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Since December 2003 This site is an official Asia Argento website. However, I'm not Asia Argento herself. Do not send fanmail because Asia won't receive it. I am not receiving any financial gain from the website. No copyright infringement intended. Special thanks goes out to my three special collaborators and contributors: Audrey (from France), Beatrice (from Italy) and Stef.
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CS Indie Exclusive: Asia ArgentoBy Edward Douglas Something strange happened on the way to turning JT Leroy's bestselling second novel The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things into a feature film. Actually, it happened over a year after the film was completed and a few short months before its U.S. release, it was revealed that not only were the events in Leroy's supposedly autobiographical novels about the abuse he suffered at the hands of his mother Sarah and her various boyfriends not true, but "JT" was in reality a woman named Laura Albert, the ever-present companion of "JT" whenever "he" appeared in public. It was probably par for the course for actress and filmmaker Asia Argento, who had become accustomed to a life full of craziness, being the daughter of legendary Italian horror director Dario Argento and his actress wife Daria. Over the course of her 30 years, she's gone from being the star of her father's sick and twisted visions to the creator of her own, and she was as surprised as anyone else when she learned that the biographical movie she had made was actually now being considered a work of fiction. CS Indie had a chance to sit down with the actress/filmmaker to discuss this unconventional biopic. Although one might assume Asia (pronounced ah-SHEE-ah) would be as insane as her on-screen persona, she actually turned out to be quite charming and eloquent. CS: Did you chase after the rights to do this movie or did they come looking for you? Asia Argento: Yeah, it happened that I read "Sarah" and I didn't think of it as a film, I just read the book, and then JT's publishing company in Italy contacted me to do a reading. I then thought immediately of it as a film. It's a very cinematic book, written like a film. Even the shots were suggested, so it was very easy to do an adaptation. I started talking to JT through Email and I asked if the rights were available and he…she… it didn't answer. Then after my first movie, Muse Productions let me know that if I was going to do another one, they were interested in working with me. It was right before Cannes and right before the reading, so I told them to get [JT's second book "The Heart is Deceitful"] and then we'll meet in Cannes in May 2002. We just had to find the rights, so I met "JT" and Laura in Italy, because they were always together, and they told me that they were interested in me doing it, but they didn't want to write it with me. I'm not sure what to call [JT]…it…they she… Because who I was talking to, who I thought was JT, but I knew it was Laura, because she was always there. I started the long process of making this film. It took a long time to write, and I moved to L.A. to do that. CS: I wonder why JT didn't want to write the screenplay he/herself, possibly because she had already written the book? Argento: She told me she didn't have the necessary detachment, so I don't know. To me, it makes sense because it was their story. It wasn't my story to remember these things, so it made sense to me at the time. Today, I don't know why, but people think that I knew the whole time, but I didn't know anything. I'm also a very naïve person, and I don't like to doubt. If you tell me something, I take it. If you say, "Oh, look. A donkey is flying," I'll turn around and look at the donkey. CS: I was surprised that JT also wrote the movie "Elephant," and I wondered how Gus Van Sant was able to work with him/her without learning the truth. Argento: Apparently, what happened was that JT wrote a plot and then Gus changed it a lot. CS: So what was the collaborative process like with them? Did the collective being known as "JT" read and approve the script? Argento: Yeah. I wanted "it" to be involved in every aspect of the film, because I wanted the validation. It was important for me thinking that it's somebody's story, so yes, I got a lot of script notes through the phone, which were very important and interesting. We would talk all the time on the phone, and I could see this story of what I thought was their life so clearly, so I had very precise questions, and she would always answer perfectly for what I needed and it made sense, since I knew their backstory. Sometimes, there was something that was not quite matching. I mean, I had doubts. For instance, I thought that JT was a girl at one point, but the whole time, I thought the story was true, because the way she answered the questions was so perfect that I had no reason to doubt. CS: And all of this just came out fairly recently in the last few months, right? Argento: Yes, so I'm still trying to figure it out myself. It was pretty shocking for me when this truth came out. I didn't call Laura until two weeks ago. I spoke to her, so I said, "Please, tell me everything." But I still have a lot of questions to be answered. CS: It's kind of odd with that info coming right after it was revealed that James Frey's autobiographical novel turned out to be fiction. Argento: And you know what's really interesting? After I directed "The Heart," I was contacted by this production company for directing his film, so I interviewed to direct "A Million Little Pieces." Wouldn't that be like very strange? I'm like queen of the hoax! But this book, to me, when I read it, I thought this is not sincere. It sounded sugarcoated, so I was not very interested in this book. At the same time, I don't understand what the big fuss is about somebody lying about their life, because I lie the whole time about my life. We all do. We try to make ourselves look better than we are. Even when we tell the horrible things about ourselves, we're still trying to make ourselves look good. CS: But why should it matter whether it's a good piece of fiction or a good autobiography? Argento: Just like Dostoevsky. We all knew he was a gambler, because he put that in his books, but we don't question that. This is a good book, but who cares if this is his life? But we have this morbid approach, I think maybe because of the reality shows and everything, we want to project into a sh*ttier life than ours. My first film that was supposed to be an autobiography is totally not. It's fiction. It's a film, it's a book, it's art! CS: Was the film's stylized look something you envisioned while reading the book? Argento: Yeah, I wanted it to not be from a film from today, and I tried to take away as many cinematic tricks as possible, even though I use tricks like when Sarah turns into the child. I couldn't have shot that scene otherwise. I wanted the animation to be old school, like Claymation, because I thought that a kid that doesn't have the opportunity to watch cartoons needs an escape, because the crows symbolize violence, and this is what he would see. CS: Can you talk about this film's cast a bit? You have Peter Fonda, Marilyn Manson and the kids from "Big Daddy" all in the same movie, which is pretty impressive. Is it safe to assume that they were fans of the Leroy's books? Argento: Peter Fonda and Manson hadn't read the book. A lot of them hadn't read the book. Winona Ryder was a fan of JT, so that's how I got her. At first, when I wrote the film, I wanted to make this film only with real people, truckers, and I'm glad I didn't, because these great actors helped me. I was in trouble. I had 4 hours every day with the kids, and I had a very tight schedule and very little money. If I'd worked with real truckers, they would have taken a lot more time, and also, they were supportive, these actors. I knew them, but they were not my friends. They were attracted to the script, and also, a lot of them, like Kip Pardue, was interested in playing a role he had never played. I know very well to be pigeonholed in cinema, when you repeat the same role, because that's what I've done my whole life. With this film, I'm doing a role that's different from what I've done, but it's not something completely alien to me. I wanted to get the opportunity to act in a different kind of performance. CS: Your rendition of Sarah was kind of over-the-top. Were you inspired at all by Joan Crawford or even Courtney Love or any of the actresses known for that kind of thing? Argento: No, I have to say not, but before the movie "Monster" came out, I studied documentaries on Aileen Wournos, the female serial killer, and her facial movements. CS: Did the actor who played the younger Jeremiah know what was going on as far as the story and what was being done to his characster? Argento: That's the thing. With his mother, we worked a long time before, first of all, to get to know each other and feel confident, but I had to find ways to shelter him, to protect him from the story. His mother said that he didn't need to know what was happening. In the scenes, I would shoot him and I wouldn't tell him the dialogue. I would say, "Look at your feet and say this line," and he had no idea what was going on and then I would add in my dialogue on top of it. CS: Did you ever get a chance to see the documentary "Tarnation"? That was actually about a guy who really had similar experiences to the ones that JT made up. Argento: Actually, that was released after "The Heart" and I saw it after "The Heart" came out and I was really impressed. That was really amazing when I saw it, but it made me think. When I was kid, I used to think that when I left the room, my dolls would talk to each other, and in a way, I think films do that. When we're not there, they're talking to each other. I also think that paintings do that in museums, and they have a life on their own that have nothing to do with you. You're just a medium. CS: Besides the comparisons between JT and James Frey, this film is also timely because it seems like every week there's another news report about a horrible case of child neglect or abuse. Were you aware of this growing trend, for the lack of a better description? Argento: I didn't know that, but that's the reason that I was attracted to the story in the first place. Being against child abuse is something important in my life. In Italy, we just created the first Amnesty for Children, and we've been accepted by the UN. I'm an ambassador for this, and I have more power than a cop to help a child, if a child is abused. I can really do something about it. My daughter was nine months when I read this [book], and I had such hatred for Sarah when I read it. The interesting thing is that the more I studied it, and the more I tried to understand the psychology of where she was coming from, I learned not to demonize her. I don't justify her, but I definitely try to understand where she's coming from. It's like a girl who is 14 and has a child. Nothing is required to become a young mother. It's not like you're going to get a degree to become a mother, so everyone relies on a mother's instinct, but what if you don't have it when you're 14. I think that society abandons young women who are mothers. They don't have family or an education to deal with being a mother. I don't think a 14-year-old girl even knows how to give a bottle to a kid. It's a very shocking thing to be a mother. CS: You've said that a lot of what your character, Sarah, ends up doing is because of the way she has been forced to live in a male-dominated world. Can you elaborate on that? Argento: That's the thing. Every character in this film could be judged amoral, because I'm not taking a stand, right? I'm just telling the facts. And the evil characters, they don't look so evil, and they think they're doing good. In a way, the movie is amoral, because I leave the audience to think they're a smart entity and they can come up with their own judgment. CS: Obviously, having been raised by showbiz parents, was there ever any point where you felt like you were neglected? Argento: Oh, yes. I don't remember my parents a lot. I don't remember my childhood much, but they weren't there a lot, and I remember suffering from this feeling of nostalgia, which I feel guilty with my daughter. Before I had to come here to do this [interview], my daughter just had a fever, and I had to leave here. It's the dilemma of being a mother and working also in my career. My mother, when she had me, she had an incredible career, and she couldn't balance being that and a mother, so she went kind of crazy, and I hope this isn't going to happen to me. But it's true that it's very hard for women, because it's still incredibly unequal. I know that as a director, sometimes I turn into a not-very-nice-person, because I don't have time to be nice and I need to be respected and get the machine going. So what they say about a strong woman like me is that I'm very masculine, but I don't think that's the case, to be strong is to be masculine. CS: You obviously have your career as an actress and as a bit of a sex symbol, but you also are trying to respected as a filmmaker, so how are you able to balance those two things? Argento: I'm very pleased with the very schizophrenic career I have. It's a reflection of what I am. Growing up, I was so awkward and so uncomfortable in my body. I was considered to be ugly and no boy ever liked me. I was never popular. Then, all of a sudden, when I'm 17, I started working in films, and it changed, and people looked at me differently. Then photographers would ask me to do sexy photos, and I was flattered by their attention, so that's when I invented this persona, which made it easier for me to talk and behave as someone else than myself, as the sexy person that I never was, and kind of aggressive, to protect myself. CS: You also recently worked on Sofia Coppola's new movie. Obviously, she's a perfect example of a woman filmmaker who has suddenly gained a lot of respect, and you have a lot in common with her. Can you talk about your experience working on that film? Argento: Yes, I play Madame du Barry. She is the rival to Marie Antoinette, who isn't sexy and doesn't have a very good relationship with her husband, and I'm like the mistress of the king. It was a fun supporting role, not incredibly hard for me to play, just fun. [Sofia] is completely the opposite of me as a director, and I really look up to her in the way that she's very calm and very kind to everybody, very relaxed. She's somebody, who maybe after work can go to dinner with her friends. I'm totally obsessed, maybe because I don't have money to make my films. It's a very hard process for me, but I hope one day to find that zen feeling that she exudes. CS: Did you get a chance to sit down with her and compare notes on being a woman director whose father was also a director? Argento: No, I wouldn't do that. (laughs) Asia's new film, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday. Source: ComingSoon.net March 6, 2006 |
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