- During the shooting of my directorial debut, I must never let myself go to any goliardery, even if I might think I am missing some fun, never mingle with the rest of the crew, because they are actors while I am the mirth of a rickety poem. They are solo artists, virtuosos - but I am the orchestra, the strings carpet where everybody has to lay. They are the public, while I am tonight's special event. I allow them to be instantly well-liked, but I must remain rigorous to reveal my eyes, I have to act out the things that never happen. When I think of my film, I don't take anything from the reality that I know, I suck only from the utopia/reality I would want to live. When I say my lines, the I have written for myself, I think about this, of a womb-like world where amniotic liquids protect me from injustices and the boogey man.
- [in answer to the question "How do you want to be remembered?"] As somebody who has done everything, but didn't know how to do anything.
- I want to be adopted by the French. I want to go to live in Paris. I want to live in a country where a guy like Gaspar Noé can direct his films without going to jail. I don't want to live in Italy, the country of the apes, and end up being an actress with an onion placed where I once had a heart, that instead of beating, it stinks.
- I care only about that. Almost only about cinema.
- Sometimes I think my father [director Dario Argento] gave me life because he needed a lead actress for his films.
- I have nothing in my life besides my work. I am obsessed with it. I leave my house only when I'm forced to. All my life, I have felt that what I did was wrong. But now when I work I feel good about it.
- The questions about my father [director Dario Argento] get less and less, and I'm relieved about that. No, I wasn't upset by the things he did to me in his films. I never thought of it like it was me doing it, because he would say, "It's only a movie," and I thought the same.
- [on the Harvey Weinstein-inspired scene in her feature debut Scarlet Diva (2000)] I was asked many times, 'Is that Harvey Weinstein?' I thought this had happened only to me. The cream, the massage, the room, the tricks - I didn't know this was Weinstein's modus operandi. [May 2018]
- I tend to be a lazy actress, unless I'm pushed. Most of the time nothing much is required of directors, which is a pity. I've worked with very few directors who've asked of me what I asked of myself.
- After xXx (2002) came out, because of all the publicity, I was wearing Prada and going to the gym, and I had an agent in L.A. and all this shit that I've avoided for years. I felt that was expected of me, that I had to be a sexy bombshell. I started receiving all these offers for these kick-ass chick sort of roles. But it didn't make me very happy, to tell the truth, and after giving birth, it all felt different. I don't mean to sound like a bourgeois moralist, but it's true--I started thinking, "What is Anna [her daughter] going to think?"
- 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 [Michael Radford's B. Monkey (1998)]. It was strange for me to have to research femininity, but I found out 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.
- In Italy people think I'm a cliché. The dark lady, the bitch from hell. All they can see is that I'm naked.
- Italy to me is like the mean mother. Whatever I do, it's never good enough. People say I'm the queen of Cannes, but in Italy I get turned down for work.
- Movies have saved my life and I'm so grateful. I'm so shy and weird that if I didn't find a place in the world through movies, I don't know what I would've become.
- [her full speech at the awards ceremony of the 71st Cannes Film Festival] I have a few words to say. In 1997, I was raped by Harvey Weinstein here at Cannes. I was 21 years old. This festival was his hunting ground. I want to make a prediction: Harvey Weinstein will never be welcomed here ever again. He will live in disgrace, shunned by a film community that once embraced him and covered up for his crimes. And even tonight, sitting among you, there are those who still have to be held accountable for their conduct against women. For behaviour that does not belong in this industry, does not belong in any industry or workplace. You know who you are. But most importantly, we know who you are. And we're not going to allow you to get away with it any longer ! [May 19, 2018]
- [2018, responding to Catherine Breillat's criticisms of her allegations against Harvey Weinstein] Catherine Breillat, the writer of Bilitis (1977), a film that rhapsodises child sex for rapist pedophile photographer David Hamilton, has no place in judging me. David Hamilton put a bag over his head and killed himself rather than face his accusers, six women who claimed he had raped and molested them as children. What does Catherine Breillat have to say about her former collaborator? Will she be so vocal and eager to defend him and denounce his accusers as she does with Weinstein? I am both sad and angered by these old school self proclaimed "feminists" and their lack of humanity in face of other women's suffering. The French ones have proved to be the worst. Catherine Breillat is the most sadistic and downright evil director I've ever worked with. Before shooting The Last Mistress (2007), Breillat had just suffered a stroke and none of us had the courage to stand up against her cruelties in fear she would have another one. She took advantage of this and treated us like shit, knowing we couldn't anger her. During the shoot I fell terribly ill and ended up at the hospital where I had to be operated. As I fought to stay alive with a terrible infection, she would come to visit me and tell me I would never work again because I made her stop shooting. There was a scene where I was strangling another actor; during the scene she wouldn't call CUT, so the main actor almost fainted and he took it on me. We got in a "fist fight" while Breillat sneered in the back.
- [On doing things to draw attention for Sirens of Cinema Magazine] It became a perversion... A perverted way of thinking. Not that I want to shock but I definitely do things so that people can love me or hate me but differently. They don't have to, but are forced to pay attention to me.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content