‘Possession’: The movie that made Isabelle Adjani attempt suicide
French actor Isabella Adjani holds the record as the only person in history to have won five Cesar awards for acting, all in the ‘Best Actress’ category. She has delivered phenomenal performances in Possession, One Deadly Summer, Camille Claudel, La Reine Margot and Skirt Day, but the first of those is arguably the most harrowing.
Possession is Andrzej Żuławski’s 1981 movie in which Sam Neill plays an international spy, Mark, who separates from his wife, Anna (played by Adjani), who then starts behaving in a peculiar and terrifying manner. Adjani’s effort in the film, which defies genre, is nothing short of mesmerising.
However, the nature of the role was a lot for Adjani to bear, and it seemed to cause a great mental strain on the actor. One scene in particular, in which Anna suffers a strange, demonic and horrific miscarriage in an underground walkway and completely loses her mind and control of her body, looks to have taken its toll on Adjani, even if her performance was widely praised.
Discussing the production of the scene, Żuławski noted, “There were two takes. This scene was filmed at five in the morning when the subway was closed. I knew it was worth a lot of effort for [Adjani], both emotionally and physically because it was cold there. It was unthinkable to repeat this scene endlessly. Most of what’s left on the screen is the first take”.
The second take was made merely as a “safety net” in case the first could not be processed properly by the development lab. But even in just two takes, combined with the rest of the film, Adjani was left in a physically and mentally vulnerable state, completely drained after her intense performance.
According to the actor herself, it took many years for her to recover and be ready for another role. In fact, there were rumours that Adjani had attempted suicide after production wrapped, which was later confirmed by Żuławski. “When she saw the film,” he said, “She tried to commit suicide – took a shaver with two blades and cut her wrists.”
Żuławski naturally felt “responsible” for Adjani’s mental well-being after starring in his movie, noting, “I thought I was responsible; I was the one to blame. If somebody plays in my film and then goes through something like that, that means that I didn’t notice something. I wasn’t able to protect her.”
He told Adjani that her performance would bring fruit in terms of her future, “And that’s exactly what happened.”
Sam Neill also admitted that he found the entire experience of Possession an extreme affair and would likely think twice about starring in such a feature ever again. “I call it the most extreme film I’ve ever made,” Neill said. “In every possible respect, and he asked of us things I wouldn’t and couldn’t go to now. And I think I only just escaped that film with my sanity barely intact.”