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Asia Argento: for some, art imitates life. For this dynamic actress and filmmaker, art is life. - August 2002Interviewed by Adrien Brody Best known as an actress in her father Dana Argento's cult horror films, Asia Argento, 26, is Italy's dark star. Beloved across Europe and increasingly known in American art house circles, Argento took the risk of her life when, in 1999, she stepped behind the camera to direct her feature debut, Scarlet Diva, a twisted, disturbing self-portrait of sorts, released the following year. Two years and a baby girl later, the onscreen and offscreen darkness that's dominated much of her life has given way to illumination, presently a thousand-watt glare from the Hollywood spotlights fixed upon her as she makes her first trip--as an actress--to the American megaplex. This month's XXX, in which Argento co-stars, is reel-to-reel hard-core action, though of a decidedly different sort than some might infer from the title. Vin Dilesel plays an underground thrill-seeker-turned-special-agent; Argento, his fiery sidekick. Here, she talks with friend and fellow actor Aclrien Brady. ADRIEN BRODY: Ciao, bambina. ASIA ARGENTO: [laughs] Where are you? AB: I'm in Hawaii, in my hotel room, looking at the ocean. AA: What color is it? Blue or green? AB: It's blue. And there's a mountain range with green hills and ugly hotels and beautiful palm trees. AA: I see a palm tree too, from my window [in Rome]. AB: I've been surfing out here. I never surfed before in my life and I got up on my first wave and rode it in standing up. AA: No! I don't think I could ever do that. AB: Sure, you could. So I've had a little Asia Argento film festival going on out here. AA: Oh, my God. They got you some of my movies. That's so scary. I'm so concerned. AB: Well, I'm impressed, I must say. You know I hold you in very high regard, but I'm looking at the bio the people at Interview sent me and I'm thinking, Here's this young girl who has six careers that are forms of creative expression. Most people don't find one in their life they connect to, but you're a writer, actor, director, novelist, poet and musician. And a mother. AA: And a photographer now. They're doing a show of my photographs in Paris. It's insane. AA: Wow. Congratulations. So in Scarlet Diva, which, in addition to starring in, you wrote and directed, your character proclaims herself the loneliest girl in the world. AA: Yeah. What do you think? Am I the loneliest? AB: Perhaps you once were, but I don't think you re the loneliest girl now. Do you feel that you are? AA: No. Not anymore. I'm never lonely if I have my little daughter [Anna Lou] with me. But before her, yes, I was very lonely. Since I was little it was always like that, even if I was surrounded by people. AB: Now, I don't know your father's work very well, but I know he's the famous Dario Argento, the horror film director. There were some pretty horrific moments in Scarlet Diva--some psychologically terrifying, very disturbing stuff--and I was wondering: Do you think that's his influence, growing up with him and his work and working with him, or was that you on your own? AA: Well, I always watched his movies, but he's more into horror that is fantasy while I talk about the real horror of things that I've been through. We have very different ways of dealing with our demons. He goes into the fantasy vision, and I go more into the real vision, with a way of filming that is instinctive and direct, while his is more mathematical and precise. But I find his movies very inspiring, and I'm sure that I've gotten a certain taste and aesthetic from him. AB: You told me that he killed your mom a lot in his movies but he never killed you. AA: But he had me raped and beaten up and anorexic--all sorts of things that were not so pleasurable. AB: I don't even like watching sex scenes while sitting in the same theater as my mother--what was it like having your father direct you in a rape scene? AA: Well, I had a body double, but when we shot the close-ups, it was like therapy. I was going deep into some very dark stuff that I had to deal with and that I healed from, I think. Our relationship grew a lot from it. My father's very supportive. He was the one who understood that I had this ambition to make a movie and that making it would make my life a lot better. He really pushed me to do it and gave me the courage. I'll always be thankful for that, because nobody believed I could do it but him. AB: Are you still writing? AA: I am, but it's so hard with the baby. I can't write at home so a friend of mine gave me a room in his apartment, a room with nothing in it, and I write there. It's weird because all my life I've written out of deep sadness and misery and now that I'm very close to happiness, it's more difficult. AB: I remember one day we were talking and I had asked you about Anna Lou and what kind of impact she's had on you, and you said that she saved your life. AA: She did. I'm really solo in this; it's not like I have one of those families where everybody's around helping me. I'm alone and it gives me strength because I have to be strong. She needs me so much. She's very demanding and she knows what she wants, and because of that she's made me come out of my selfishness. You know, Adrien, I had a dream about you a couple of days ago. AB: You did? AA: Yeah. I dreamt I was with my daughter and I was really sad. I thought the whole world had left me--my family, everybody. My daughter had a turquoise stone necklace that I used to have when I was little and I was thinking, Life is really bad. What are we going to do? I have to sell this necklace. And then I saw this big, black car and you came out of it. And you were coming up the stairs to see me, but then I woke up. AB: Wow. That's not a bad dream. AA: No, it's a good dream! You were the savior. AB: I was the knight in shining armor. AA: In a shining car. AB: The knight in my pimped-out Cadillac. [both laugh] I could see that dream in a movie of yours. AA: So now you see that I steal from my subconscious. [both laugh] AB: Oh-guess who I saw out here and was kicking it with by the pool? [Dr.] Dre! AA: No! Is he nice? AB: He was so cool. He recognized me and it was the biggest moment. [laughs] He said, "What's up, man?" and I said, "Hey, homie." We started talking about this new Akai MPC sequencer [a music sampling device] I want to get. I told him, "Listen, I tell everybody they better watch out because once I get that, I'm going to be the new Dre." [both laugh] AA: You should play him some of your music. AB: I'd like that, but I didn't bring any of my music here, unfortunately. I made some new stuff that I'd love you to hear. I've made the best music I think I've ever made in the past few weeks--after Cannes I think I was inspired. AA: I'm sure. AB: I ran the full range of emotions over there. There were 2,000 people at the first screening [of The Pianist] and it was my mother's birthday--my parents had been anticipating this night for a long time--and the outpouring of emotion from the audience was probably the single most rewarding moment of my life's experience as an actor. And for the rest of the festival, everywhere I turned people knew who I was. It was a frenzy. I kind of knew what it was like to lose my anonymity. AA: Were you ready to deal with it? AB: I don't know if you're ever ready for that. But that was what I was going to ask you, because XXX is going to be marketed worldwide and you've been pretty famous in Europe for a long time. AA: Since I was very, very young. So young that it made me totally paranoid. But learned how to deal with it and how to recognize who was real and what was real. AB: How did that affect you growing up? AA: It made me lonely and wary. I didn't trust people. It made me very upset and kind of paranoid for a while, then I became detached and it killed a lot of my ambition. I thought that all the admiration and attention didn't make any sense--it felt like I didn't do enough to deserve it. People tell you how great you are and you end up believing it and once you get to that place, what is there to fight for? I hope I never lose the hunger to do something new, something that makes me grow--this is why I had to direct: I felt there was nothing else that I really wanted to accomplish through acting. And now, since I made my movie, I'm enjoying acting more. I've become a much more humble actress. AB: Let's talk more about XXX. You know, I bumped into Vin [Diesel] the other day. AA: No kidding! AB: Yeah, I knew Vin growing up in New York. So I saw him and we talked about you for a while, both of us saying what a special creature you are. And I congratulated him on his success and he said the mast humble thing: "I'm just trying to make the most with what little I have." It made me even happier for him. AA: I think he's a very special person. He's very focused and unselfish. Most male leads I've worked with are selfish and uncaring, but he was very giving and cooperative. AB: You find male leads to be selfish? AA: Maybe not selfish, but they don't have a wide view of a movie. They only think of the scene, the moment, how they can pull themselves through it. But Vin has a wide view of things. AB: So briefly, what is XXX about? My readers would like to know. [Argento laughs] Are you the sexy spy? AA: I'm the love interest, the tough girl. The movie is like a 007 [James Bond film] for the new generation--this is how the filmmakers put it. They told me to say that I am the tough chick, and that's it--not to give any more away. AB: Well, there you go. I saw the trailer and you looked hot. AA: Really? How hot is hot? AB: Pretty hot. Vin had just scaled 20 buildings with a surfboard, and you were like, "Woo-hoo!" all excited. And I said to myself, "Wow, that's going to be everywhere!" Are you nervous at all about that? AA: No, not at all. What else can happen? I've lived all this already. I mean, it's wonderful to leave Europe and go places where nobody knows me and be free, and it would be a drag to lose that in America, where I've had so much fun being anonymous--but whatever happens will be fine. I live a very simple life and I don't think it would affect me terribly. AB: If this movie opens doors for you in the U.S. will you act or will you direct? AA: My ambition is to direct again, and if the acting can help me do that, I'm definitely going to act. I am writing my new movie and I want to do it in America because there are people there who want me to, and it's good to go where the interest is. [laughs] My hope is that XXX will bring the possibility of directing bigger movies. AB: I was just thinking that we should make a movie together. AA: Wow! I wonder how that would be, since apart from my father, I was never able to create anything with people that I really ... how shall I put this ... liked. AB: [pauses) I was thinking about a tragic love story, a big, epic love story set in Paris. It would be so much fun. AA: You mean I get to be your love interest? Oh my God, that would be nice! Who do I contact? AB: I don't know. Call my agent. [laughs] AA: I'm so happy we did this, Adrien. AB: Me too. I'll call you soon. Ciao. ADRIEN BRODY "Asia Argento,"
"When you respect someone's work, it's pretty effortless," says actor Adrien Brody of his experience this month interviewing his friend and fellow actor Asia Argento. Brody himself recently earned the respect of his peers as the star of Roman Polanski's The Pianist, Palme d'Or winner of this year's Cannes Film Festival, an event he describes as "the single most rewarding moment I've had as an actor."
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