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Asia Argento - Biography |
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Asia Argento was born in Rome, Italy
on September 20th, 1975, to renowned Italian horror film director Dario
Argento (the son of producer Salvatore Argento) and his companion, actress
Daria Nicolodi.
It was fitting that Asia, who would go on to lead a life that could only
be described as unique, would find herself immediately positioned counter
to the status quo: the city's registry office refused to acknowledge
"Asia" as an appropriate name, and instead officially inscribed her as
Aria Argento.
Nevertheless, Asia retained the name that her parents had chosen for her,
and embarked on a lifestyle of eccentricity and privilege that comes with
growing up in the entertainment industry. For three days following her
birth, her parents projected Gone with the Wind on the living room wall.
As Asia grew older, she was gradually exposed to other genres of film,
notably her father's slasher movies, beginning when she was six years old
with a viewing of Deep Red -- a film which, incidentally, starred her
mother. It wasn't long before the Argento household was hosting horror
screenings for the neighborhood kids, the popularity of which increased
after the Argentos became the first owners of a Betamax player in all of
Italy.
Given her lineage and environment, it seemed natural that the young Asia
be predisposed to pursuing a profession in entertainment. At the age of
nine, she began following in her mother's footsteps, making her debut
acting performance in Sergio Citti's Sogni e bisogni.
In 1989, she was cast in the leading role in Cristina Comencini's Zoo, for
which she earned an Italian Ciak Award -- the rough equivalent of a Golden
Globe. In 1989, she appeared in La Chiesa, and later that same year she
played a part in Nanni Moretti's Palombella rossa.
Asia's breakthrough role came in 1992 with Le Amiche del cuore, a
performance that demonstrated her range and capacity to make the
transition from child actor to mature professional, capable of handling
complex roles. The movie was well received at the Cannes Film Festival and
by the industry community at large, including Dario Argento, who went on
to cast his daughter in 1993's Trauma, her English language debut. Asia
went on to act in two more of her father's films: 1996's La Sindrome di
Stendhal and 1998's Il Fantasma dell'opera.
Yet any suggestions that nepotism played a role in Asia's early successes
are quickly squashed by her list of awards. She received the David di
Donatello (Italy's response to Hollywood's Academy Award) for Best Actress
in 1994 for her performance in Perdiamoci di vista!, and again in 1996 for
Compagna di viaggio, which also earned her a Grolla d'oro Award. In 1998,
Asia began flaunting her talents to the West, appearing in the American
movies B. Monkey and New Rose Hotel, alongside Christopher Walken.
Asia has also proven her ability to work in multiple tongues, adding
French to the list of languages in which she has performed, with a role in
1994's La Reine Margot. That same year, she made her first foray into
directing, calling the shots behind the short films, Prospettive and A
ritroso. In 1996, she directed a documentary on her father, and in 1998 a
second one on Abel Ferrara, which won her the Rome Film Festival Award.
Her feature directorial debut came in 2000's Scarlet Diva, a film that she
also starred in.
While Asia is certainly a celebrity in her native country, the coverage
that the Italian press showers on her is not always favorable. She has
drawn criticism for her openness toward drug use and posing nude, as well
as the deeply erotic scenes she has performed in, particularly those that
her father has filmed.
In 2001, a great deal of attention was drawn to an alleged hit-and-run
that Asia was involved in, and her position in this incident wasn't helped
by the fact that a bottle of absinthe was found in her car (the liqueur
was to be used as a prop in a music video that Asia was directing).
In June of 2001, Asia gave birth to her first child, Anna Lou. The father
is musician Marco Castoldi ("Morgan") from the Italian band Bluvertigo.
In addition to her accomplishments in the world of film, Asia has written
a number of stories for magazines such as Dynamo and L'Espresso, while her
first novel, titled I Love You Kirk, was published in Italy in 1999. |
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Asia Argento - Personal Quotes |
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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 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 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."
"In a way, when you talk so much about something, it does not belong
to you any more. It's happened to me and my bad memories. I've
manipulated them and now they could be parts of Gone With the Wind."
"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 LA 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". |
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Asia Argento - Filmography |
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Coin Locker Babies (2008)
Désengagement (2007) (filming)
... aka Disengagement (International: English title)
... aka Disimpegno (Italy)
... aka Hitnatkoot (Israel: Hebrew title)
Terza madre, La (2007) (post-production) .... Sarah Mandy
... aka The Third Mother (International: English title)
Go Go Tales (2007) (post-production) .... Monroe
Boarding Gate (2007) (completed) .... Sandra
Une vieille maitresse (2007)
Transylvania (2006) .... Zingarina
Marie Antoinette (2006) .... Comtesse du Barry
... aka Marie Antoinette (France)
Live Freaky Die Freaky (2006) (voice) .... Habagail Folger
Land of the Dead (2005) .... Slack
... aka George A. Romero's Land of the Dead (USA: complete title)
... aka Land of the Dead - Le territoire des morts (France)
... aka Terre des morts, La (Canada: French title)
Cindy: The Doll Is Mine (2005) .... Cindy Sherman/The model
Last Days (2005) .... Asia
Milady (2004) (TV) .... Sally La Chèvre
The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004) .... Sarah
... aka Livre de Jérémie, Le (France)
The Keeper (2004) .... Gina
Starring (2003)
Ginostra (2002) .... The nun
xXx (2002) .... Yelena
... aka Triple X (USA: informal English title)
Sirène rouge, La (2002) .... Anita
... aka The Red Siren (USA: DVD title)
Morsures de l'aube, Les (2001) .... Violaine Charlier
... aka Love Bites (International: English title)
Assenzio, L' (2001)
Loredasia (2000)
"Misérables, Les" (2000) (mini) TV Series .... Éponine Thénardier
... aka Misérables - Gefangene des Schicksals, Les (Germany)
... aka Miserables, Los (Spain)
Scarlet Diva (2000) .... Anna Battista
Tua lingua sul mio cuore, La (1999)
Fantasma dell'opera, Il (1998) .... Christine Daaé
... aka Dario Argento's The Phantom of the Opera (UK: video title)
... aka Phantom of the Opera (USA: video box title)
... aka The Phantom of the Opera (USA)
B. Monkey (1998) .... Beatrice
... aka B. Monkey - una donna da salvare (Italy)
New Rose Hotel (1998) .... Sandii
Viola bacia tutti (1998) .... Viola
... aka Viola Kisses Everybody (USA)
Sindrome di Stendhal, La (1996) .... Det. Anna Manni
... aka Stendhal's Syndrome
... aka The Stendhal Syndrome
Compagna di viaggio (1996) .... Cora
... aka Traveling Companion (USA)
Cielo è sempre più blu, Il (1995) .... Cousin
... aka Bits and Pieces
Reine Margot, La (1994) .... Charlotte of Sauve
... aka Bartholomäusnacht, Die (Germany)
... aka Queen Margot (USA)
... aka Regina Margot, La (Italy)
Perdiamoci di vista! (1994) .... Arianna
... aka Let's Not Keep in Touch
DeGenerazione (1994) .... Lorna
Trauma (1993) .... Aura Petrescu
... aka Dario Argento's Trauma (USA: complete title)
Condannato a nozze (1993) .... Olivia
... aka Condemned to Wed
Amiche del cuore, Le (1992) .... Simona
... aka Close Friends
Palombella rossa (1989) .... Valentina
... aka Palombella rossa (France)
... aka Red Wood Pigeon (USA)
Chiesa, La (1989) .... Lotte
... aka Cathedral of Demons
... aka Demon Cathedral
... aka Demons 3
... aka In the Land of the Demons
... aka The Church
Zoo (1989) .... Martina
"Turno di notte" (1 episode, 1987)
- Giallo Natale (1987) TV Episode
Demoni 2 (1986) .... Ingrid Haller
... aka Demoni 2: L'incubo ritorna
... aka Demons 2 (USA)
... aka Demons 2: The Nightmare Is Back (USA)
... aka Demons 2: The Nightmare Returns (USA: video title)
"Sogni e bisogni" (1985) (mini) TV Series .... Giada |
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Asia Argento - Related Links |
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Wikipedia: Asia Argento
YouTube: Asia Argento
Asia Argento at Babemania.com
Top Celebrities Sites:
The Celebrity
Cafe |
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