David Lynch‘s “Blue Velvet” continues to cause a stir nearly four decades after its release, with the film having just as many detractors as it does champions. And in a recent interview with IndieWire, actress Isabella Rossellini had a chance to respond to one of the film’s harshest critics: the late Roger Ebert.
Ebert infamously trounced the film upon release in 1986, particularly how Lynch treated Rossellini in her performance, deeming it exploitative, but Rossellini defended her “choice” to do the role as “an adult.” “I didn’t read the reviews at the time it came out,” the actress said about “Blue Velvet.” “I try not to read reviews. They’re always depressing. There’s always something that, even if [the review is] good, there is always one sentence that is negative and stays inside you forever.” And in the case of Ebert’s review, there were several sentences that could linger for Rossellini.
In his 1986 review, Ebert said that Rossellini is “asked to do things in this film that require real nerve,” such as being “degraded, slapped around, humiliated, and undressed in front of the camera.” “When you ask an actress to endure those experiences,” he continued, “you should keep your side of the bargain by putting her in an important film.” Ebert gave Lynch’s film one star and finished his review by saying, “in a way, [Lynch’s] behavior is more sadistic than the Hopper character.”
Rossellini didn’t read Ebert’s review in 1986, but she heard about his comments about her and Lynch and disagreed with him entirely. “I remember I was told that Roger Ebert said that he exploited me,” Rossellini said, “and I was surprised, because I was an adult. I was 31 or 32. I chose to play the character.” In the film, Rossellini plays Dorothy Vallens, a lounge singer caught in a physically and psychologically abusive relationship with Dennis Hopper‘s maniacal gangster Frank Booth. Vallens suffers several degrading attacks from Booth throughout “Blue Velvet,” including being stripped nude, beaten, and raped.
Despite her character’s suffering, Rossellini knew she wanted the part after reading Lynch’s script. “When I read the script I understood it could’ve been controversial and difficult, I did say to David, ‘You don’t have to say the lines, but I would like to rehearse with you all the scenes and paraphrase the lines,'” she said. “I wanted to make sure that what you’re seeing is a person who has maybe a kind of Stockholm syndrome, and we rehearsed for a full day. I felt reassured that what I saw in the character, the way I wanted to play, he had agreed.”
And in spite of derisive attacks against the film like Ebert’s, Rossellini thinks her part as Vallens was groundbreaking for the period. “I think my character was the first time we did an abused woman, a portrait of an abused woman, but also she camouflaged herself behind what she was asked to be, which was sexy and beautiful and singing, and she obeys the order, and is also victimized [by] it,” she continued. “That’s the complexity of “Blue Velvet,” but also the great talent of David Lynch. I thought he did a fantastic film. I love “Blue Velvet.””
And lots of other critics love “Blue Velvet,” too. Rossellini went on to win an Independent Spirit Award for her performance as Vallens, and Lynch’s film continues to gain praise from cinephiles decades after its release. So maybe Mr. Ebert was off-base in his critique of the movie in 1986. Not that Rossellini minds; she owns her choice to play Vallens and doesn’t regret it for a second. Nor should she.
