In a recent visit to Milan I caught up with the actress to discuss movies, music, video games, and family relationships.It’s a blissfully sunny November afternoon and I am settled in the palatial splendour of Milan’s La Rinascente department store, as I sit in the roof terrace bar I am reminded of my last visit here. It too was a warm sunny day and I had been invited to see the first days filming of the new Dario Argento movie Giallo. At that time I was granted an interview with the delightful Asia Argento, but to everyone’s astonishment suddenly the actress pulled out of filming and was replaced by Emmanuelle Seigner, the wife of Roman Polanski. Now some months on I sit in the shadow of a beautiful cathedral awaiting the arrival of Miss Argento, in my mind the thoughts are running, will she arrive, or will the prospect of meeting me cause her to withdraw from another movie. I had 101 questions, most notably why she had pulled out of Giallo, but there were some questions I was not permitted to ask, this was one.
As the time from the scheduled arrival came and went I was wondering if my time to meet the actress was to be dashed again. A young waiter suddenly arrived with a bottle of Pinot Grigio, and my heart hit my mouth, the actress was here. Argento moved slowly through a crowd, and while myself and others waiting for their time to interview the actress were clearly excited, the locals were completely unmoved by this momentous arrival. While Argento is very distinctive in her appearance and incredibly stunning today she did not stand out from anyone else. Dressed in a long length cardigan black vest top, and a pair of low cut jeans (with the slightest flash of her underwear just above the hip), she looked just like a teenager. She slumps down in the chair next to me, rather like an old friend:-
Argento: Shall we have a drink? The actress said in a semi-seductive manner, I politely declined I wanted a steady head for this and reached for my glass of coke.Argento: I have been very naughty to have kept you waiting.
“For the pleasure of meeting you, it’s worth the wait” I cheekily replied. Argento at this point reaches for her unexposed hip, I think she was trying to show me a new tattoo, but I was not sure if this was the case, I decided at this point to ignore the movements.
I had already lost the plot the interview in tatters because I was here to speak to her about her new movie Diamond 13 in which she co-stars with Gerard Depardieu, but I had been completely blown out of the water by the arrival of this sex siren. Aware of my time restraints (I had a little over 10 minutes before the next interviewer was granted access) I quickly blundered into recent history.
“You have been immortalised in the movie industry, now you’re the leading character in the videogame Mirror’s Edge, how does this make you feel to be reaching an entirely different audience?”
Argento: It’s not so different to the movies, I can most relate to xXx which was a big blockbuster action movie with lots of effects. Mirror’s Edge is much like this, but now (she laughs in a girly style) I don’t have to do the action, I sit, sometimes stand and just my voice is used. Many of my friends go into games, but they start small and get bigger, my first game I play the star in some ways this is like the biggest thing I have ever done, I am really… how you say passioned… Passionate about this thing. I just did a promotional thing for the game, and the fans received me very well, they knew who I was even though Faith (the character in the game) looks nothing like me. These people know their stuff.
“Can we stay on the subject of xXx, because while Europe has known of you for some time this was the first time the world woke up to you, how did it feel to make the transition to Global actress?”
Argento: (She’s looking at me like I have just slapped her) So the world had not heard of B.Monkey? or Trauma? (I felt really uneasy, but my unease was relieved when with a nod she made it clear she was winding me up) It was a very exciting time for me I’m 27 years old at the time and suddenly I’m really known, many of my friends still had normal jobs while I am starring in a movie with the new big Hollywood star. I have been knocking on many doors for years, now I found that it was my door being knocked. But you have to be careful, I stayed true to myself and chose subject matter that suited me best, rather than taking the first thing that came along.
“Do you think this is why you have stayed consistent and why Vin Diesel has gone on a dramatic downhill turn?”
Argento: Vin is as big as he has ever been, he is a new action star for a new generation, I will never achieve his status.
“You are undoubtably however the biggest female name to come out of Italy for a very long time, you are the first actress since Sophia Loren to achieve global status, how do you feel about this?”
Argento: I’m very ordinary, so I never really look at it like that, I can move around the world looking like me and nobody ever spots me, unless I spend a lot of time on my makeup I get around okay. It never occurred to me that I am regarded as a big actress, but you are right I may be the only successful Italian actress outside Italy since Loren. My mother (Daria Nicolodi) was very big, but only here and maybe Spain, Germany. You make me paranoid now… Naughty!
“You went on to work with a true Hollywood legend in The Keeper, what was it like to work with Dennis Hopper?”
Argento: This was an interesting movie, but it was not good, well not well received I mean. Dennis was very nice, very courteous; it was a great learning experiment for me, I did not spend much time with Dennis he was juggling movies at the time, The Keeper was good on paper not so good in reality.
“You had directed and written Scarlet Diva, a movie I really enjoyed but was a bit disturbed by in places, this must have been a big thing for you. But I gather The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things was more exciting for you”
Argento: They were good for different ways, what disturbed you in Diva?
“The bit with the dog!”
Argento: Oh yes I see (Chuckles), I think both movies were equally exciting, Scarlet Diva I enjoyed twice because I am the subject matter. I really enjoyed Heart Is Deceitful but no more so than Diva, the difference was that for Diva it was all about me, the script, the acting, the direction; but with Heart I was trying to live out the thoughts of JT (JT Leroy the author of the book). Heart was much longer in the making, because much had to be cleared I made many treatments of the book in lots of styles but needed to get much of it checked. It was however very good because it was like I had received acceptance, until that time the only people who really knew me were fans of my father.
“You have a reputation for having affairs with your co-stars, and for being a little bit of a wild child, do you think this is fair?”
Argento: Life is so short, you live it how you feel the need to. Because I enjoyed sex, like drinking, and occasionally other stuff I am seen as dangerous. I am enjoying life, I’m older now though and more settled down, I have my life partner, and besides I became board with the self impressed attitudes of actors, I have moved on to other things, but maybe if I find myself single I might look for more creative types like writers. (She threw me a flirty wink, it was obviously meant in a joking manner but it still made me go a bright reds colour, it was not something I expected to hear).
“So… I’m walking through a city about a year ago and I stumble across this club; it’s very pricey to get in, but I had too because the DJ was Asia Argento, imagine my surprise? I never knew this of you, so there you are not just playing but dancing…”
Argento: “You say Daancing, that’s really funny; you’re a little bit… hang on… you say “wide boy?” Then you say Daancing like aristocracy, that’s really, really, funny!”
“What can I say I had no education, or rather I did but I chose not to do it… (Moving back onto track) Anyway there you are, so my question is which do you prefer acting or being a DJ?”
Argento: Both are very good, acting is my career, but to be a DJ is my passion, I feel really free to show my creative side, it’s not work it’s like a hobby, I really enjoy it. I could never give up acting to pursue this hobby, I like money too much.
“You’re like the big dance diva; I really like your style!”
Argento: I love dance music, it’s really liberating, and I love to display what I feel with a great set. I like more classic style music too if the venue is right, Nina Simone is really cool.
“I have not really spoken to you about my passion, and that’s your fathers (Dario Argento’s) movies. I’d like to hear about this time if possible (being careful because there were limitations on this area)? Do you have future plans to work with him?”
Argento: Of course, of course we are blood you know (she chuckles), in the future we will work together again but for now I need to follow my own path. I have lots of exciting projects on the way, and I feel that if I work too much with my father people will think that’s all I can do, almost like we are matched together.
“I saw a great fastest finger first style quiz with you and Dario for a TV network recently, sadly in Italian and I could only make out a few bits; as I looked at this I thought that this was much different an image from what maybe UK and US fans hear about you, you seemed really warm and close together, really comfortable; yet we are led to believe you and your father have a traumatic relationship, was what I saw the real father/daughter relationship, or are all the press rumours true?”
Argento: My father and I get on really well, unless of course we are working together. If we work together he has high expectations of me, I am his daughter therefore I must be better than everyone else. It’s hard to work with a perfectionist, he is so precise, I am a little more..billowy… is that right? Er..like a free spirit, less accurate.
I was at this point reminded by a burly associate of Argento that my time was almost over, sensing I was entering an area that was maybe somehow taboo I quickly moved on.
“Well we are running short of time now, so I’d like to ask you quickly about Transylvania; what was that like to make, it’s a very unusual film?”
Argento: Yes very unusual, it was very downbeat. It was very cold through filming, there was very little budget, our accommodation was very bad and we would sometimes sleep in unusual places. One day while waiting for a night scene I fell asleep in the back of the car, and they all closed in and filmed me, which is actually in the film, but it should not have been, I was genuinely asleep. Transylvania was a very European film, I think some people would find it hard to follow, but despite this and the bitter cold I had a lot of fun, many laughs while filming.
“Why did you agree to see me, there are many others who would/should deserve an interview with you?”
Argento: You’re a little like me, you do your own thing, you do not write for one specific magazine or website, you are probably not making much…How much do you earn? (I shrugged my shoulders), you seem true; and you have always been good to my family, you see our films even though many you don’t understand because they are in Italian, and baby your Italian is soooo bad, stick to English. But always for many years you write good things about us and enjoy our movies, if I had to see someone it should be you, yes?
Our time was up and it was time for her to talk to a gaming magazine about Mirror’s Edge, but as I rose to leave she grabbed my hand and asked for my autograph, which under instruction I wrote on the underside her wrist. Rather foolishly and a little thrown back by events I never returned the compliment.
Mirrors Edge is available on Xbox 360 now, and Diamond 13 is in European cinemas from January. Dario Argento’s Giallo is due out in Summer 2009.
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