I’d hop the fence for Asia Argento anytime. I’ve always found her fascinating and yes of course very sexy because of the roles she’s played. Who does raw and real better than her? But its also the fucked up relationship with her Dad, a weirdo himself (and a masterful director), that she’s talks so openly about – along with everything else – that really intrigues me! She’s just unusually smart, honest, and compassionate. And well, that beautiful mouth.
She had this to say on the JT Leroy hoax (about the real author, Laura Albert, who pretended she was a young gay trailer trash “chicken”/truck stop prostitute, writing about his exploits, even getting someone to portray “him” at media events – the best “fuck you” the publishing world has gotten in ages): “I feel empathy for her motives to create a persona,” Argento says. “I think that I do the same with the characters in my movies. We all want to be something that we think is more lovable than what we are. We want people to think we are this other person, to be loved at the end of the day.” And then there’s this:
“I always saw myself as really ugly. My father even told me I was ugly because I would shave my head and look like a boy. Then when I was 21 I was offered this part in a movie where I was supposed to be really sexy. It was strange for me to have to research femininity, but I found these tricks for getting attention that I didn’t know before. It was a kind of revenge I guess, on all the kids who said I was ugly at school.”
Who knew? The wonderful filmmaker Bruce LaBruce does a great interview with her where she delivers a few gems. The first in response to the Italian media calling her an “abortion” or so she says (her penchant for hyerbole being trademark): “I’m proud to be different, to be the monster.”
On the making of Scarlet Diva, the semi-autobiographical film she directed, and Dad and Uncle produced:”I had hoped to do a scene with bestiality, but they wouldn’t allow me to do it.” This film btw has several trailers for different markets, which is the norm now, I gather (I don’t go to movie theaters like I used to, who does?) But here are two, the first I’d see, the second, doubtful, proving how much they matter. This one is “fanmade”, which is probably a whole new subgenre in trailers…I should’ve written my book on movie trailers when I had the chance – another proposal in the dustbin. But when someone’s doing a dissertation on nearly the same thing, sometimes you’ve got to yield.
OK speaking of the film industry, my favorite Asia dig for the night, especially because I’ve generally found this to be true (SORRY JAMES FRANCO FANS!): “I don’t usually care for actors because they’re seldom creative.”
And before you get all freaked out, I’m not promoting smoking during pregnancy though I’ve known plenty of women who snuck a few, and everyone survived. And if I was going to break my cardinal rule of not posting pics of people as part of this vignettes series, I think this cheeky goodness by Leeta Harding (2001) is worth it.
