[SMITH] You revealed the big secret, that
your mother is Ingrid Bergman.
The other big secret is, your father is the
great filmmaker Roberto Rossellini.
You grew up in Rome, right?
[ROSSELLINI] Oh, thank you, thank you.
[SMITH] And you were in Rome until you were
19, is that right?
[ROSSELLINI] Yes, I was in Rome.
So, we grew up between Rome and Paris.
My parents divorced when I was four-years-old,
and momma stayed in Paris.
My parents worked a lot in France.
[SMITH] What was it like to be their kid?
I mean, you think about two parents like that.
[ROSSELLINI] I know, I'm asked that question
a lot, and the truth of the matter is that
I have never been the daughter of different
parents.
So I don't have any term of comparison- [SMITH]
Nothing to compare it to, right.
[ROSSELLINI] But, I can tell you one thing,
that when I was a little girl, first of all,
your parents are your parents.
And then you become a little bit aware of
society.
And so I knew that people were reacting strangely,
with my parents, it was unusual.
So, I would say, maybe I was seven or eight,
and in school I would ask my, other student,
I would say, "But how famous is my mom?"
For example, "Is she as famous as Greta Garbo?
"Or, is she as famous as Joan Crawford?"
I needed a thermometer, I couldn't really
judge it myself.
I was relying on my student to, or my other
friend student, to tell me how famous she
was.
Because to me, she was momma.
My parents never talked about their career
or their image.
They just did what it was interesting to them,
and what they thought they could share with
an audience.
[SMITH] Wonderful.
[ROSSELLINI] I only heard that conversation.
So, I was stupefied when I became an actress
and they said what is your career move?
What do want your image to be?
[SMITH] You go from art to commerce very quickly,
right.
So, you move to New York at, as I said again,
like you know 19 or so?
[ROSSELLINI] Yes.
[SMITH] And you became a broadcast report,
like a radio reporter is that right?
[ROSSELLINI] Yeah, it was a, so there was
a television show that was a comical but it
was about news.
But it was comical and very light.
And I worked, actually, very closely with
Roberto Benigni.
You know, "Life is Beautiful", a film that
won the Oscar.
[SMITH] Right, much later we came to know
him in his Oscar- [ROSSELLINI] And he's a
absolute genius of comical.
And I worked with, we were 19, both.
And we worked together between 19 and 23.
We started our career together.
[SMITH] Is this when you first met Martin
Scorsese?
[ROSSELLINI] Yes-- [SMITH] You interviewed
Martin Scorsese while you're a reporter?
[ROSSELLINI] I was a reporter doing this funny,
you know, there were interviews but they were
light and funny.
[SMITH] And one thing leads to another- [ROSSELLINI]
I married him.
[SMITH] By the way, that doesn't always happen.
On behalf of-- [ROSSELLINI] You think that
at the end of this that we're not getting
married?
[SMITH] Oh look.
I have one inconvenient detail in that story.
[ROSSELLINI] I can see it.
[SMITH] Yes, there it is.
However, but seriously, it like on behalf
of journalism, let me just say it doesn't
always happen that way.
So, you married Scorsese.
[ROSSELLINI] Yes.
[SMITH] You were married for four years.
[ROSSELLINI] Yes, we were married for four
years, we were together six, seven years together.
[SMITH] But you're married to Scorsese at
a period of time, again as a young person,
just now in this country, kind of starting
out her creative life.
You were married to Scorsese when "Raging
Bull" came out.
[ROSSELLINI] Yes, I was his wife when he was
doing "Raging Bull."
[SMITH] I mean, what must New York and that
world have been?
[ROSSELLINI] But, you know, I think it was
such a pleasure.
I just remember "Raging Bull," just being
with him on the set.
It was such an overwhelming work and they
had to stop filming to allow Robert De Niro
to go from very skinny- [SMITH] To gain all
that weight, right?
[ROSSELLINI] To gain all that weight like
Jake LaMotta old.
And it was difficult and I could see the commitment
of all of them.
And that was another example, they modeled
for me too.
Marty, Bob, all the other people that worked
for them.
The commitment that they had to this art.
At the time I wasn't working, I was just a
wife.
But I was a pleasure.
I would always cook for them and bring food
to the set to make sure they were all eating
and were feeling strong.
So, I remembered it as a dream, and then when
it turned out very successful you're happy
for them.
But it's the process of making it that I always
find the best.
[SMITH] The stuff behind the scenes that the
rest of us don't see.
[ROSSELLINI] Yes.
