Patricia Velasquez long ago made peace with the fact that she and Egypt will be eternally linked.
Just never that part of it.
They think of Anck-Su-Namun.
Can you believe I still have not been to Egypt?
Velasquez muses when we catch up with her over Zoom ahead ofThe Mummys 25th anniversary.
But somehow I seem to be connected to it a lot.
Patricia Velásquez on the set of The Mummy Returns. Photo: Courtesy of Patrica Velásquez
Friends of mine go and do video chats or FaceTime.
Its an appropriate emblem for the actress and the movie she participated in.
For despite all the time thats passed,The Mummyhas enjoyed a preternaturally long afterlife befitting its eponymous character.
In other words, folks are still summoningThe Mummyand Anck-Su-Namuns legacy back to life.
Appearing exclusively during the first films prologue, Anck-Su-Namun is ominously introduced as Pharaohs Mistress.
We just never know the repercussions of encountering people in life.
I was in LA, and my agent sent me to do general castings with different people.
One of these meetings was the casting director of Universal.
Her name is Joanna Colbert, and it was just a general casting meeting.
I walk into the office, and we had a really wonderful conversation.
And then the day after Ive been offered this movie calledThe Mummy.
I could not believe it.
Not that she could quite ascertain what the movies tone was from the page either.
In the shooting script, Anck-Su-Namens entrance simply describes her as an olive-skinned goddess.
It was also in the same breath she met the mastermind behind this majestic sweep.
Stephen had a lot of energy, and it was a contagious energy and very exciting and very respectful.
… And then I went to get ready.
The easy part was over.
Shes a stunning sight to behold.
Actually transforming Velasquezs body into that artwork, however, proved just as taxing as Pharaohs appraising gaze.
As the actress tells us, once the paint went on during alongdays work, it stayed on.
It took almost 10 hours to get that makeup on, Velasquez recalls with a hint of lingering weariness.
And then I had anywhere between two to four hours of retouching every day.
But theres the catch: the film could save time if the makeup just stayed in place.
I [didnt take it off] for about 10 days, Velasquez says.
The first day it was only to try the makeup and then they left it on.
So when I went to shoot, I had it on and they would just retouch.
It would smear overnight, but not as much.
It was pretty tight.
I know what its like to walk around with big tattoos on your body.
Yet the makeup stayed, and by the end of her 10-day shoot, they had the scene.
Velasquez also mightve had a fever.
Looking back, she likens the experience a bit to what happened to Shirley Eatons character inGoldfinger.
I remember there was a Bond Girl that died from body painting, Velasquez says.
Thank God not as bad!
There I had the bodysuit, but there was nothing like actually having the paint.
Talk Like an Egyptian
The time onscreen offered by the originalThe Mummywas small yet pivotal.
To this day, she still recalls the lines she learned forThe Mummyvia the muscle memory in her throat.
But then I started screamingeee-ah[in one shot], and then again in another take.
So finally Stephen calls me to the side and he says, Why are you screaming eee-ah?
And I say, Stephen, you said you wanted this to be as authentic as possible.Eee-ahis no.
And he said, Oh no!
No, no, no, no.
And at this point I had no voice left.
Despite its Egyptian pedigree, its a slightly spookier and Hollywoodized version of the Orpheus myth from ancient Greece.
She found her soulmate.
They say that competition is the key to survival, Velasquez considers.
I do absolutely think there is some rivalry.
These people were fighting for love; its either you or us.
We know whats at stake: either youre going to make it or were going to make it.
In my mind, there was never any doubt that we were going to make it in the secondMummy.
Says the actor, I still wonder sometimes why she made the choice that she made at the end.
Maybe because I thought there would be anotherMummyto fix it that gave me permission to make that mistake?
So it was a big reunion.
And Ouarzazate, they shotGladiatorthere after.
And this one time, this sandstorm just would not go away.
And its not like we had cellphones and could be texting.
Worst that can happen is it falls to the side?
Because this thing is moving like crazy.
The bigger role also meant an opportunity to work with more of those co-stars on and off screen.
It was never really supposed to be us fighting, she says.
Thats why they designed those masks that we have when we fight.
But Rachel and I got into it.
We became very competitive because we became good friends.
[We were] so competitive that we ended up doing the fights ourselves.
The only thing I didnt do was the backflip.
An Undying Legacy
Velasquez has certainly kept busy over the years.
However, she accepts and is proud of the fact shell forever be remembered forThe Mummy.
Up until today, it doesnt matter how many projects youve done, you will always be Anck-Su-Namun.
One fan encounter, in particular, has stuck with her.
And she said, I recite the lines of Anck-Su-Namun.
And she still does.
Imagine when someone says something like that to you.
It shows on the holidays.
This movie is on all the time, and I am part of that.
