Isabella Rossellini recalls ex-husband Martin Scorsese’s anger issues during marriage

Isabella Rossellini reflects on her marriage to Martin Scorsese in the new Apple TV documentary about the Oscar-winning filmmaker.

In the third episode of director Rebecca Miller’s sprawling five-part documentary series Sr. ScorseseRossellini, 73, recalls that during their three-year marriage, which lasted from 1979 to 1982, Scorsese “could get very angry.”

“Not with me,” Rossellini clarifies. “He never hit me or anything, but he could destroy a room. A friend of his filmed it one day and showed it to him. Marty was shocked because he didn’t realize the level of violence this tiny, asthmatic body could (create). It was like a volcano. “It was terrifying.”

Scorsese and Rossellini’s marriage lasted until the making of two of the director’s films in the 1980s. toro furioso and the years 1982 The king of comedy – both starring his frequent collaborator Robert De Niro. As Rossellini and Scorsese, 82, recall in the documentary, the director went through a depressive period while making this latest film.

«I don’t even remember why I was so angry. I think sometimes it could be a very silly little reason that would push him to exaggerate,” adds Rossellini. “Sometimes he would (wake up) saying ‘Fuck that, fuck that, fuck that,’ and I’d say ‘Marty, the day hasn’t even started.’ Then I understood that that anger was also part of the fuel to give him courage; because you know, he was a kid from Little Italy and now he was a big director who had to make this big movie and this big budget. And I think the anger gave him that energy to get through the day and finish the movie, because it’s not easy. “So it was complex to be with him.”

Scorsese’s marriage to Rossellini was his third; has been married five times and has been married to Helen Morris since 1999; They share their daughter Francesca, 25. He shares his daughter Cathy, 59, with his first wife Laraine Marie Brennan, and his daughter Domenica, 49, with journalist Julia Cameron; Throughout the documentary series, Scorsese’s eldest daughters reflect on growing up with a father who was not always physically available when he embarked on his film career in the 1970s and 1980s.

Scorsese and Rossellini divorced in 1982; Rossellini was then married to model-turned-Microsoft executive Jon Wiedemann from 1983 to 1986. They share a daughter, Elettra Wiedemann, 42; The actress is also the mother of Roberto Rossellini, 43 years old.

In Sr. ScorseseThe film’s protagonist tells documentary filmmaker Miller, 63, that “he had personal problems so serious that he couldn’t edit them.” The king of comedywhich resulted in the film almost getting out of hand.

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“Absolutely, yes,” he responds when asked if he was depressed at the time. «I have never experienced depression like this: trying to work, not being able to work, having problems, complaining, going crazy. “I was trying to meet other people, I was trying to start having relationships, but I never worked.”

“Without the doctor, five days a week, the phone calls on the weekends, the regular hard work to straighten my head, I would be dead,” he adds. «I was taking very strong medications and I was overcoming it. “I was very alone, but it was my fault.”

Sr. Scorsese now streaming on Apple TV.