Isabella Rossellini: Model, actress, ethologist, Oscar nominee

 

 "Rossellini, the model turned actress turned animal behaviorist (“ethologist” is the term she uses), was giving a tour of her operation, nestled on 30 acres in a village in the middle of Long Island, one bright afternoon last week. There were goats and ducks and 150 chickens, now kept safely in their coops to protect them from bird flu.

Before she picked me up at the train station, she had checked on the bees personally — “because everyone’s afraid of them,” she said — making sure they had food and were warm enough. “They have to keep themselves at 97 degrees, even if it is 20 outside,” Rossellini said. “They do like the penguins — they create a ball, and vibrate to create heat.”

Besides being a caretaker and trove of animal facts, Rossellini is also, at 72, a first-time Oscar nominee, as a supporting actress, for her small but pivotal role in “Conclave.” As Sister Agnes, an alert Mother Superior who holds her tongue until her morals lead her otherwise, Rossellini has some of the best lines in the movie. The Vatican-set dramatic thriller, about choosing a new pope, is also up for seven other awards, including best picture.

For Rossellini, who imagined that notable acting jobs were in her rearview, it was an unexpected, and overwhelming, recognition. She is now in the record books, as one of the few mother-daughter pairs to be nominated: Her mother, Ingrid Bergman, was up for seven Oscars and won three, starting in 1944. If Rossellini goes home with the prize, it would make them the first winning mother-daughter twosome in history. Rossellini’s father, the neorealist filmmaker Roberto Rossellini, also landed one nomination, in 1950."

 
more in the interview by Melena Ryzik

 Isabella Rossellini: Model, actress, ethologist, Oscar nominee