Asia Argento has created a heartbreaking film called The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things. It is based on the novel of the same name by JT Leroy and Asia stars in it as Sarah the teenage mother who comes back after four years to take back her son Jeremiah from his foster parents. She and Jeremiah crisscross the country while Sarah continues to use hard drugs and introduced Jeremiah to abusive boyfriends. Jeremiah must strive to pull himself out of what his mother has dragged him into.
Asia is best known as the daughter of horror film auteur Dario Argento and actress Daria Nicolodi. Asia became an actor early in her life and eventually became acclaimed in B. Monkey and a few of her fathers works. In 2000 Asia wrote, directed and starred in the film Scarlet Diva.
Go to the official website for The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things
Daniel Robert Epstein: How did you find the novel in the first place?
Asia Argento: The publishing company in Italy contacted to do a reading. I had read the previous book Sarah before. I immediately thought of a film when I read it.
DRE: Did you see yourself in it?
AA: No. I saw these characters, I saw the landscapes, the light, everything. I saw a film that resembles very much the way the film came out.
DRE: You come from a family with a lot of insanity in it except you are all artists. Were you able to relate to the story on that level?
AA: Well my familys not like that. But my upbringing was very problematic and I didnt have a happy childhood. I wouldnt go back to my childhood for anything. What saved me was the work. I started working very young and thats what saved me and made me more confident. I learned to love myself a whole lot through my work. Misfits are often artistic because it seems that instead of going to a shrink, they work. Thats what I did and I think I felt sorry for my character. At first I hated her when I read the book but the more I studied the character, I found that I couldnt demonize her. I could judge her actions and think its wrong but at the same time I wondered why she is like that. What happened to her and made her like this? So I demonized more the society we live in that abandons a 14 year old girl. We think all women have mothers instinct but what if one doesnt have it? Sarah didnt, so she did what she could with where she came from and her tools.
DRE: She seemed very human and real. How did you approach playing this character?
AA: A lot of it was from the book because since I thought it was somebodys real story I wanted to be very careful not to change it so much. But the character had a life of its own. At first I thought I wouldnt be so affected by playing this character. Ive acted all my life so I thought I could create characters and then go back to my life. But all the time I spent with this character, researched this character and living with this character sucked away my life. Not that I became Sarah, but it was creating these emotions in me and then playing them creates some chemicals in my body that made me crazy. I always say Sarah directed this film. The film would have been very different if I didnt act in it because a lot of things the crazy things in it that Im proud of came about because at the moment I was so crazy.
DRE: I read that you knew JT Leroy was actually this other person.
AA: I didnt know until the New York Times article came out. I suspected something because Laura Albert was always present. Twice I was alone with JT, who I know now is Savannah [Knoop], and I had the impression that maybe she was a girl. But I wasnt sure of that. It was pretty shocking when I found out.
DRE: Did it disappoint you?
AA: No. First of all, Im happy this didnt happen to somebody. Even though Im sure it has all happened to someone. I hold no grudge because I thought it was genius what Laura Albert did. Unfortunately in this male dominated world if it had been Laura Albert who had written this book, we wouldnt have cared as much. I had to ask myself a lot of questions why I wanted to believe this so much. I dont need to believe works are autobiographies even if they are. Why do people need to believe that my first film, [Scarlet Diva] is autobiographical, when its not. Nothing is true in anything we read, even newspapers.
DRE: The scene in The Heart that was most bizarre is when Jeremiah seduces your characters boyfriend in drag with you playing Jeremiah.
AA: Thats a cinematic trick. I wrote it like that. When my best friend Gaspar No read the script, he said Im not sure about that scene. Then when he saw it, he was like, Thats like the most disturbing scene Ive ever seen. He thought it was his favorite scene in the film. I could have never shot that scene with a kid, so it was because of necessity but at the same time it turned into my favorite because its one of those cinematic tricks that you remember.
DRE: What made you decide to go with animation for the birds in the film?
AA: The crows symbolize violence. Its something that the child creates to accept the horror hes living so it becomes a kind of cartoon. He is a boy that has never seen a cartoon so I imagined this very old school animation. I didnt want to make it modern, computer generated image so I [animator] Christiane Cegavske shot that for two months in my garage. I found Christiane on the Internet. I saw this small clip she did and it looked exactly how I wanted the scenes to be. I gave her complete freedom but I was observing while she worked in my garage.
DRE: Unleike Scarlet Diva, The Heart doesnt have any nude scenes in it.
AA: With the children and all that, I didnt feel the necessity to have that in this film.
DRE: How did you cast The Sprouse Twins?
AA: When I wrote the script, I never thought I would find young actors to play this role. I interviewed Dylan first and he blew my mind. He was so wise, so profound. He moved me. Both were two of the most profound and deep people Ive met in my life. Such great professional actors, a lot of older actors could learn from these kids. I learned a lot from them.
DRE: Like what?
AA: They just do it. When they have to cry, they just cry. They dont take it all apart.
DRE: What is the English translation of the Catherine Breillat film you are in?
AA: Une vieille maitresse, An Old Mistress.
DRE: What do you play in that?
AA: I play the mistress. Its a costume movie but its not as pornographic as her other films. Shes a woman director that I look up to a lot. Without her movie, Romance, Scarlet Diva never would have never existed. She opened the door for me. Shes somebody who freed a lot of women sexually through her movies.
DRE: Youre also in Sofia Coppolas next movie, are you making a conscious decision to work with female directors?
AA: No. They ask me to work. Usually its not the actor that decides, its the director. So its them that are calling me and I say yes. Ive been lucky because I havent worked with a lot of female directors before. Sofia is somebody whos completely different to me as a director. On set I am pretty crazy, a pretty nervous type, not very kind, not very calm. Shes the opposite. Shes very calm, very kind, very relaxed, keeps it together without going crazy like I do. Shes able to have kind conversations, detached but at the same time brilliant. I look up to that, I wish I was like that.
DRE: Since you both come from big filmmaking families, did you find that you and her have a lot of in common?
AA: Not at all [laughs]. But thats great. I love that most people are often completely different from me.
DRE: Im sure after xXx you got offered a lot of movies like that. Did you not want to do them or were you too busy?
AA: I was lucky that after xXx I found The Heart book and making the film became my most important goal in life. So because I was loyal to this film, I didnt take any acting jobs for a long time. I got a lot of offers for action movies and kick ass chick roles. But I couldnt do it because of my film. I just missed that train, which is a lucky thing because my career could have taken a totally different direction. Now Ive been doing a lot of great and demanding roles and I could have just become a chick with a gun.
DRE: Do you want to keep acting or just direct?
AA: I think after directing this last movie I appreciate acting a lot more because I asked so much of myself and I learned that acting can be creative. I always thought acting was just showing up on the set and not a lot is required from actors. Then I worked with this French director Tony Gatlif [on Transylvania] and that was the best experience I ever had as an actress. We did a movie in Romania with gypsies. It was very tough and I started appreciating acting again.
DRE: Whats a typical day like for you in Rome?
AA: I dont leave the apartment very much. My daughter goes to school and I sleep while she is there because I work at night. When she comes back from school I stay with her for the rest of the day and then at night I read, I listen to music or whatever. So I barely leave my apartment unless I am DJing. I would never go to a club unless Im DJing.
DRE: Even though you had an unhappy childhood, do you get along with your parents now?
AA: My mother is present; my father is not very present in my life. But he wasnt mean to me as a child, he was just absent. Everyone has a parent that sucks. I never heard somebody say that they had a great childhood.
DRE: I got to speak to John Roecker about Live Freaky Die Freaky. He said that when you read the script you were like, I know Roman and I dont know if I can do this.
AA: I dont know Roman, its just that I love him so much. Hes my favorite director and the only director Im obsessed with. Actually the only time in my life I was star struck is when I met him. I was all wobbly. Hes somebody I really look up to and I imagine what he must have suffered so I didnt want to upset him.
DRE: But you understood where John was coming from with the film?
AA: Yes, I thought it was fun and very beautiful.
DRE: Would you say disturbing movies are the genre you like to work in the most?
AA: Well I have no idea what Im going to do next. I never plan for them to be disturbing but they turn out to be like that. I must be a disturbed person because thats what intrigues me.
DRE: What disturbs you?
AA: There are things that disturb me but also intrigue me like abuse against children. It was almost an ethical reason to make a movie about it. I watch movies that talk about child abuse in such a sweetened, unrealistic, moralistic way and I wanted to make a film that would make people think about it. As opposed to things like Walt Disney, where the mean guy dies or theres redemption. Real life is not like that.
DRE: You are considered quite the sex symbol; did you see that as a means to an end at one point?
AA: I grew up with people telling me I was very ugly and awkward and then when I grew up all of a sudden it changed. I started making movies and people started thinking that I was pretty which didnt make sense to me. Then photographers started asking, why dont you take your clothes off, expose your tits. I was very flattered with people thinking that I was pretty and its funny for somebody like me who is very intellectual me to become this sex symbol. Its really the opposite of what I am. Through it I am able to live a part of myself that would never come out in life if I didnt have the chance to invent this sexy bitch from hell persona. Its a way for me to deal with the world. People think Im stronger than I am. I make them think that so thats what helps me go out of my apartment every day.
DRE: When was the last time you got a tattoo?
AA: I got this cross on my left arm last summer. I was on vacation and this tattoo artist said to me Please can I give you a tattoo, its so important for me. I can put it on my website. He was so gentle, I was like Sure, can you just do a line like this and a line like that? Also I love jail tattoos. My newest jail tattoo is one done in my handwriting. I disappoint the tattoo artists all the time because I want to just want jail tattoos. But I decided that Im going to continue the angel that stops on my bush. I want to continue it down and maybe on the side. Maybe make it into a mermaid. I contacted Leu the famous Swiss tattoo artist. For the first time Im going to have a really great tattoo artist, because all my tattoos were done randomly.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Asia is best known as the daughter of horror film auteur Dario Argento and actress Daria Nicolodi. Asia became an actor early in her life and eventually became acclaimed in B. Monkey and a few of her fathers works. In 2000 Asia wrote, directed and starred in the film Scarlet Diva.
Go to the official website for The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things
Daniel Robert Epstein: How did you find the novel in the first place?
Asia Argento: The publishing company in Italy contacted to do a reading. I had read the previous book Sarah before. I immediately thought of a film when I read it.
DRE: Did you see yourself in it?
AA: No. I saw these characters, I saw the landscapes, the light, everything. I saw a film that resembles very much the way the film came out.
DRE: You come from a family with a lot of insanity in it except you are all artists. Were you able to relate to the story on that level?
AA: Well my familys not like that. But my upbringing was very problematic and I didnt have a happy childhood. I wouldnt go back to my childhood for anything. What saved me was the work. I started working very young and thats what saved me and made me more confident. I learned to love myself a whole lot through my work. Misfits are often artistic because it seems that instead of going to a shrink, they work. Thats what I did and I think I felt sorry for my character. At first I hated her when I read the book but the more I studied the character, I found that I couldnt demonize her. I could judge her actions and think its wrong but at the same time I wondered why she is like that. What happened to her and made her like this? So I demonized more the society we live in that abandons a 14 year old girl. We think all women have mothers instinct but what if one doesnt have it? Sarah didnt, so she did what she could with where she came from and her tools.
DRE: She seemed very human and real. How did you approach playing this character?
AA: A lot of it was from the book because since I thought it was somebodys real story I wanted to be very careful not to change it so much. But the character had a life of its own. At first I thought I wouldnt be so affected by playing this character. Ive acted all my life so I thought I could create characters and then go back to my life. But all the time I spent with this character, researched this character and living with this character sucked away my life. Not that I became Sarah, but it was creating these emotions in me and then playing them creates some chemicals in my body that made me crazy. I always say Sarah directed this film. The film would have been very different if I didnt act in it because a lot of things the crazy things in it that Im proud of came about because at the moment I was so crazy.
DRE: I read that you knew JT Leroy was actually this other person.
AA: I didnt know until the New York Times article came out. I suspected something because Laura Albert was always present. Twice I was alone with JT, who I know now is Savannah [Knoop], and I had the impression that maybe she was a girl. But I wasnt sure of that. It was pretty shocking when I found out.
DRE: Did it disappoint you?
AA: No. First of all, Im happy this didnt happen to somebody. Even though Im sure it has all happened to someone. I hold no grudge because I thought it was genius what Laura Albert did. Unfortunately in this male dominated world if it had been Laura Albert who had written this book, we wouldnt have cared as much. I had to ask myself a lot of questions why I wanted to believe this so much. I dont need to believe works are autobiographies even if they are. Why do people need to believe that my first film, [Scarlet Diva] is autobiographical, when its not. Nothing is true in anything we read, even newspapers.
DRE: The scene in The Heart that was most bizarre is when Jeremiah seduces your characters boyfriend in drag with you playing Jeremiah.
AA: Thats a cinematic trick. I wrote it like that. When my best friend Gaspar No read the script, he said Im not sure about that scene. Then when he saw it, he was like, Thats like the most disturbing scene Ive ever seen. He thought it was his favorite scene in the film. I could have never shot that scene with a kid, so it was because of necessity but at the same time it turned into my favorite because its one of those cinematic tricks that you remember.
DRE: What made you decide to go with animation for the birds in the film?
AA: The crows symbolize violence. Its something that the child creates to accept the horror hes living so it becomes a kind of cartoon. He is a boy that has never seen a cartoon so I imagined this very old school animation. I didnt want to make it modern, computer generated image so I [animator] Christiane Cegavske shot that for two months in my garage. I found Christiane on the Internet. I saw this small clip she did and it looked exactly how I wanted the scenes to be. I gave her complete freedom but I was observing while she worked in my garage.
DRE: Unleike Scarlet Diva, The Heart doesnt have any nude scenes in it.
AA: With the children and all that, I didnt feel the necessity to have that in this film.
DRE: How did you cast The Sprouse Twins?
AA: When I wrote the script, I never thought I would find young actors to play this role. I interviewed Dylan first and he blew my mind. He was so wise, so profound. He moved me. Both were two of the most profound and deep people Ive met in my life. Such great professional actors, a lot of older actors could learn from these kids. I learned a lot from them.
DRE: Like what?
AA: They just do it. When they have to cry, they just cry. They dont take it all apart.
DRE: What is the English translation of the Catherine Breillat film you are in?
AA: Une vieille maitresse, An Old Mistress.
DRE: What do you play in that?
AA: I play the mistress. Its a costume movie but its not as pornographic as her other films. Shes a woman director that I look up to a lot. Without her movie, Romance, Scarlet Diva never would have never existed. She opened the door for me. Shes somebody who freed a lot of women sexually through her movies.
DRE: Youre also in Sofia Coppolas next movie, are you making a conscious decision to work with female directors?
AA: No. They ask me to work. Usually its not the actor that decides, its the director. So its them that are calling me and I say yes. Ive been lucky because I havent worked with a lot of female directors before. Sofia is somebody whos completely different to me as a director. On set I am pretty crazy, a pretty nervous type, not very kind, not very calm. Shes the opposite. Shes very calm, very kind, very relaxed, keeps it together without going crazy like I do. Shes able to have kind conversations, detached but at the same time brilliant. I look up to that, I wish I was like that.
DRE: Since you both come from big filmmaking families, did you find that you and her have a lot of in common?
AA: Not at all [laughs]. But thats great. I love that most people are often completely different from me.
DRE: Im sure after xXx you got offered a lot of movies like that. Did you not want to do them or were you too busy?
AA: I was lucky that after xXx I found The Heart book and making the film became my most important goal in life. So because I was loyal to this film, I didnt take any acting jobs for a long time. I got a lot of offers for action movies and kick ass chick roles. But I couldnt do it because of my film. I just missed that train, which is a lucky thing because my career could have taken a totally different direction. Now Ive been doing a lot of great and demanding roles and I could have just become a chick with a gun.
DRE: Do you want to keep acting or just direct?
AA: I think after directing this last movie I appreciate acting a lot more because I asked so much of myself and I learned that acting can be creative. I always thought acting was just showing up on the set and not a lot is required from actors. Then I worked with this French director Tony Gatlif [on Transylvania] and that was the best experience I ever had as an actress. We did a movie in Romania with gypsies. It was very tough and I started appreciating acting again.
DRE: Whats a typical day like for you in Rome?
AA: I dont leave the apartment very much. My daughter goes to school and I sleep while she is there because I work at night. When she comes back from school I stay with her for the rest of the day and then at night I read, I listen to music or whatever. So I barely leave my apartment unless I am DJing. I would never go to a club unless Im DJing.
DRE: Even though you had an unhappy childhood, do you get along with your parents now?
AA: My mother is present; my father is not very present in my life. But he wasnt mean to me as a child, he was just absent. Everyone has a parent that sucks. I never heard somebody say that they had a great childhood.
DRE: I got to speak to John Roecker about Live Freaky Die Freaky. He said that when you read the script you were like, I know Roman and I dont know if I can do this.
AA: I dont know Roman, its just that I love him so much. Hes my favorite director and the only director Im obsessed with. Actually the only time in my life I was star struck is when I met him. I was all wobbly. Hes somebody I really look up to and I imagine what he must have suffered so I didnt want to upset him.
DRE: But you understood where John was coming from with the film?
AA: Yes, I thought it was fun and very beautiful.
DRE: Would you say disturbing movies are the genre you like to work in the most?
AA: Well I have no idea what Im going to do next. I never plan for them to be disturbing but they turn out to be like that. I must be a disturbed person because thats what intrigues me.
DRE: What disturbs you?
AA: There are things that disturb me but also intrigue me like abuse against children. It was almost an ethical reason to make a movie about it. I watch movies that talk about child abuse in such a sweetened, unrealistic, moralistic way and I wanted to make a film that would make people think about it. As opposed to things like Walt Disney, where the mean guy dies or theres redemption. Real life is not like that.
DRE: You are considered quite the sex symbol; did you see that as a means to an end at one point?
AA: I grew up with people telling me I was very ugly and awkward and then when I grew up all of a sudden it changed. I started making movies and people started thinking that I was pretty which didnt make sense to me. Then photographers started asking, why dont you take your clothes off, expose your tits. I was very flattered with people thinking that I was pretty and its funny for somebody like me who is very intellectual me to become this sex symbol. Its really the opposite of what I am. Through it I am able to live a part of myself that would never come out in life if I didnt have the chance to invent this sexy bitch from hell persona. Its a way for me to deal with the world. People think Im stronger than I am. I make them think that so thats what helps me go out of my apartment every day.
DRE: When was the last time you got a tattoo?
AA: I got this cross on my left arm last summer. I was on vacation and this tattoo artist said to me Please can I give you a tattoo, its so important for me. I can put it on my website. He was so gentle, I was like Sure, can you just do a line like this and a line like that? Also I love jail tattoos. My newest jail tattoo is one done in my handwriting. I disappoint the tattoo artists all the time because I want to just want jail tattoos. But I decided that Im going to continue the angel that stops on my bush. I want to continue it down and maybe on the side. Maybe make it into a mermaid. I contacted Leu the famous Swiss tattoo artist. For the first time Im going to have a really great tattoo artist, because all my tattoos were done randomly.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 18 of 18 COMMENTS
insektmute:
Asia and Dario both kick serious ass, though for very different reasons 
lauretta:
I love Asia, she makes me proud of being italian