"Do you know what biodiversity means?” Isabella Rossellini asks me. “It’s about the many ways in which you can reproduce, raise children. Generally you have one answer [for all species]—but there are actually many.” She would know, since she’s devoted much of the past five years to examining, explaining, and enacting animal sex in Green Porno, her terrific series of film shorts. Using delightful DIY costumes and sets, she explores the cannibalistic mating rituals of praying mantis, gets covered in sperm during an anchovy orgy, demonstrates snail S&M-style foreplay, and strips down for a shrimp in skillful presentations she wrote and directed herself. This week, she’ll perform a stage adaptation of the program at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, marking the play’s New York premiere before it travels to some 50 cities around the world. The piece was previously in Paris, Seattle, and LA.
In her lilting Italian accent, Rossellini explained that this will be her first time performing in Brooklyn. But she’s been to a lot of shows at BAM lately (she lives on Long Island), and its Howard Gilman Opera House is named for a friend of hers. “So there’s a long bond,” she says. I half-expected her to make some kind of naughty joke (her poem “Why Vagina,” which she recites in one episode surrounded by nearly two dozen glorious paper penises, came to mind). But she didn’t.
The idea to translate Green Porno into a theatrical production came from Rossellini's friend Carole Bouquet (the former Bond girl and Chanel model), who introduced her to the influential French playwright Jean-Claude Carrière. They watched the films, had a chat, then Carrière went home to Paris to write. When he was finished, the pair revised and staged it together with the help of celebrated director and actress Muriel Mayette, who, Rossellini says, “helped make it more zany.”
Will she wear her blinking firefly costume in the show? What about the whale one with the supposed six-foot schlong? “No costumes,” Rossellini says. “I will have a podium.” In fact, the stage version is presented as a conference gone awry, where Rossellini will appear as a lecturer. Clips from the films will interrupt her scientifically accurate monologue, which allows her to elaborate on animals from all three installments of the Green Porno series, including Seduce Me (courtship strategies) and the newish Mammas (mothering tactics). On the whole, Rossellini thinks she covers about 65 animals. “The whole point is to make science funny,” she says. “If you look at it in the textbooks, it is very dry.”
Rossellini's love of animals is genuine; she often tells people she was born with it, like she was born with brown hair. She’s always had pets. Her parents were the actress Ingrid Bergman and director Roberto Rossellini, whose first film was about the unrequited love of two aquarium fish. In turn, she’s long been a hardcore nature documentary fan. So while posing for Bruce Weber, dating David Lynch, or penning books, the celebrated model and Blue Velvet star had a passion for critters. Currently she’s a student at Hunter College, where she’s pursuing a master’s degree in animal behavior and conservation. Rossellini also acts as a canine midwife, helping to birth and socialize seeing eye dogs.
Besides studying and touring, she admittedly doesn’t have time for much else. “If I were to write anything more in the future for the series, I’d do it so another actress could be in it,” she says. But wouldn’t that change the whole premise of the show? “Yes
In her lilting Italian accent, Rossellini explained that this will be her first time performing in Brooklyn. But she’s been to a lot of shows at BAM lately (she lives on Long Island), and its Howard Gilman Opera House is named for a friend of hers. “So there’s a long bond,” she says. I half-expected her to make some kind of naughty joke (her poem “Why Vagina,” which she recites in one episode surrounded by nearly two dozen glorious paper penises, came to mind). But she didn’t.
The idea to translate Green Porno into a theatrical production came from Rossellini's friend Carole Bouquet (the former Bond girl and Chanel model), who introduced her to the influential French playwright Jean-Claude Carrière. They watched the films, had a chat, then Carrière went home to Paris to write. When he was finished, the pair revised and staged it together with the help of celebrated director and actress Muriel Mayette, who, Rossellini says, “helped make it more zany.”
Will she wear her blinking firefly costume in the show? What about the whale one with the supposed six-foot schlong? “No costumes,” Rossellini says. “I will have a podium.” In fact, the stage version is presented as a conference gone awry, where Rossellini will appear as a lecturer. Clips from the films will interrupt her scientifically accurate monologue, which allows her to elaborate on animals from all three installments of the Green Porno series, including Seduce Me (courtship strategies) and the newish Mammas (mothering tactics). On the whole, Rossellini thinks she covers about 65 animals. “The whole point is to make science funny,” she says. “If you look at it in the textbooks, it is very dry.”
Rossellini's love of animals is genuine; she often tells people she was born with it, like she was born with brown hair. She’s always had pets. Her parents were the actress Ingrid Bergman and director Roberto Rossellini, whose first film was about the unrequited love of two aquarium fish. In turn, she’s long been a hardcore nature documentary fan. So while posing for Bruce Weber, dating David Lynch, or penning books, the celebrated model and Blue Velvet star had a passion for critters. Currently she’s a student at Hunter College, where she’s pursuing a master’s degree in animal behavior and conservation. Rossellini also acts as a canine midwife, helping to birth and socialize seeing eye dogs.
Besides studying and touring, she admittedly doesn’t have time for much else. “If I were to write anything more in the future for the series, I’d do it so another actress could be in it,” she says. But wouldn’t that change the whole premise of the show? “Yes