Asia Argento of The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things speaks out on the JT LeRoy hoax.
By Brandon Voss
So James Frey fudged a few details in his memoir. Big whoop. Once believed to be gay, transgender, and HIV-positive, enigmatic wunderkind JT Leroy was recently outed as being totally non-existent! Turns out his powerful pen belonged to 40-year-old housewife Laura Albert, supposed guardian to the former truck stop hustler with then-partner Geoffrey Knoop. (Savannah Knoop, Geoffrey’s half-sister, appeared publicly as LeRoy in a blonde wig and sunglasses.) But The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, Asia Argento’s startling adaptation of LeRoy’s “autobiographical” novel about Sarah, a reckless young mother who drags her son into her drug-fueled depravity, hits theaters this week as planned — albeit now with LeRoy’s name in fat black quotation marks on the poster. Asia, daughter of famed Italian horror director Dario Argento, discussed the film and scandal with me candidly over coffee and cigarettes in her hotel room.
HX: Was it always the plan to adapt, direct, and star in Heart?
Asia Argento: I know, what was I thinking? I knew I could push myself to do things that I would never have the courage to ask another actress to do. But in order to play Sarah I would really drive myself crazy — like, I would do a hundred push-ups and then go into a car with the heater blasting. And then I couldn’t switch back into nice director Asia. So Sarah took over and directed the film. I proved I can do it, but I don’t think I’ll ever act again in my films. I don’t need to lose 10 years of my life.
Was your characterization of Sarah at all inspired by Courtney Love?
Maybe aesthetically — especially because the makeup artist and the costume designer both worked with Courtney. But I didn’t study her for this, I studied — and this is before Monster came out — documentaries on Aileen Wournos.
You seem pretty bad-ass yourself. Are you anything like Sarah?
I’m the opposite of what people think — the sexy bitch from hell. My life, the one I talk to you about, is a persona that I’ve created to protect myself because I’m so shy, awkward and uncomfortable.
How very JT! What was your first reaction when you discovered the hoax?
I was in Paris, I had had a couple of glasses of wine, and I get the phone call from my manager. I know a lot of people are angry, but I was laughing my ass off. I thought it was brilliant. I started making connections, like, Oh my God, yes, of course! How could I not see it? Laura tried to tell me so many times, but I didn’t want to hear it, I dismissed it. To me, it was like, This woman’s trying to make out that she wrote it.
Does it matter that no one actually suffered the specific traumas depicted in Heart?
[Laura] tapped into something universal. I saw some of my life there; I wanted to save myself, the child. That was my personal reason to do this film, this empathy toward this child. Not that I wanted to give a message; I think messages go to the post office, not a movie. But I wanted people to think of their own childhoods and the children that are forgotten. Even though [Laura] didn’t live that, she probably had to create this persona as a way to get over her own stuff. I think she has multiple personalities — I’m sure of that. Because sometimes we’d talk on the phone, and when she had to assert herself she would become this person called “Roy” — it was a more masculine voice.
In light of the ruse, will the film still resonate with the LGBT community?
I don’t make the difference between gay and not gay. We all have fucked up childhoods.
Describe your first meeting with “JT.”
They told me JT doesn’t like to be touched, so I was very shy. I didn’t want him to be uncomfortable, but we were actually comfortable from the get-go. I have to say, through all this, I enjoyed Savannah’s company. She’s very charismatic. I totally fell for it because she was a pleasure to be around. And Laura, too, the real writer. Even though she was a pain in the ass — very demanding, very manipulative — she was also very generous. I still like them as people.
You plan to keep in touch?
Yes. When this came out, I didn’t know how to deal with it. I didn’t know what to call them — like, Who am I talking to? His, her, it — I don’t even know anymore. Then I was in L.A. two weeks ago, and one morning I woke up and I just felt this urge to call. When [Laura] explained everything to me, it really made sense; I came to terms with it. I understood that she had to do this to get her things published. And it’s true — it worked. We wanted this person to exist. She just gave people what they wanted.
If you knew then what you know now, would you do anything differently?
I don’t know if I would make the movie. Not because of the hoax, just because it was very hard and my life for a long time was fucked by this. But Je ne regrette rien.
HX, March 2006.