Greta Scacchi is about to begin her latest film THE BOOK OF REVELATIONS written and directed by Ana Kokkinos, whose second film this is after 'Head On' won International acclaim. Filming in Melbourne, Australia, one of three countries which can claim Greta as its citizen, Greta was born of an English dancer mother and an Italian painter father. She grew up in Milan, but later moved to England. In 1975, her parents moved again, to Australia, where Greta worked simultaneously as a cowgirl and as an Italian translator, while also securing assignments as a fashion model. 
At 18 she returned to England to study at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre, where she was discovered shortly after graduation in 1982 by German Director Dominik Graf, who cast her in DAS ZWEITE GESICHT. For this opportunity she learned to speak German. Soon afterwards she was cast by James Ivory in the Merchant-Ivory Production of HEAT AND DUST, which received rapturous reviews, and won additional acclaim in Dusan Makaveyev's THE COCA COLA KID and GOOD MORNING BABYLON for the Taviani Brothers. But it was her tour de force appearance in Michael Radford's WHITE MISCHIEF that really made Hollywood sit up and take notice.

She began playing leading roles in films as varied as Alan J. Pakula’s PRESUMED INNOCENT opposite Harrison Ford, SHATTERED for Wolfgang Petersen, Robert Altman's THE PLAYER, Mike Figgis’ THE BROWNING VERSION opposite Albert Finney, and working again with Merchant-Ivory, JEFFERSON IN PARIS. EMMA and Francois Girard’s THE RED VIOLIN followed. She won an Emmy playing the doomed Tsarina Alexandra opposite Ian McKellen and Alan Rickman in HBO’s RASPUTIN, directed by Uli Edel. Other more recent films include Henry Jaglom’s FESTIVAL IN CANNES and LOOKING FOR ALIBRANDI opposite Anthony La Paglia.

Returning to film in Hollywood in 2004, Greta completed work on FLIGHT PLAN opposite Jodie Foster and Peter Sarsgaard, which followed on the heels of SYRIANA,the Steven Gaghan-directed Section 8 Production for Warner Bros starring George Clooney, Matt Damon, Chris Cooper and Amanda Peet. Scacchi plays Margaret Baer, the disaffected wife of Clooney’s character--Robert Baer--upon whose autobiography this film is based. The story of a covert operative in the CIA’s Middle East ‘Office’, this is the third film of recent time to bring her back to US screens. She can currently be seen in BEYOND THE SEA, the Bobby Darin biography, written by, directed by and starring Kevin Spacey.

Meanwhile Scacchi has stayed active in theatre. In January 2004, she took on the challenging role of performing in Harold Pinter’s ‘Old Times’ on tour in Italy completely in Italian. For her work, she was named Best Actress in a Play in the 2004 Italian Theatre Awards. The play was directed by Roberto Ando, who previously directed Greta in 2003’s SOTTO FALSO NOME, an Italian-French co-production starring Daniel Auteuil. The multi-lingual Scacchi performed her role as Auteuil’s wife entirely in French.

Some of Greta’s earlier theatre credits include Easy Virtue (Chichester Festival Theatre), Simpatico, and Miss Julie (Sydney Theatre Company), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Original Shakespeare Company), A Doll's House (Festival of Perth), Uncle Vanya (Vaudeville Theatre, London), Airbase (Oxford Playhouse and Arts Theatre), In Times Like These (Bristol Old Vic) and Cider With Rosie (Phoenix Arts Theatre, Leicester).

She lives near Brighton in Sussex in England, with her husband Carlo and her two children Leila and Matteo.

Credit: music4film.com