BOARDING GATE (2007)
Role: Sandra
Director: Olivier Assayas
On DVD in the USA Info -
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Release Dates
UNE VIEILLE MAITRESSE (2007) Role: Vellini
Director: Catherine Breillat
On DVD in France, in the UK and in the USA Info -
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MOTHER OF TEARS (2007)
Role: Sarah Mandy
Director: Dario Argento
On DVD in Italy, in France, in the UK, in the USA and in Brazil Info -
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Release Dates
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.
Argento: "I thought it was very powerful"
By Jeff Sneider
Staff Writer
The film adaptation of JT Leroy’s “The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things” crash lands in theaters this weekend. WSN sat down with its writer/director/star last week during a roundtable interview to discuss how she found the project and dealt with Leroy’s “nonfiction” being, in fact, completely false, including the author “himself.”
WSN: How were you introduced to Leroy’s book, what do you think of “him” as a writer and why did you want to make it a movie?
Asia Argento: Because I read the book and thought it was very powerful. I could see it, and to spend 2, 3 [or] 10 years of your life on a project, it has to be something that really is personal to you. It has to touch you somehow, and that’s what this book did. At the time I read the book I didn’t even know it was an autobiography, which now it turns out not to be, but when I found out it was an autobiography, I was [touched] even more so. I still think he’s a brilliant writer — very cinematic.
What is your relationship with Laura Albert [the woman revealed to be the writer of the Leroy stories, although not the public persona]?
Well, I knew her as Emily Frasier, or Speedy. She’s a very tough young woman. She was kind of like the bulldog behind JT. And I was wondering a lot of times, “Why can’t I be alone with JT? Why do we always have to be with Laura?” Because with JT, I had a better relationship. JT was more relaxed and Laura was very demanding. She was a ball-buster, so she made things very hard. I remember when we had to go to Cannes she wanted all these things and it was hard to satisfy her.
But, at the same time, I loved her and I appreciated her. She’s a very bright woman. She had a very exciting quality about her. She will look at you and make you feel very naked. You couldn’t hold secrets from her. She is very honest to the point where she was too honest sometimes. She would embarrass me sometimes — and then the story came out, the truth came out. Truth, whatever. Not that I have doubts, because I thought the whole way that somebody else had written the story. I thought that maybe JT was a girl towards the end. I came to believe that maybe Laura, I hoped, somehow, had helped to write it. Because she tried to tell me a million times that she had written the book, but not in a direct kind of way, so I dismissed her.
There’s this fascination with reality and what is real. The reality shows, and wanting to sneak into peoples’ lives and project our own childhoods so we can watch other peoples’ miserable childhoods and say, “Maybe I didn’t have such a bad childhood. Look at this person’s childhood.” And if someone had told me that “The Heart is Deceitful” was written by Laura Albert, I wouldn’t have paid as much attention to the whole mess of JT, so she was smart to do that. And I hold no grudge whatsoever, I actually give her big — how do you say ... props, mad props —mad props to Laura Albert for what she did. ... Two weeks ago I called her out of the blue one morning when I woke up. And to hear her voice for the first time after I figured it out — her British accent, which is her real voice — I was laughing. People thought I was upset but I am not upset at all. I think it’s brilliant what she did.
What do you like about acting and directing?
The best is doing everything and that’s why a director’s job is perfect, but you have to be a control freak. Acting is a good thing because it is very easy. Most of the time you just wait around on the set. But you’re like a mercenary. ... I’ve been lucky to work with some really great directors who were very demanding, but I’ve done a lot of movies, I have to say, which were not very demanding. And because of the tendency I have to be lazy as an actress, I give myself a lot of homework. I force myself to ask a lot of myself when I take on a role, and I ask the same of other actors when I’m the director. I will give homework to the actors because it forces them to think about their characters so they feel more involved in the film and more relaxed on set. I make them choose their own clothes, furnish their rooms, come up with alternative dialogues, so they know their roles inside and out.
Your father, Dario Argento, is a famous Italian horror director. Did you use any of his techniques? How is his approach to directing children different from yours?
Yes, I stole a shot from him and he stole a shot from this movie, he told me. Just a time-lapse thing he had never done. I stole some, not that I stole — because I am not a thief — but I learned a lot of old-school techniques from him. And as for children, my father despises actors so he was like Hitchcock, he’d treat little kids like shit. It’d be a very shocking experience watching my father direct kids. I’m quite the opposite. I like to talk and communicate with my actors, but he talks to you by the way he moves the camera. I would know what he wanted from me by the way he’s approaching me with the camera. And that’s as much information as you’d get. I’m the opposite; I enjoy working with actors and kids especially. I’m an acting coach for kids aged 7 to 13 and I’ve learned so much as a director working with kids, when I retire that might be what I resort to.
Music: Disco Sux/U Just Can't Stop The Rock/Sad Core (2008)
