Jo Champa, godmother of the sixth edition of the Maria Callas Tribute Prize NY, talks to Italia Report USA: career, love and motherhood.
Italia Report USA
By Lisa Bernardini
March 16, 2016
There is a definition that Jo Champa loves to give of herself, simple yet very profound: she describes herself first of all as Sean's mother. Yet, for the world of cinema and fashion, Jo is literally an icon of Italianness who has been able to conquer Hollywood without ever losing her roots.
Born in New Jersey to an American mother and a father of Calabrian origin, she embodied that "double emigration" that made her a natural bridge between two worlds. His career is a journey among the great masters: from Ettore Scola to Bernardo Bertolucci, up to Sofia Coppola in Somewhere.
But Jo wasn't alone in front of the camera; she was the muse of giants of photography such as Helmut Newton and Douglas Kirkland, bringing to the set a sensitivity that she herself defines as the duty of art: to provoke emotions, never leave you indifferent.
Today, the actress of Don Juan De Marco, tireless promoter of Italian cinema in Los Angeles, talks to the microphones of Lisa Bernardini, editor of Italia Report USA. A narrative that highlights the woman who has made authenticity her stylistic signature, and who has chosen to live with her feet on the ground and her heart turned to her passions.
We meet her in New York, on a very elegant evening at the Columbus Citizens Foundation on the occasion of International Women's Day, as godmother of the sixth edition of the Maria Callas Tribute Prize NY. This prestigious award was awarded to her last year. Conceived by Dante Mariti of Melos International, it is an award that celebrates female excellence, acting as a cultural bridge between Italy and the USA.
Ours was a quick but intense chat.
The interview
Your thoughts on Maria Callas and on this award dedicated to women that takes its cue from her name. It is an important award.
Maria Callas was a woman of many facets. In her simplicity, hypersensitive and talented. I would say immense. In my imagination, when I think of Maria Callas, I also think of Marilyn Monroe. Both women full of talent, iconic… that they have been used by men, and that they are “tragic” because they believed in their art as a form of connection with eternity, with a desire to live a magical existence, without being able to connect their art with their reality. Wonderful women. And tragic life, with death at a young age, make this type of figure eternal. The myth is born.
You started your career as a young model for Versace. What do you remember about that period?
It was an intense period, different from how the world of fashion is structured today. We are talking about the Eighties, and the people who are there now do not resemble those of then. In those days we believed we were making art, and we did it. Today Fashion is mostly a strictly industrial matter.
What are the differences between the world of fashion and that of cinema? You have experienced both.
The world of fashion lives for moments. Even if you do a shooting outside for three days, or you rehearse and then come back, for example, to do the Fashion Week in Milan, it is still a very limited time, of human relationships that you leave after a while, running away somewhere else. Cinema, on the other hand, takes longer. We’re talking about two, three, sometimes four or five months of set. As a result, you build deeper relationships with the people you work with.
In 1991 you moved to Los Angeles. Promoter of Italian cinema in Hollywood and producer, in 2009 you received the America Award from the Italy-USA Foundation. Will you ever go back to live in Italy?
Actually, I visit Italy very often, but I do it discreetly and silently. Yes, I'm thinking about coming back.
You married Joseph Farrell, producer and Academy Award member, who passed away in 2011, in 1998, with whom you had your son Sean in 2004. A great love. Would you relive everything the same, or would you change something in your life?
I would relive everything the same. I wouldn’t be who I am today if I hadn’t had that life.
Today you are going through a third phase of your existence: you are a producer and a journalist. Can you tell us about this period?
I want to clarify that I do not consider myself a journalist: I have too much respect for journalists. My mother was, and my brother was for a while. I am aware that my signature has always been interesting: Jo Ciampa, model and actress, who wrote articles for important magazines, such as Diva and Donna or Vogue Italia. As far as I'm concerned, I've always lived the moment as a creative fact, with the freedom to be able to interview or meet whoever I wanted, and when I wanted to do it.
And when will you return to the cinema as an actress?
When they offer me a right role.
So you confirm that the actress door is not yet closed?
Once you are an actor, you are an actor forever.
A final thought on International Women’s Day.
We women are much stronger than we realize. Every time we are given a knock that knocks us down, we somehow always get back on our feet.
The resilience of women.
Oh, yes: men are not endowed with it like we do.
We say goodbye to Jo Champa with the promise to see each
other again in Rome, and a clear feeling that remains: of having spoken with a
personality who has the innate gift of being a woman-emblem. An energetic and
overwhelming figure, who embodies the perfect balance between Italian roots and
international glamour.
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