Loves of My Life: Greta Bellamacina

The best interviews are often the most personal. In Loves of My Life, we get to know the person behind their craft, asking them the important questions we're desperate to know—the restaurants and date-night spots, what's in their Saved folder on Instagram, the piece of jewellery they're most attached to and what's lurking at the bottom of their handbag. In short, these are the true loves of their life. Next up is the multifaceted model, poet and actress Greta Bellamacina.

What's your number one restaurant to visit in the world, and what do you order?

"For sentimental reasons, it would be Feng Shang Princess, the floating restaurant in Primrose Hill on the canal. We spontaneously went there after we got married at Camden Town Hall. People on boats all waved to us as they went by. It was an extremely hot day. My friend Chloe made a cake decorated with flowers from her garden, and we shared it with the restaurant."

Is there anything in your wardrobe that you're particularly sentimental about?

"The vintage items I have collected along my travels over the years that remind me of the trips we've been on. I have a long, black velvet opera-style coat that I bought in Baltimore when we were there to launch my poetry book Tomorrow's Woman with the U.S. publisher Andrews McMeel. I also have a pair of white vintage Chloé boots that I found on a trip to New Orleans when we toured around Texas and Louisiana and the Deep South. They bring back those memories every time I pick them up. Boots and short shorts are pretty good for the climate in the Deep South."

Which item of clothing would you never ever part with, and why?

"It would have to be the long white Vampire's Wife dress that I wore to my premiere in Rome for the film Commedia. It has two white trailing bows on the front. I felt like a white swan in a black-and-white film in it. I will always hold on to that dress as a kind of wedding dress to my life."

What would we always find lurking in the bottom of your bag?

"Train tickets, receipts, aspirins, headphones, bags of half-eaten nuts and a Chanel lipstick. Mademoiselle is my favourite—it's the most natural and classic lip colour."

If you could only holiday in one place for the rest of your life, where would it be?

"Naples, it's where my Italian family descend from. I love the wild spirit of the place and the beaches where the locals go. Naples has spots where you can walk down hidden staircases, go under the roads, and you come out onto the most cinematic beaches with little restaurants and children playing naked in the sea. There is an optimism to the chaos of life. Family and children are part of everything in Naples. I love that way of living."

What do you love to do in your spare time?

"I've become a bit of an amateur gardener. I love the circularity of it all—the care, the lack of knowing and the blind hope. We're currently harvesting our garlic crop that we planted in winter. I'm planning on hanging them all up along the kitchen window to dry out. Hopefully, we will have enough for the kitchen for the year ahead."

Do you have a secret date-night spot?

"We have secret little rooftop balcony from our bedroom where we sometimes hide and drink wine if there are lots of people in the house and we need to escape. It's also south facing, so it's the perfect sun-trap."

What's your most played on Spotify?

"At the moment, it's The Waterboys, but it shifts between Morrissey, Jeff Buckley, Nick Cave and newer artists I have just discovered, like the incredible Mereki Beach, who just released an album called Death of a Cloud which I absolutely love."

If we were to look in your Saved folder, what would we find?

"I have a continuous PDF that I often work out of—phrases, words and ideas that I am always moving around on the page. My poetry collections tend to come out of these PDFs. Some of the poems haunt around in my consciousness for a long time. Some just live inside the doc. I like the evolving way it moves, like the wind. The train is my favourite place to edit and write into them. I like to be moving."

What's your favourite city for inspiration?

"Rome. I spent a lot of time in Rome over the last few years, making the films Commedia and Things and Other Things with [Italian director] Riccardo Vannuccini. He showed me an undiscovered side to the city, a more melancholic, avant-garde look onto the streets. We also did an anti-war theatre performance together at the Ara Pacis, the ancient monument dedicated to the god of peace. Rome is a city of grand hope."

What about your favourite city for fun?

"Paris is always fun. I think it's the way it's set up for socialising and daydreaming. Every corner has a little chair set up for the possibility of thinking. Deborah Levy explains it well in her book August Blue. Paris is like a lost romantic who is always waiting."

What do you always pack when you go on holiday?

"Before I go on holiday, I often take a trip to Mr Cad in Victoria and buy lots of film for my camera. It's one of my favourite shops in London. You can buy any missing part for a camera in there. They have it all."

Think fast. What are your three favourite movies of all time?

"This is very hard, but I think often about Badlands by Terrence Malick [and] Opening Night by [John] Cassavetes, and I just discovered Mia Hansen-Løve's films and really enjoyed Bergman Island and One Fine Morning. I love the poetry of her films."

Share a piece of advice from someone you love that always stuck.

"It's important to stay to true to your soul. I think life and art has to come from you first. The audience will follow. I think it's often a mistake to think about the audience first. Only you know the answer."

What's your favourite scent?

"Sycomore by Chanel."

Do you collect anything?

"Lots of things—poetry books, shells, paintings, photographs, children's drawings… I also have a lot of tights, mainly white or cream. I have a whole drawer dedicated to them."

Coffee, tea, wine, cocktail—what's your ultimate poison?

"I love a strong black coffee first thing. I've been told many times you need to start the day with water, but coffee feels like the right ceremonial way to begin the day. I've been lucky enough to make two films in Italy. Both film sets and our days centred around the thickest and darkest coffee breaks, which I loved."

What's your biggest guilty pleasure?

"Turning my phone off. I often purposely leave my phone at the top of the house. That way, I am forced to be in the moment. I hate feeling like I am always on call, that I'm a part of the empty space. I'm having to relearn the way I use technology [and] detach myself from its alarm."

Who is your professional hero?

"Anyone who has led with their hearts and taken the shaky road."

Who is your personal hero?

"Sofia Coppola. I think there is a grace and subtle female language to all of her films. Also Paula Rego for her blank realism."

Who are the loves of your life?

"My family, the boys, my husband Robert Montgomery."

What is the love of your life?

"The morning and its eternal unravel."

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