THE BEAUTY: Official Podcast Episode 7: Isabella Rossellini

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Welcome back to the Beauty official Podcast. I'm Evan Ross Katz, and I'm about to spontaneously combust for our next guest. I'm here with the iconic Oscar nominated international cinema star and true, timeless beauty Isabella Rossellini to chat about her role as the big pharma billionaire's wife in FX’s the Beauty.

Isabella, thank you so much for being here.

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: Oh, thank you for having me.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: I want to start by asking what drew you to this project. I get the sense that you are selective with the opportunities that come to you in terms of what you say yes to. So what gave this a yes?

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: Well, the first it was, I have to say, Ryan Murphy, because I am a fan of his work. And, he called me up on the phone and I was so amazed that the conversation was so easy. And when I read the script, it was a little bit like leaping into the void. But I did get the irony.

I think beauty is it. Probably you sit on your edge of your seat, is very suspenseful, is very adventurous, but is ultimately very funny.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Yes.

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: It very ironic.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Very much so. And when he was presenting the character of Frannie to you, what appealed to you about her?

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: I did like this idea of this woman who is very opinionated, is very, strong, and in a way, she does love beauty because she loves fashion, but she defines beauty in a different way. The others the other is is youth and muscles and physical beauty. And she defines instead as art the expression of your clothing, rather than not having wrinkles or looking younger.

So I like that because it's also a little bit me.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Well, it's interesting because obviously the show is about beauty, but I think that the show itself also brings about conversations, in real life based off of things seen on the show. And so I'm wondering how much did being a part of this show make you think about the concept of beauty and where we are as a society in terms of our views on what is beautiful, because I think it's obviously ever evolving

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: Yes. And it has become a never ending. You know, do you have to be young, you have to be thin. You have to be strong. So the demands are becoming very, very strong. And I think everybody feels a bit overwhelmed, by. But what to do? And I think that, Ryan captures that, excess that there is in our society.

And makes fun of it because where is the limit?

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Right.

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: And he's too hard to be wise, isn't it?

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Yeah.

How do you define beauty?

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: Well, maybe because I belong to an other generation, and, I'm European and my my mom's daughter, my mom, Ingrid Bergman. I defined it as, more like Fran. My character.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: I get that sense.

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: That it is is the art is the expression of elegance is in your mind. And how do you want to present yourself to the others? What do you say you want to communicate through clothes? Rather than, I'm just going to obey to the command of the youth and thinness. There are little bits of her in me.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Yeah, well, I wondering what role you think social media plays in all of this. You are on social media.

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: I grew up being the object. Although I was a daughter, I wasn't famous myself, but we were the object of attention and and criticism. And now I think it has become for everybody. Social media has created what I lived as a little girl. When you opt in social media, I think you started by saying, oh, I would like to be in touch with my friends.

And then the evil comes in because the friends are not the friends of people you don't know. And they say, oh, you look really old, you look older than your age. What? You lose some weight and then you just say, oh, you know, and that was, a comment that, growing up being the object of the gossip press and the paparazzi, my family was the object of their attention.

We had all the time. And, I think now everybody has it with social media, but I don't think. But also the good things about social media, I have to say.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Are you ever surprised at the conflation between beauty and youth? Because I can understand people's desire to be beautiful, whatever that means, because I think the idea of beauty is so subjective. But the kind of conflation I feel between beauty and youth and the obsession as beauty as defined by.

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: You, I think is more culturally. I mean, it's exist a little bit all over the world, but it's more extreme in America. I don't know why. Maybe it was always like that because America is such an energetic, country, controlled energy and associated with youth, right? But in Europe it's a little less like that. And I think when I was a little girl growing up in Italy and France, there was huge respect for all the people.

So I don't know if it was me, you know, that I was admiring the older people this beauty series is all about. That is about where is the boundaries, where is the what is good, what is bad, what? How do you define it? Because I think every day we are fighting with it within ourselves. We are fighting. Where are we?

How far do we go into doing a little bit more of it? Plastic surgery a little bit more, but at least change my hair color. Do I, do I do this too? And how far are we willing to go? Or are we saying, oh, this is bad for my health, the better stop.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Well, that's the interesting thing too, is how the conversation of health comes into the equation, right? Because there is a Venn diagram between beauty and health. Yeah. And so I think there are some instances in which we tell ourselves we're doing something for our health that maybe the byproduct might be okay, like, you know, for instance, I've got a deviated septum, so I'm going to have my nose done and maybe my nose will be a little straighter, you know?

So I think sometimes we tell ourselves under the guise of health, in order to kind of have the effect ultimately be beautiful.

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: Yes, you're right about that. So why didn't they do any plastic surgery? I mean, it's a very personal reason. I had a very big operation when I was a little girl, a scoliosis, which is deformity of the spine. And that completely terrified me about any operation. And so the idea to select, to do an operation, oh, that trauma, that was the last thing I wanted to do.

I rather be old and figure out what else to do. If they don't want me as a model anymore as an actress, rather than have an operation. So partially. Was that partially, I think is cultural? Again, my mom didn't have any and so I didn't think it was important to do it. Yeah.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: But what a marvelous thing. Because in in not doing this, you to me and to so many are a standard bearer of beauty.

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: But, you know, my career is doing better now that I'm in my 70s. And when I was younger and 35 and young and beautiful.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: So what's that about? You are beautiful.

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: Thank you. But I am so surprised I'm having a better career now than when I was younger. Beautiful as an actress.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: I wonder if there's something to in audiences appreciating rediscovery. And I think a lot about Ryan Murphy in this instance, and thinking about his work with Jessica Lange and Kathy Bates and how many.

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: He's definitely a film buff. Yeah, he's a very, very cultivated. And you really loves films. And these directions were all about fragment of film. It isn't even a narration of the film. He's a turn of an actress, a costume, a gesture, an attitude. It was fascinating because also when he gave me the instruction, I knew exactly what he was saying.

There is a scene where we are in a yacht, and, Ashton, who plays my husband, is in the swimming pool looking fabulous. And I get there on a deck above him and I lean over and I said, every night, I pray for your death. And he said, you do that in Evita Peron. And I do exactly what he talked about.

Because of course, in the musical, Evita Peron appears in the window, as she did in real life, talking to the adoring Argentinian and he was able to capture this iconic images. And maybe it's only our generation who has that culture, because two generation before everybody only read. But when you read, you can imagine things differently.

But when you see a film and you can quote a book, but he has it visually,

EVAN ROSS KATZ: He does.

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: Yeah.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: It's interesting. I mean, we're here today to talk about episode seven, so I don't want to give anything away. But there is, a great homage related to your character that happens in episode 11. And minor spoiler, but it has to do with the film Death Becomes Her. And I want to bring that up because I spoke to Ryan ahead of this interview today, and he told me that he saw Death Becomes Her in theaters four times.

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: He didn’t told me, never told me that.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Isn't that interesting? It's like she saw something in this film that has. I think it's fair to say it has a has had a slow burn trajectory in terms of its popularity. Yes. If you were to guess what it was that young Ryan saw in that film, what would it be?

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: Well, I don't know what Ryan saw, but I do know, the great, Robert Zemeckis who had done film before, like Roger Rabbit or Forrest Gump. He attracted families. You know, you could go with five year old in 85 year old to his movies. And so when we did, Death Becomes Her, I think the film was addressed to everybody.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: But I think that's a remarkably powerful thing about great art is that sometimes it finds its audience when it's meant to. And in that case, it's like it came into the world fully formed. And yet the audience for it was it had quite hadn't quite figured that out.

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: Yes.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: And then years and years later, you have people continuing to discover this movie and love it in a way that like time and place kind of thing, and it just needed to age a little bit.

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: I know. And yes, I am so happy about it. You know, I'm so surprised about it. And there is a musical that becomes a fantastic musical.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Yes. I want to ask just about when you look back on the experience, both those initial conversations with Ryan reading through those scripts, filming this show, what does this experience mean to you.

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: To leap into a world that it is much more popular or much more... It reaches a bigger audience, we think, but it has the same quality. I think it is a very artistic and I think the irony, the sense of humor, the originality I when I read the script, I don't think I've ever read anything like it. I, you know, I've seen anything like it.

It really is the same as working with David Lynch. It is avant garde in a very big popular way.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Yeah.

You know, there's a thought pattern you could have around sort of the uncertainty of like taking on something like this. And yet I really heartened by the fact that you kind of wanted to take the leap of faith and, and have this adventure. Is that is this just a quality about you? You like trying something,

new?

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: You know, that comes also with age because what is there to lose? You know, it's a great adventure. I mean, I always loved, Ryan Murphy's shows. So this one is quite different. I knew the quality and the talent was there, you know? So I just said yes.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Yeah.

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: Of course.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Lastly, I just want to ask, is there a particular moment on set that will really stay with you, a particular scene or a moment? It could be behind the scenes while filming.

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: I think it was working with Ashton, because you always knew that the chemistry, between us two had to define this couple, and I had not met him, and, I didn't I mean, I knew about him because he's a star, and he was so warm and so fun because I was so bitchy. You're the same dumpster with a fresh coat of paint.

You clown boy. You know, I'm so horrible. So it was

EVAN ROSS KATZ: the character.

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: The character. It's hard, you know, to be so insulting to a person. And he was so amused that it became fun to do it, because also, I think the character themself, deep down, they like it a little bit meso-sado masochistic.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Oh, absolutely.

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: And a little. And they love to torture each other and that's their bond.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: Yes.

Well, this has been anything but torturous. Thank you so much. This has been a true delight.

ISABELLA ROSSELLINI: Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm jealous that you've seen it.

EVAN ROSS KATZ: That's all. For this time on the next podcast, I'm back with the Beauty’s Hatchet men. Multi-talented theater, film and television stars Anthony Ramos and Jeremy Pope on FX's The Beauty. Watch new episodes of The Beauty On FX or stream on Hulu or Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers, be sure to rate, review and follow the beauty official podcast wherever you watch or listen.

I'm Evan Ross Katz, and I'll see you next time.