Greta Scacchi: This Year's Import

One man who apparently did have a clue was David Ladd, Alan's younger brother and an executive at Pathe. He signed Scacchi for her next two pictures. The first, Fires Within, is a highly political story of contemporary Cuban exiles in Miami directed by Gillian Armstrong in which Scacchi stars opposite Jimmy Smits. The second, Shattered, is an identity-switch thriller directed by Wolfgang [Das Boot, The Never Ending Story] Peterson. That makes three American pictures in less than a year. Now what? A production company and an office on the lot? That's been the modus operandi for clout-wielding American actresses from Jane Fonda to Daryl Hannah. Being on the lot, maintaining visibility, being of Hollywood, as it were, means that a commitment has been made. It says that an actresses is serious about making it here.

Greta Scacchi has no interest in such a commitment. Susan Smith says, "Greta will not be housed permanently in Los Angeles." Someone should remind Greta that the last import who tried to have it all, making lots of U.S. movies without staying on here, was Nastassia Kinski. Where is she now?

Scacchi says, "The Hollywood machine is run by people who know what they want, and they know how to make things happen. But the actor must be careful to do what she wants to do, not what they want you to do."

"Where do you live?" I ask.

"In Los Angeles, I live with friends."

"What about when you're not in L.A.?"

"I don't know where I live. I gave up my flat in London. It was too gray and depressing."

"Where will you go when you finish shooting Shattered!"

"To the Italian countryside. I have connections there. It's peaceful. Healthy. Restful. I couldn't live in Los Angeles, because there are too many other places I'd miss."

Though Scacchi finds Hollywood's emphasis on money distracting, she does seem tickled by the size of her trailer. "On White Mischief [which was shot in Kenya], we had a makeup truck, and if you were lucky the makeup person would let you lie down in the cab and get out of the sun. Now I have this," she says, motioning to the other end of the 30-foot RV parked outside the soundstage at MGM. "It's funny being in Hollywood and getting the star treatment, but it's not what I really value. You have to cling to the enriching and challenging, you have to find a way to get to the raw materials of inspiration. Otherwise you disappear into the Hollywood soup."

Though Scacchi has broken quickly out of the gate, this is not an easy time for women in Hollywood. Even among the American actresses, the odds of getting "A" movies with A-list directors are brutal. There are no stars who pull in the audience as Streisand and Hawn used to. The best you can hope for is to be Redford's leading lady. And all the while, the search goes on for next year's import.

If you understand how the machine works, and how it can grind you into ground chuck, you get out. When you leave, you run the risk of being seen as a failure in the eyes of those who run the machine, but that doesn't seem to faze Scacchi. She'll take the work, be it in Rome, Sydney, or Hollywood. In fact, she says her Hollywood work will help her get her European projects financed.

No one can say where Scacchi will be in a year or two. Nothing in her European pictures remains indelible. If there is star quality there it will take Hollywood to bring it out. Her looks certainly hold your attention, but her screen roles thus far have not tested her. Whether Scacchi's Hollywood films will do this remains to be seen. In any case, the larger question looms--will American audiences care one way or the other?

History suggests that after her big send-off, Scacchi will, like imports of years past, follow a career track that might bring her happiness and frequent flyer mileage, but won't make her a star. Then again, if Presumed Innocent opens big, and if Fires Within and Shattered surprise, the clamor might disturb the tranquility of the Italian countryside. Then Scacchi will be offered an even bigger trailer, and I can't see her turning it down.

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Jeffrey Lantos wrote about Crispin Glover in Movieline's December 1989 issue.

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