The actress delves into her memories and talks about her beginnings in cinema. But also about her great loves and her immense pains. As well as that cigarette case that Gianni Agnelli gave her. With which “I paid us the down payment for an apartment”
Dalila Di Lazzaro talks about herself with an open heart. She talks about her debut in cinema, her love affairs and Robert De Niro’s advances. And she remembers the tragic death of her son Christian in a car accident, which was communicated to her with a message on the answering machine: “They told me: she’s in the mortuary, come and get her things.” – photo | video 1 | video 2
Dalila Di Lazzaro: “For 11 years I didn’t get out of bed, not even to wash myself” – Look
DINNER WITH ROBERT DE NIRO – The actress, 71 years old, tells everything to Corriere della Sera, starting from a very particular dinner, the one immortalized in a historic photo in which Gianni Minà, Muhammad Alì, Robert De Niro, Sergio Leone and Gabriel García Márquez appear next to each other. It was the great director who called her, because De Niro, who was filming Once upon a time in America, he had introduced himself just to meet her. But she was very engaged: «I didn’t immediately recognize him, he looked like a friar. Linen shirt and wrinkled jeans, flip flops. Sergio, zac, placed it next to me. Suddenly Leone says: no wine, no vodka for him, I want him slim on the set…”. And he remembers: «At midnight I had an appointment with my boyfriend, I told him that I was out for work and to wait for me. When I say goodbye and leave, De Niro goes out with me, I didn’t know how to get rid of him. He stays behind me throughout Trastevere. “I’m coming with you”, me with heels on the cobblestones… “I’m not leaving you, I want to be with you”. Me: “But I can’t!”. And he: “I won’t do anything to you”. Ussignur… We arrive at Piazza Navona. I go to the Raphael hotel, exasperated I go in and ask for a taxi. When the car arrives, Robert gives me a kiss, drops me, hugs me. I wriggle free. I tell the taxi driver… go away: I’m running away, liberation!
Dalila Di Lazzaro and her love for Gianni Agnelli: “I’ll tell you everything” – exclusive
BEGINNINGS IN CINEMA AND LOVE – Dalila goes back to her beginnings in cinema, when she left Udine to work as a sales assistant in Rome and a young man who was trying to make it in the world of the big screen also sent her photos around. As luck would have it, they ended up in the hands of Andy Warhol: «One morning the phone rings. “Ready? Here she is Carlo Ponti’s Champion, we are waiting for her for an audition with Andy Warhol”. I thought it was a joke, I’ll tell them to go to hell, I’ll hang up. They call back: it’s the same male voice, but angry: “Don’t put the phone down on me!”. Then I auditioned in front of him and above all in front of Warhol. There I understood that my life would never be the same again.” She moved to America, became a model. And she also had flirtations that ended up on the gossip pages, like with the tennis player Yannick Noah.
Dalila Di Lazzaro talks about her greatest tragedy: her son died in a road accident – Look
ALAIN DELON AND GIANNI AGNELLI – Of Alain Delon he remembers: «Always pissed off, a tiger, beautiful. On the set, in Paris, a problem happens: they don’t do my makeup and he disappears in a rage. From the crew they say: “Only you can calm him down…”. I phone him: “You left me here like a cogl…”. Laughs, comes back. Meanwhile I drew a caricature of him, smiling, I’m good with pencils… I gave it to him: “I only want you like this”. So he took me to Tiffany, she had a medal made with the writing: “Dalila, ne m’oublie jamais. Alain””. She then remembers how Gianni Agnelli reached her by helicopter: «One evening I was with him, in Rome. Henry Kissinger was there, I was bored. I’m about to leave and he gives me a cigarette case. I gave it back to him, “What do I do with it”… Let’s go on like this for a while. I’m about to leave without having taken it when Brunetto, his butler, joins me and tells me: “If the Lawyer gives you a gift, accept it.” Then I realized that the box was from Bulgari, I paid a down payment on a house.”
Dalila Di Lazzaro: “I can’t move. I always keep morphine in my pocket” – Look
THE DEATH OF CHRISTIAN – Dalila lost her son Christian in a car accident when he was a policeman in 1991. She had had him at 15 and he died when he was only 22: «We were very close, never a problem with him. He was studying, he wanted to become a dentist, he should have gone to the United States to further his studies. He was a guitarist, he played in a small band that also performed at the PalaEur. Only after his death did I know that he composed songs, the guys in his band told me.” And she remembers how she heard the news: «When I woke up in the morning I found a message on the answering machine. It was terrible. She was from the hospital: “Unfortunately, his son is here. He’s in the mortuary, he should come and get his things.” But how do you leave a message like that? In the morgue, before caressing him for the last time I blindfolded myself. I wanted to remember him, but while I was alive.” Pope Wojtyła wanted to meet her to tell her that he was close to her. Recently, an episode moved her: «When I went to renew my passport, here in Milan, a marshal approached me: “I thought a lot about whether to tell him. Does he know that I was in the same bracket as Christian? And that he was my friend? Ommammamia… ”he had red eyes. I looked at him, I saw my son not as he was, but as he could have been. Then we remembered the oath. Christian joked about it: “Mom, my friends saw you in the stands, now they know that I’m your son, I’m so ashamed.” He laughed, though. After the ceremony we took photos with the officers and troops.”
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