Isabella Rossellini: 'Killed by criticism in my first role, I turned to fashion'

Isabella Rossellini, honored with the Excellence Award at the Locarno Film Festival, reflected on a multifaceted career that began under the shadow of her renowned parents, director Roberto Rossellini and actress Ingrid Bergman.

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From childhood, the first passion was animals: I always collected dogs from the street and dad told me 'enough, they bring fleas.'

Rossellini shared that her initial passion was for animals, a fascination sparked by a book from ethologist Konrad Lorenz. Although she initially wanted to study ethology, the field was not yet widely taught at universities. She turned to her second passion, fashion, initially aspiring to be a costume designer. However, she eventually earned a degree in ethology at age 55 and now manages a farm filled with animals, even using wool from her own sheep for jacket decorations.

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I would have liked to become an ethologist but the subject was not yet taught at university, so I followed my second passion, fashion, and tried to become a costume designer.

Her early acting experiences were challenging. She accepted a small role in the Taviani brothers' film 'Il prato' after her mother encouraged her not to refuse opportunities due to fear of judgment. However, harsh criticism followed, leaving Rossellini traumatized and hesitant to act for five years. She also briefly worked as an assistant to journalist Gianni Mina and performed comedic segments for Renzo Arbore's television show.

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I didn't want to because I was afraid of criticism, but Mom told me 'you're wrong because Italians are great artists and this is a chance to learn and not doing it because you are my daughter is wrong': so I did it and the critics killed me and I didn't act for 5 years, I was traumatized, I never rewatched the film...

Rossellini found that her modeling career helped her acting confidence. She also credited Robert Redford for encouraging her to create short films for his Sundance television channel, predating platforms like YouTube. These short films, often under two minutes, were suitable for mobile viewing. More recently, she has focused on a series of short films about animal evolution and domestication, including "The Survival of Friendshipness," exploring how animals that showed the most friendship towards humans have evolved.

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He had a television channel, Sundance, and even before YouTube existed, he asked me to make short films, suitable for mobile phone content, no more than two minutes. 'Courage, you can do it,' he told me.