Isabella Rossellini Insists She Wasn't 'Exploited' by David Lynch inBlue Velvet: 'I Chose to Play the Character'

Mar. 15, 2025

Isabella Rossellini in 1986’s Blue Velvet.Photo:De Laurentiis Entertainment Group/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty

De Laurentiis Entertainment Group/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty

Isabella Rosselliniis refuting the idea that she was treated poorly while makingDavid Lynch’s 1986 filmBlue Velvet.

While speaking withIndieWirerecently about her new movieLa Chimera, Rossellini, 71, was asked aboutRoger Ebert’s decades-oldreviewofBlue Velvet, in which the legendary late film critic wrote that she was “degraded, slapped around, humiliated and undressed in front of the camera” for the film.

“I didn’t read the reviews at the time [the movie] came out. I try not to read reviews," the actress, who was in a relationship with filmmaker Lynch at the time they madeBlue Velvet, said. “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.”

“I remember I was told that Roger Ebert said that [Lynch] exploited me, and I was surprised, because I was an adult,” she added. “I was 31 or 32. I chose to play the character.”

Kyle MacLachlan and Isabella Rossellini in 1986’s Blue Velvet.De Laurentiis Entertainment Group/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty

“When I read the script I understood it could’ve been controversial and difficult,” the actress recalled to IndieWire. “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.’ 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,” she added.

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Blue Velvetis remembered as one of idiosyncratic filmmaker Lynch’s best movies. It also featuredLaura Dernand Hope Lange among its cast. Rossellini, who dated Lynch into the early ’90s, later appeared in another one of his films, 1990’sWild at Heart.

David Lynch and Isabella Rossellini on Feb. 24, 1988.Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty

Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty

While speaking with IndieWire aboutBlue Velvet, the actress questioned the notion that its story should have required a woman director due to the way her character is portrayed.

source: people.com