Quotes

You can't live off being a cult.

[on her career in the documentary A-Z of Horror (1997)] I usually played these roles where I represented the dark side. I was always a predatory bitch goddess in all of these movies, and with all kinds of unspeakable elements. Then what is life without a dark side? The driving force of drama is the dark side. These women that I played usually suffered for it, and I guess men like that.

[From Calvin Thomas Beck's book "Scream Queens"] I hate graves and all those things. I began with too many horror films. This is dangerous. Horror films are made for directors, not for actors. One never thinks of the character of the people or their psychology. One always follows the same dramatic pattern. That's what I object to about nearly all these films - they always exploit the same fears. (...) I love witchcraft, the supernatural. All that's intuitive. I don't like people who are too rational.

I was born in Ireland. It's a humid and green country. Not at all like Rome. I was born on the same day as Fellini... but not the same year. I'm, therefore, a Capricorn.

It's easy to know my mood. I'm thin when I'm happy, but, during all the seasons, my eyes are green, my hands too big and my legs too long.

[on Black Sunday (1960)] In ten days, Mario Bava had not been able to work the lighting as he had planned it. As an old chief camera operator, he attached much importance to the image. I find that, in our time, the cinema is less and less a visual art. It was much more beautiful in the 1930s, for example. One finds less and less imagination concerning the visual planning. Love scenes are filmed in a mechanical and cold fashion. One doesn't embrace this way in life. It would be necessary, on the contrary, to suggest this by imagery - a detail, the curve of a shoulder... I don't know... I never go to see supernatural films. Not my own. There is, perhaps, some good in them.

I love the small problems of life. It's this that is important. I would love to make a beautiful love film. It's been a long time since I've seen a beautiful love film. Myself, I adore love. Perhaps the French directors are too preoccupied with these problems. It's not like that here [in Italy] or in the USA. In the United States, I had a contract with Fox. It was a very unhappy period in my life. Finally, I never made a film for them. I was paid. I was bored and suffering a lot not being able to work. The only film I shot in America was The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) for AIP. My contract with Fox was dreadful. Rank, with whom I was under contract, didn't know very well how to use me. Then, they sold my contract to Fox. In the USA, they wanted to change me completely. I was too big. I should be a brunette or a blonde. And, then, life is so artificial. I arrived without much but left with nothing. I was completely demoralized.