billboard.com. “I was thinking, ‘What would be the most personal film I could possibly make?’ And I thought something about punk rock would be not just a movie that speaks to what I’m about, but also really territory that hadn’t been accurately depicted. And [it] needed [to be] a movie that was true and real and let people see what an amazing and exciting world punk is.
~Billboard
Also noted is the amount of work put into the role by West. Not only will he be sporting the tattoo of Crash, West also received dental work on his teeth, and played with a punk band for months to prepare. The movie hasn’t been picked up by a distributor but is 100% complete and shopping.
This scene is not portrayed in film often enough –Sid and Nancy, Trainspotting and SLC Punk are a few tops I can think of-, and kudos to West for taking on a project far from his work on ER. Lets hope What We Do Is Secret makes it to a few big screens, because there’s nothing like overindulgence and violence hooked up to amps in danky bars on a Saturday night.
Are you a punk rocker -Sheena is-?
