Greta Bellamacina

Photo Courtesy Of Greta Bellamacina

WHERE ARE YOU RIGHT NOW AND HAVE YOU ALWAYS LIVED THERE?
I live in Fitzrovia, a ghost world of literary history and silent rage. I’ve lived here for maybe eight years now. I like that where ever you are in London if you just look for the BT Tower it will guide you home.

WHERE WERE YOU BORN AND RAISED?
I was born in Hampstead in London and went to school in Camden Town. I spent a lot of time on Hampstead Heath sitting in circles with school friends and going to underage gigs in Camden. I never felt bored.

WHAT'S THE BEST THING ABOUT YOUR CITY OR HOMETOWN?
I think the best thing is the theatre and the literature. London is a perpetual stage of non conformists and visionaries that change the way we see the world. I like the punk attitude to just making things for yourself.

WHAT WERE YOUR ASPIRATIONS GROWING UP?
I have always loved performing, no matter what it happened to be. I studied ballet for 18 years, there is something about the subtle language of gesture which has always fascinated me, I love the poetry of it. I’ve always been drawn to the idea that you can make your own utopia through art.

WHY THE CREATIVE FIELD (EVERYTHING THAT YOU DO)?
Because poetry and film have always been my truest way of communicating. I starting acting very young. I am always drawn to slightly troubled people. Living is sometimes the most painful thing, you can only hope to find someone else who understands you. To me, that is what acting is and poetry is the music.

WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND TRAINING?
I went to drama school for a year at RADA, then studied English at King’s College London. But the best training I ever had was reading, you learn so much. My first editing job was a collection of international poetry. I went to the poetry library everyday on the Southbank over looking the river. I learnt so much more than I’ve ever done. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was that I got to explore the bookshelves without any interruption.

WHAT IS YOUR PROCESS FROM CONCEPT TO CREATION?
It really depends on what I am working on, whether its a poem or a film role, I find what connects all of them is a wave of music that I am perpetually searching for, it’s the broken beauty of normal life. At the moment my latest poetry collection, "Perishing Tame", is being translated into Spanish. I often get daily emails from the translator asking the meaning behind certain lines. This has been a really interesting process. It’s been like someone else holding up a mirror to a parallel universe. I have also been writing a script for the past year and a half and currently in the process of pre-production. This has been an on going love affair with a world you want other people to live in.

WHAT OR WHO HAS HAD THE BIGGEST INFLUENCE ON YOU?
I think it has been partly my childhood, I think when you’re from a big family. You learn quickly what your voice is, you know when you should fight and when you should just let go and forgive. We always where encouraged to read books, challenge one another, but also take nothing for granted. We would go on these long road trips through Europe together every summer. Often unplanned and with little budget, but these where some of my happiest memories. Other inspirations are my own family, I feel so lucky that I can share and collaborate with them. I like how we travel like a gypsies with no other goal but to create and share stories.

HOW DOES YOUR AESTHETIC TRANSLATE ELSEWHERE? 
I think it changes depending on what I’m working on. I just played the lead in a film called "The Last Birthday" which was set in the late 18th century. I kind of became obsessed with that Victorian era. My whole aesthetic is super emotional, if it makes me feel something then I will find a way to live through it.

WHAT BEAUTY ROUTINE DO YOU SWEAR BY?
Lots of sleep and standing in the sunshine no matter the weather. You will always find a ray if you look hard enough.

WHAT DO YOU GET UP TO WHEN YOU'RE NOT WORKING?
I love nothing more in the world than spending the day with my son Lorca and my husband Robert Montgomery.

HOW DO YOU UNWIND?
Listening to music, the radio in the bath, watering the plants at my window.