Greta Scacchi: This Year's Import

And what of this year's import? From whence has she come? Does she have a green card? Have we seen her in anything? Well, she's from England, she has an Italian passport, and we've seen a lot or all of her in European movies. Like many an import before her, Greta Scacchi is not reticent about revealing her heavenly gifts. In 1987's A Man in Love she and Peter Coyote made love standing up in what was noted as one of the most erotic sex scenes of that year; in Good Morning, Babylon (1987) she made love in the woods with Vincent Spano; in The Coca-Cola Kid (1985) she made love amid clouds of white feathers to Eric Roberts; in White Mischief (1988) she overwhelmed prospective husband Joss Ackland with her spectacular form in a full frontal nude scene, then made love to Charles Dance.

Scacchi's the daughter of an Italian art dealer and an English dancer. She will admit to no romantic involvements, although she says she is looking for a man who will do the shopping and some of the cooking. Her role model is Isabelle Huppert (quite a statement when you consider Huppert's American film work to date has consisted of The Bedroom Window and Heaven's Gate).

In March of 1989, at the age of 29, Scacchi arrived in America. She had already been acting for 15 years. She has eight feature film credits, numerous stage roles, and agents in London, Sydney, Paris, and Rome.

"Why Hollywood and why now?" I ask her.

"At first I tried to play it my way," she says in her English accent. "For eight years, I lived in Europe and waited to be sent scripts. A few times directors came over, found me, and said they'd like to work with me. But when my name was submitted to the American studio heads, they refused the director's choice, and I lost the roles. After that happened three times, I realized that I wasn't going to work in Hollywood unless I came over."

"It was a career move," says Scacchi's Hollywood agent, Susan Smith, who began her association with the actress eight years ago. "European actresses are usually booked so far in advance that when a good American role opens up they're not available. I told Greta that the groundwork had been laid, there had been quite a few inquiries, and now was the time."

What happened when Scacchi hit town? Two things. She got angry, and she got a job. "I met with casting people and agents and studio executives, one of whom said, 'I've heard of you, but I haven't seen any of your work. Why are you doing all those European films?' Another man said, 'Come over here where we make real films.' He hadn't seen any of my work and hadn't heard of any of the directors I'd worked with." (This list includes James Ivory, who cast her in her first feature film, Heat and Dust, and the Taviani brothers, for whom she did Good Morning, Babylon.) Here Scacchi's Italian blood reddens her regal English neck. "This was a man who was running a studio. His work is film, isn't it? But he'd never heard of filmmakers who have a place in the history of film. I was surprised how blatant his ignorance was. And he made no attempt to disguise it. I was shocked."

Hmmm. One can't help thinking that the ability to be shocked at Hollywood mini-mogul ignorance of European maestros of cinema, and the tendency to talk about it, could be just another reason actresses from abroad don't easily hit it big here.

Scacchi eventually met with Alan Pakula, who was preparing to direct Presumed Innocent, based on the best seller by Scott Turow. "That was the role I had my eye on," says Scacchi. "I had met Alan a few years ago when I went up for a role for which I was not appropriate." This time she landed the job, playing Harrison Ford's mistress, an attorney who ends up murdered.

As soon as she got the part, she hopped on a plane to London and did a play for B.B.C. radio. She laughs, "It seemed a much better way to spend my time than sitting by the pool."

There is about her an ethereal, pampered quality. I imagined her flying from Rome to London to Los Angeles to Sydney, floating above the grit and grime of everyday life, occasionally descending into the fantasy worlds of backlots. Before the filming of Presumed Innocent, she spent three months in Manhattan, about which she says, "I was so looking forward to it. But it was horrible. I thought I was in the hellhole of the universe. It's a city that intrudes. The architecture, the dirt. You can't really live there. You can't walk down the street without being reminded of what life is like for other people."

In the world according to Scacchi, Beverly Hills fares no better.. "It's so isolated, so detached from anything I've known before. It's a desert. Where is the fertility? What are people passionate about? What grows in this barren land? No wonder the people there are bereft of ideas. No wonder they haven't got a clue."

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