The 1996 role Isabella Rossellini didn’t think she was famous enough to play: “Am I that known?”
There are many movie stars out there who like to think that everyone knows who they are. With egos inflated to the size of the sun, too many actors blind us with an obsessive need to stay relevant, to stay talked-about and admired.
But then there are the actors who forget that they’re famous, finding it shocking when people recognise them, which was once the case for Isabella Rossellini, the iconic star born to two similarly important cinematic figures, Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini.
Her parents caused a major scandal in Hollywood when they embarked on their affair, which resulted in Bergman getting pregnant despite the fact that she was still married to another man. The pair’s first child together, Robin, was born in 1950, while Isabella and her twin sister, Isotta, arrived two years later. So, from the moment of Rossellini’s birth, she has been in the spotlight, her very existence a result of one of cinema’s most scandalous relationships.
Rossellini started her career as a model, receiving her film debut in 1976’s A Matter of Time by Vincente Minnelli, although roles were sporadic between then and her proper cinematic breakthrough in 1986’s Blue Velvet.
Playing the evocative role of Dorothy Vallens, a singer who experiences abuse at the hands of a deranged Dennis Hopper, Rossellini was praised for her striking performance. David Lynch’s film was a great success, and she even won an Independent Spirit Award for it, but still, she didn’t feel famous.
Over the coming years, Rossellini struggled to find her feet in projects that would actually endure as successful pieces of cinema, but as the ‘90s rolled around, she finally bagged some roles that would make her more of a star, appearing in the likes of Death Becomes Her, Wyatt Earp, and Wild at Heart.
Despite this, she still didn’t think of herself as very famous. Her biggest role remained Blue Velvet, a film that, while popular, wasn’t exactly Top Gun or Jurassic Park. So, when she was asked to guest star on Friends as herself, she couldn’t believe that she was on anyone’s radar.
But of course, people knew Rossellini, and her appearance on the hit sitcom was received well with fans, her comedic energy shining through as Ross hits on her by claiming that she was on his laminated list of celebrity hall passes, that’s until he bumped her for Winona Ryder. She rejects him, stating that she has a list of “five goofy coffee house guys” with whom she wants to sleep, and that she had just bumped Ross off the list.
“I was surprised because at the time, maybe still today, but maybe to less extent at the time, there weren’t many foreign actors that were recognised in America,” she told Entertainment Weekly, “And so I was very surprised that Friends invited me, not only as a guest but as a star. They recognise me, and they know my name. So I was very…I said, ‘Really? Am I that known that I can play myself as a known person?’ So that was really great, and it was a delight to work with them.”
