Interview with Greta Bellamacina

You are such a creative person. Have you always been this way?


Yes, I guess I’ve always wanted to move a little closer to things. Performing and writing have always felt like the most immediate way to reach a place of connection. Poetry feels like forgetting learnt words and rediscovering them more as musical notes, in acting the dialogue becomes less relevant, and it's more about going back to the quiet music of our hearts.


Your look is so beautiful. It’s delicate and playful but with real soul and depth. You’re completely your own person which is rare. How important is it to be original do you think?


I think it’s important to forget the noise. To make work that is from the heart, I don't think about being original so much as coming from a place of truth. Uncomfortable truth that cuts straight into the arms of life. The films I like to make are ones that a messy and strange, less plot and audience driven. I like to make work that is more of a translation of our illogical minds. Often emotions take over and suddenly nothing makes sense.


What periods in history are you most influenced by?


It depends on what I am making, right now I am quite interested in the early sixties. I have just co-wrote my third feature film with director Jacyln Bethany, called “All Five Eyes”. The script is set in rural England in a girls school house at the beginning of the sixties. It explores what it is to be a librated girl coming of age, and also what having a disability meant at that time. I’ve been listening to a lot of songs from that era. I am also prepping to make a film in Italy in November which is set in a post-industrial world. I've been reading a lot of poetry that explores themes of place and fragmented futures.


Do you prefer acting, writing or modelling?


I enjoy having a creative dialogue with whatever I am making, I don’t like to define myself as someone who does lots of things. I simply see acting and writing as part of discovering two sides of the same coin. Modelling is another silent way to tell a story. It’s a humbling process to move closer to a person through the pages of script or a mood board. This silent language that we are all holding inside of us is what I am interested in translating.


Have you always loved poetry? I read recently that we don’t ‘need’ poetry til our heart gets broken, or someone we loves dies. And then it is a universal language that taps into our hearts and life experience. What do you think?

I think poetry is in the silent gaps of day. It is looking at the garden with wonder one last time. Because the garden is a place where weather and life and death meet again and again, but it remains beautiful and surviving and alive.


I love our shoot so much. I find that shoots are such a culmination of the creative process and it’s such a joy to see the clothes shot. Can you tell me a bit about how you wanted the shoot to look and how much you were part of the process?


When we were creating the collection, I had just finishing making two films- “Commedia” directed by Riccardo Vannuccini and “Tell That To The Winter Sea” directed by Jacyln Bethany- where both my characters dance in the films. So I was feeling very inspired by the power of movement, and dance.


I wanted to make clothes that felt like they might propel you forward. Clothes to move in and escape in. I’ve always love headbands for dancing in, something about them makes the face feel framed and open like an animal in the wild. I wanted the clothes to feel practical but also romantic echoing the beautiful designs of Madeline Thompson. Clothing made as safety and comfort, like a hug on a cold and hopeless day.


For the shoot I worked with Chantelle Dosser and Rachel Bakewell and Raphael Salley on my hair and Christophe Evrard for the film. They are all friends and collaborators I trust, I started with a mood board I made and I sent it to each of them, and they added their mood boards and we did the shoot like a true collaboration. I really love all of their work and I really respect their voices.