Asia Argento: for some, art imitates life. For this dynamic actress and filmmaker, art is life

Best known as an actress in her father Dana Argento's cult horror films, Asia Argento, 26, is Italy's dark star. Beloved across Europe and increasingly known in American art house circles, Argento took the risk of her life when, in 1999, she stepped behind the camera to direct her feature debut, Scarlet Diva, a twisted, disturbing self-portrait of sorts, released the following year. Two years and a baby girl later, the onscreen and offscreen darkness that's dominated much of her life has given way to illumination, presently a thousand-watt glare from the Hollywood spotlights fixed upon her as she makes her first trip--as an actress--to the American megaplex. This month's XXX, in which Argento co-stars, is reel-to-reel hard-core action, though of a decidedly different sort than some might infer from the title. Vin Dilesel plays an underground thrill-seeker-turned-special-agent; Argento, his fiery sidekick. Here, she talks with friend and fellow actor Aclrien Brady.

ADRIEN BRODY: Ciao, bambina.

ASIA ARGENTO: [laughs] Where are you?

AB: I'm in Hawaii, in my hotel room, looking at the ocean.

AA: What color is it? Blue or green?

AB: It's blue. And there's a mountain range with green hills and ugly hotels and beautiful palm trees.

AA: I see a palm tree too, from my window [in Rome].

AB: I've been surfing out here. I never surfed before in my life and I got up on my first wave and rode it in standing up.

AA: No! I don't think I could ever do that.

AB: Sure, you could. So I've had a little Asia Argento film festival going on out here.

AA: Oh, my God. They got you some of my movies. That's so scary. I'm so concerned.

AB: Well, I'm impressed, I must say. You know I hold you in very high regard, but I'm looking at the bio the people at Interview sent me and I'm thinking, Here's this young girl who has six careers that are forms of creative expression. Most people don't find one in their life they connect to, but you're a writer, actor, director, novelist, poet and musician. And a mother.

AA: And a photographer now. They're doing a show of my photographs in Paris. It's insane.

AA: Wow. Congratulations. So in Scarlet Diva, which, in addition to starring in, you wrote and directed, your character proclaims herself the loneliest girl in the world.

AA: Yeah. What do you think? Am I the loneliest?

AB: Perhaps you once were, but I don't think you re the loneliest girl now. Do you feel that you are?

AA: No. Not anymore. I'm never lonely if I have my little daughter [Anna Lou] with me. But before her, yes, I was very lonely. Since I was little it was always like that, even if I was surrounded by people.

AB: Now, I don't know your father's work very well, but I know he's the famous Dario Argento, the horror film director. There were some pretty horrific moments in Scarlet Diva--some psychologically terrifying, very disturbing stuff--and I was wondering: Do you think that's his influence, growing up with him and his work and working with him, or was that you on your own?

AA: Well, I always watched his movies, but he's more into horror that is fantasy while I talk about the real horror of things that I've been through. We have very different ways of dealing with our demons. He goes into the fantasy vision, and I go more into the real vision, with a way of filming that is instinctive and direct, while his is more mathematical and precise. But I find his movies very inspiring, and I'm sure that I've gotten a certain taste and aesthetic from him.

AB: You told me that he killed your mom a lot in his movies but he never killed you.

AA: But he had me raped and beaten up and anorexic--all sorts of things that were not so pleasurable.

AB: I don't even like watching sex scenes while sitting in the same theater as my mother--what was it like having your father direct you in a rape scene?

AA: Well, I had a body double, but when we shot the close-ups, it was like therapy. I was going deep into some very dark stuff that I had to deal with and that I healed from, I think. Our relationship grew a lot from it. My father's very supportive. He was the one who understood that I had this ambition to make a movie and that making it would make my life a lot better. He really pushed me to do it and gave me the courage. I'll always be thankful for that, because nobody believed I could do it but him.

AB: Are you still writing?

AA: I am, but it's so hard with the baby. I can't write at home so a friend of mine gave me a room in his apartment, a room with nothing in it, and I write there. It's weird because all my life I've written out of deep sadness and misery and now that I'm very close to happiness, it's more difficult.

AB: I remember one day we were talking and I had asked you about Anna Lou and what kind of impact she's had on you, and you said that she saved your life.

AA: She did. I'm really solo in this; it's not like I have one of those families where everybody's around helping me. I'm alone and it gives me strength because I have to be strong. She needs me so much. She's very demanding and she knows what she wants, and because of that she's made me come out of my selfishness. You know, Adrien, I had a dream about you a couple of days ago.