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“Like a Volcano”: Rossellini on Scorsese’s Past Anger
In the third episode of Rebecca Miller’s five-part Apple TV docuseries Mr. Scorsese, Isabella Rossellini, 73, reminisces about her marriage with Martin Scorsese from 1979 to 1982 and describes him as someone who “could get really angry.” “Not toward me,” she corrects herself. “He never hit me or anything like that, but he could demolish a room.” She remembers a time when a friend secretly recorded her husband during a tirade and then showed him the tape, “Marty was shocked because he didn’t realize the level of violence that this tiny body, asthmatic, could cause. It was like a volcano. It was terrifying.”
Isabella Rossellini Reflects Without Filter
Isabella Rossellini reflects on her 1979–1982 marriage to Martin Scorsese in Apple TV’s Mr. Scorsese. Their union was a main thread through Raging Bull (1980) and The King of Comedy (1982), the latter of which was a depressive period for Scorsese. “I don’t even remember why he got so mad,” she confesses. “Sometimes it could be a very silly little reason.” She recalls mornings he’d wake up cursing before the day even started. Gradually, the outbursts she realized were also “fuel,” helping a “little boy from Little Italy” to have the power over big films and budgets.
However, he was “not toward me”—“he never hit me”—his rages could “demolish a room.” A friend once recorded an explosion; Scorsese was taken aback by “the level of violence” his small, asthmatic body caused. “It was like a volcano. It was terrifying… So it was complex to be with him.”
Details about Scorsese’s Marriages and Family Life, and the Relationship with Rossellini
Scorsese’s marriage to Isabella Rossellini came after two others. He has been married five times and has been with Helen Morris since 1999; they have a daughter Francesca, 25. Besides this, he has a daughter Cathy, 59, from the first wife Laraine Marie Brennan, and a daughter Domenica, 49, from the journalist Julia Cameron. During the Apple TV docuseries, his elder daughters, who were brought up with a father hardly physically available, as they say, because of his career which he was making in the 1970s and ’80s, thus, they only saw him a few times, reflect their memories of that time.
Scorsese and Rossellini ended their marriage in 1982. Rossellini later married model-turned-Microsoft executive Jon Wiedemann (1983–1986); they have a daughter, Elettra Wiedemann, 42. Besides, she is also a mother of Roberto Rossellini, 43.
Scorsese on His Struggle With Depression While Making The King of Comedy
The personal difficulties were so severe for Mr. Scorsese that he couldn’t edit The King of Comedy, the director tells Rebecca Miller, age 63, and the film was almost taken away from him, says Mr. Scorsese. When asked if he was depressed, he answers, “Depressed, yes, very much. I never experienced such depression – trying to work and not being able to, having problems, complaining, getting crazy. I would try to meet other people, I would try to start to have relationships, which never worked.”
“If it hadn’t been for the doctor – five days a week, phone calls on the weekend – strong, steady work on straightening my head out, I would be dead,” he continues. “I was taking very strong medication and getting through. It was very lonely, but it was my own fault.”
