Asia Argento for Boarding Gate

Asia Argento for Boarding Gate

By Emily Altman
Mar 21, 2008

Italian actress Asia Argento grew up in a family filled with artists, actors and directors—her father is legendary horror director Dario Argento and her mother the actress Daria Nicolodi. She’s spent the majority of her life as an artist herself, in various capacities—publishing a book of poetry at age nine, acting in films (her father’s and many others, including the Hollywood blockbuster XXX in 2002 ), writing and directing (2000’s Scarlet Diva and 2004’s The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things). Off-screen, she has a reputation for being edgy, uncompromising and rebellious.

Her latest film, from acclaimed French director Olivier Assayas, is the erotic
neo-noir thriller Boarding Gate, opening March 21. In it, she plays the tough-as-nails ex-prostitute Sandra, who gets embroiled in a dangerous international plot that eventually takes her across the world to Hong Kong.

Argento talked to SuicideGirls about the experience of making Boarding Gate, the public’s perception of her, and how she’s really just a good Italian mamma at heart.

Asia Argento: Hello!
Emily Altman: Hi! So… we’ll just get started then. How did you get involved in Boarding Gate?
AA:
I had met the director for a different project… for a French movie, typically French. I liked his work, and [there was an offer] for a smaller role, a different role, and I had accepted that. Then, I don’t know why, but the movie didn’t go through. And in the meantime, like in a month’s time, Olivier wrote the script for Boarding Gate. He got back to me and asked if I wanted to do it, and then we did it and that’s how I got involved. He said he wrote it for me, which is always an actor’s--well, it’s a big turn on for actors. You never know how true that is though, if that maybe was a project he had somewhere or… but anyway, I like to think that.
EA:
Yeah, well Sandra’s a pretty kick-ass, tough character... so that’s a compliment, certainly if he wrote that for you. What was the experience like playing her? What did you think of that character?
AA:
I have the tendency when I read scripts to just take the script and not imagine too much. I gathered that it was pretty, um, hard-core material, but I didn’t know the extent—how far we were going with this material. I knew I liked Olivier’s vision, and I wanted to work with him. I loved the idea, and the idea of shooting in Hong Kong, and that he wanted to make a French intellectual action movie. A French concept. I was into the whole idea. But when we started shooting, you go into a kind of trance—things that in normal life you think you wouldn’t be able to do, something happens and, first of all, you have to do it. And then you just do it. Maybe you realize months later, “Oh my God: I managed to do this and it was dangerous, maybe dangerous for my mind and my body and my soul. But at the same time it was done and I didn’t see too much damage.”
EA:
Was there something in particular in Boarding Gate that you felt that way about? I mean, physically it looks really demanding, a lot of the work you do. Lots of tumbling down stairs and stuff like that….
AA:
Yes, yes… well, that tumbling, that was the fun part! The physical aspect. We were like two little kids. Also, because the movie had a small budget, I had to do all my stunts and I was really into that idea. I loved to shoot an action movie in Hong Kong. I mean… how much fun! So that was fun. It was more the beginning, the long scene with Madsen.
EA:
Of course.
AA:
It felt dangerous. Like we were walking on thin ice. The relationship with Madsen on the set, given the circumstances and the dialogue, everything felt like walking on thin ice, like anything can happen any minute, like… we could get into trouble, like we could get in a fight! But luckily, nothing like that happened. [Laughs] But it was very fragile.
EA:
Kim Gordon is in the film too, she’s working her own sort of tough, kick ass angle too..
AA:
[Laughs] Yeah, she’s tough.
EA:
You’ve worked with her a couple times, right?
AA:
Yes, yes, she worked on a movie I did with Gus Van Sant. And they did music for my movie. Sonic Youth did.
EA:
So what’s she like to work with as an actress?
AA:
She’s a great actress. She’s a great human being -- a real artist. Somebody I really look up to. Really, an inspired, almost half-goddess woman. So, I had a reverential admiration for her.
EA:
Yeah, well she’s really quite a force in this movie. Had you spent time in Hong Kong before?
AA:
I had never been to Hong Kong. I had been to other places in Asia. It’s one of my favorite places in the world. I love the feeling of being a complete alien. I felt like I was walking into Bladerunner. So I was completely alienated and almost dizzy about the amount of information: the lights, the people, the heat… the incredible heat. It was really hot. And the crew, those people were amazing. They were used to shooting big movies in two weeks, so they haul ass. They really are great professionals; I loved the Hong Kong crew. There was a huge contrast between the French crew, where, you know, they wanted to go home after a certain time, and they were complaining—you know, they’re French, they love to complain. I felt so much more in tune [and] on the same wavelength with the Hong Kong crew.
EA:
At this point you’ve acted and lived and worked in many countries. It’s almost the norm now for you to act in languages other than Italian. Can you tell me a little bit about what that experience is like creatively, to be acting in language that’s not your native language? Does it affect it at all, does it add things to it?
AA:
Well, French is difficult, because the French are, um, well….
EA:
Particular?

[Both laugh]
AA:
Yes, yes, well, if you have a bit of an accent, if you don’t say the o e u sounds right—which are really alien to me because they don’t exist in Italian—they kind of break your balls. It’s more difficult in those movies. I’ve done period movies with very old French, spoken French, and I had a bit of pressure in those. But, I guess it’s a challenge, and I love challenges. English is a lot easier. And Italian—unfortunately I haven’t shot a movie in Italian for more than ten years!
EA:
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking—it’s been a really long time.
AA:
Yeah, it’s crazy, really. I mean, it would be a lot easier but maybe my life was not designed to be the easy path.
EA:
You’re living in Italy now, though right?
AA:
Yes, I do.
EA:
But you don’t work there as much I guess.
AA:
No, unfortunately. I mean, unfortunately just for logistics. At the same time, the cinema that is created in this country is so regional, it’s so boring, that maybe I’m not right for it. So I was designed to travel the world and be a gypsy. And not be a prophet in my own country.
EA:
I think it’s interesting that that’s your perception of Italian cinema. I’m sure you know that at least in America there’s still a really reverential stance towards the idea of what Italian Cinema is. But I’ve heard you and other Italian artists before talk about their own cinema not living up to this great, high art that it once was. Is that the way you see it?
AA:
Yes—it used to be great, but all those “inis”—the Pasolinis, the Fellinis, the Rossellinis—they’re all dead. And now we have the stupid romantic comedies, or those kind of teenage movies, I mean--- really embarrassing. They don’t even go out to France. They’re really just an Italian phenomenon. And they have no chance to go abroad.
EA:
Seeing as you haven’t shot a film in Italian for a while, do you personally feel still really rooted in Italy or at this point do you—you said a gypsy—do you feel more like that, like a nomad? Or are there aspects of your personality or character that you see as distinctively Italian… or is there such a thing. What do you think about that?
AA:
Well, maybe. I love my family. And I do love my country. As far as food and the quality of life and nature… where it’s not rotting with trash everywhere, like in Naples. Politically, I’m not connected. Culturally, there’s a few artists, sculptors maybe, architects… but very few. For the rest? It’s a beautiful country, you know, maybe to retire to, maybe better than Florida?
EA:
You lived in Los Angeles for a bit, right? After XXX?
AA:
It was after XXX, because I was preparing my movie [The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things] and then I did a few other things and when the movie was done I came back to live here because I have a little daughter, and I also wanted her to grow up in this country, to be close to my family and have them be close to her. I have a very strong family… idea. Ideal, actually. Because in reality, I don’t know if the ideal is as real as my idea, but I like the idea of family, and it’s very strong in me.
EA:
Do you think you’ve passed that along to your daughter, that close connection and that strong sense of family?
AA:
Hmm. We’re a very small family. We’re very close together but I don’t know, she’s small… maybe she’ll have her rebellious years but I think it’s important to have a strong place of origin.
EA:
It seems at least from the outside, or from over here that your personal life and comings and goings are really scrutinized in Italy. Has that gotten better or worse the more established you’ve gotten as an independent identity from your father?
AA:
Well, I live in the suburbs outside of Rome so I don’t know what they know about my life really, because my life is really very simple. It happens in my little neighborhood. I have no friends, I don’t mingle so...
EA:
So they’re inventing an image of you..
AA:
Well no, it’s an image they get from the movies I shoot. You know they think I am the characters that I play, they can’t get that I need to shoot this character, I need this character to escape my fragility and… I’m very shy. It’s easier for them to think I am like this character. Then they don’t need to decode. But it’s a lost battle. I don’t feel like there’s anything I can do to change their opinion. And for the rest of my life here [in Italy] I will be regarded as a “dark lady”. Like, who knows what they think I do?! It’s very frustrating. But I’m sick of justifying myself and I’m not the person that I am onscreen.
EA:
Did you ever want to do something to just completely defy that? Like, I don’t know, a children’s movie or something outrageously different?
AA:
I don’t know if I’ll be given the opportunity at this point. Not in Italy. But, at the same time, when you try to do something to prove something, and it’s not sincere… it’s really meaningless. But if it’s something I believe in, I won’t do it for them, I’ll do it for me.
EA:
What’s something about you that’s not dark at all, that might surprise people who have that perception of you? Like an interest or some passion—
AA:
I like cooking!
EA:
What kind of stuff do you like to cook?
AA:
Well, Italian food, everything. I love to cook, it’s one of my favorite things in the world. I cook every day. Lunch and dinner. At home. And it’s something that I do that’s like a Zen exercise. Like any good Italian mamma. [Both laugh]
EA:
Does your daughter cook with you?
AA:
Yeah! Well, she’s really little but yeah, she loves to do cakes. Which I don’t particularly eat, but, she loves to do cakes mostly. But she loves to help, yes. My mother was not a cook, but she became one.
EA:
Who was the cook in your family that you learned from?
AA:
I started when I was very little, but alone, I had books. I always admired people who had this gift, because it’s a gift of love, really, when you do something with love and give it to other people, who eat out of this love… that’s a very maternal feeling. Nurturing.
EA:
What’s the food like on movie sets?
AA:
I remember I used to cook on sets. While shooting XXX I used to cook for Vin [Diesel]… Pasta Bolognese! He loved it. That was funny because in Prague the food was not the best. And then on film sets I eat whatever I get. I don’t care, I’m not somebody who, unless I’m cooking, I’m no sot picky. I’m not macrobiotic, I’m not vegetarian, so on film sets you get what you get. The French though… the French are obsessed with their food. I guess the Americans too on big studio movies. In Italy, strangely enough, the food on film sets is terrible.
EA:
That’s surprising.
AA:
It’s like in cardboard boxes with gluey pasta. Gooey pasta. Not fun.
EA:
I have food on the brain, I guess, but how was the food in Hong Kong?
AA:
Oh yeah I loved the food in Hong Kong! The French were complaining but me and Olivier were like, “Oh my god! I could keep eating this for years! Every day.” I love the food. Usually we would have a little break and go and Eat in any restaurant that was close by. You might have had the feeling that it was a little dirty but it tasted great.
EA:
Yeah, sometimes that’s the best. Street food. Did your daughter come with you?
AA:
Well, she used to travel more but now I try to work less during the year when she goes to school and take movies mostly in the summer. But what I’m shooting a movie like that that’s low budget, I don’t even have a caravan where she could go an relax, it’s really difficult so my mother helps me when I have to shoot a movie like that.
EA:
What else… I know that you DJ. Is that a creative act for you, or like just a release? What’s your relationship with music like in that way?
AA:
I’ve always been obsessed with music. I would have friends come over one by one and I thought I knew more or less what they liked. I liked all sorts of music really, mostly strange and hard to find music, obscure music. And I would share it with them; it was my greatest joy. It’s kind of like cooking! Then I started doing DJing in clubs. It’s great because I didn’t like going to clubs or anything like that because I didn’t like the music, or maybe I liked one or two songs and I didn’t like the fact that all these people I knew were pushed around. So it was perfect because I could listen to the music I liked really, really loud, and then not be with the others. I was protected by the turntables. It’s a good feeling. And you feel like you’re sharing, without feeling like you have to pretend to do conversations that are pointless.
EA:
What kind of stuff do you like to play? Is there something right now that you like a lot?
AA:
I do different nights. I do a punk and heavy metal night in Rome that I enjoy a lot. But they never want this show. I do Electro; really, really hard Electro music, or sometimes my favorite is when I can play whatever I want. I can do this mostly at like fashion shows, or other stuff like in museums, where I can play like Garage music from the ‘60s, or the strangest music you could think of. Anything, really.
EA:
What’s the music scene in Italy right now?
AA:
Nothing. Really. It’s really embarrassing, Italian music is… you don’t want to know.
EA:
Ok! What’s next for you?
AA:
I’m shooting a movie right now but it’s a few days work for a French movie with Gerard Depardieu. And then I have some great projects in the autumn, which still haven’t been announced so I can’t say, but it’s something really amazing with one my favorite directors in the world. Obviously talking about like an auteur, not like a commercial movie. But it’s something really incredible. But that will be later on.
EA:
Back to Boarding Gate: That last shot is really striking. It reminded me, in a strange way of Le Notti di Cabiria [Fellini’s The Nights of Cabiria]! She reminds me of Cabiria a lot. I mean Cabiria has a sort of optimism that Sandra maybe doesn’t have, but in the same way they’re both in this seedy world and they keep on going--she’s going to keep marching and keep on going.
AA:
Yes! Exactly. That’s exactly how I feel too. At the end of the day she will keep on going.
EA:
I don’t know if you look at characters this way, do you imagine some sort of happy future for Sandra or some kind of resolution for her?
AA:
Happy in the sense that I don’t think she’ll be magically saved. She has to live with a lot. Too much for most people to live with. But in some way she will keep on going. And she will keep on doing exactly what she did. Sad and happy at the same time.
EA:
Do you feel personally and professionally at a happy place in your life?
AA:
Yes, Absolutely. Really, in the best place I’ve ever been. Very detached, and I don’t have so much rage as I did growing up. I think the rebellious years have finished and there’s a huge relief in that.
EA:
Any more tattoos in your future?
AA:
No, no. I don’t think so.
EA:
When you look at them what do you think? Do they remind you of the state of mind you were in? No regrets, I’m assuming.
AA:
No, no regret. They are parts of me, but at the same time maybe they remind me too much of the person I’ve been, but I guess I’m grateful to that person because they took me to where I am. And at the same time I think I have plenty for a few lifetimes.
EA:
Sure. What would you say if your daughter wanted to get tattoos?
AA:
I’d tell her what my mother told me. Which was, “What are you going to do if you have to play a countess!”
EA:
What happens though, I mean they just cover them up?
AA:
Well, nowadays it’s a lot easier. I did play the countess, or a few countesses and some old nobility here and there. But nowadays you can cover them up. But it’s a pain in the ass, I’ll tell you that, to sit on that makeup chair for an extra hour. That ain’t so much fun.
EA:
Well, that’s about it on my end. Grazie!
AA:
Thank you! Bye.
EA:
Bye!

Check out Emily Altman's member page on SG: Zampaglione

Boarding Gate hits theaters March 21. For more information on Boarding Gate go to the film's official site.
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