For us who have only seen it in movies or read about it somewhere so far, it’s like there were at least three Audrey Hepburn. Quite fragile, light as a breath and charming. The first, but only in the chronological sense, He roamed the streets of Rome on the saddle of a Vespa. The second had breakfast with me Croissant and cappuccino in front of Tiffany’s New York window. And the third flew to Ethiopia to help children Victims of the terrible famine caused by years of drought and civil war.
Admired by women and men for different reasons, Audrey Hepburn earned her cult status because she approached perfection: Empathetic and charismatic, charming in her image and divine in her way of being. On the thirtieth anniversary of his disappearance – which took place on January 20, 1993 – his son Sean Hepburn Ferrer (born of Hepburn’s relationship with Mel Ferrer) tells us, “The branch everyone fell in love with was actually a deep-rooted oak”.
Sean, anniversaries can be a wound that reopens.
I’m calm, don’t worry. I constantly feel my mother’s presence. It’s like his energy revitalizes over time to continue inspiring everyone. Do you think a Luca Guadagnino film with Rooney Mara and a TV series produced by Wildside and my brother Luca Dotti are in the works? And there are many other projects that will be made official soon.
The narrative through images reveals that his mother – apart from being one of the most photographed and reproduced icons in history – is also the undisputed protagonist of the digital age.
Yes, it’s viral all the time. While contemporary celebrities strive every day to create moments for their social networks, Audrey Hepburn is the protagonist of an infinite number of pages dedicated to her.
Audrey Hepburn was the angel of good deeds ahead of other actresses, princesses and influencers.
It worries me that after 35 years the situation has not improved. It’s like we haven’t learned anything at all.
Can you explain that to us better?
Naturally. As you know, my mother was a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador for the five years prior to her disappearance. She took her image as an actress and her economic independence as an opportunity to give back what she had received. He lived this experience with a heightened sense of duty and realized how utterly wrong the system of charity was. In fact, he argued that people in difficulty needed to be given not only the bare minimum necessary to survive, but most importantly, the tools that would enable them to be independent. He considered schooling to be the essential path for the education of these peoples, since through study, culture and knowledge they could have changed their destiny. She was firmly convinced that targeted and sustainable measures would solve the problem. And he was right.
His mother was a visionary. Through his humanitarian mission, he has taught everyone that very little is enough to be part of the solution and not the problem.
That’s it. He had a Victorian upbringing. He felt his contribution in having to stand in line to pass the bucket full of water when there was a fire to put out. He had suffered from starvation in Holland during World War II. She was lucky to survive at the end of the war and received help from Unicef. This experience did not dry her up, but further sensitized her. He kept repeating that it is not only necessary to feed the stomach, but above all the soul and heart of these children.
A real political manifesto.
She firmly believed that it was necessary to work for the good of others without ever making any economic gain, otherwise everything would have started to creak and break. And in many cases it was.
He had foreseen virtually everything that we would read in the pages of the newspapers a few decades later. It is no coincidence that the public’s image of his mother was that of a woman willing to embrace her neighbor in absolute honesty.
It was just like that. The public never got any other idea of what she was. She was and is loved for her human qualities. He has always told me since I was a child: “Start from the bottom and if one day you can achieve something, you must have great respect for the gentleman standing in the corner with the broom in his hand”. Believe me, it was a lesson that forged my being.
Let’s face it: some women are magical, you can’t explain what they have more than others.
She was a woman blessed with a set of simple, clean, and imported choices. Without ever trying to do too much and badly, but little and well. She didn’t feel beautiful. His style came from a lack of awareness. She used the gaze to be appropriate, never feeling better but always the same as the others. True to the rule of taking more away than adding.
That’s why Audrey Hepburn continues to penetrate the hearts of the new generations.
He didn’t like buying clothes for every fashion season, preferring to have clothes that he could reuse over time. In fact, his coats have stood the test of time. There are even photos that confirm this. My mother never followed fashion but created her own style.
Sean, how did you live with a mother like that?
I didn’t live in Hollywood, but in a house in the Swiss countryside with a mother who, at the height of her successful career, reversed course to devote herself full-time to the children. But it wasn’t a sacrifice for her, it was what she wanted most.
When did you realize he was the son of a celebrity?
When they called me from the next room as a kid to say Mum was on TV, it didn’t seem like anything out of the ordinary. Over time I realized that she was an actress. To find out more, I spread a sheet in the attic and started watching 16mm copies of his films on an old projector. That’s when I realized – me too – how good Audrey Hepburn was.
However, Audrey wasn’t entirely convinced of her own talent, was she?
Yes, she didn’t feel like a great actress at all. Of course, he wasn’t as big as Bette Davis… He was a movie star without the capricious culture of fame.
What about thirty without her?
This is not only the year of his death, but also the seventieth year of the Roman feast day. As I said, I still feel it present because many – especially young people – ask me for anecdotes, stories and narratives. I’m happy to stop doing that, I do the same with her, because I realize how much she’s still burned into the collective memory. Sometimes I smile and think that Audrey Hepburn has long since replaced James Dean on the teen’s closet door.
His commitment over these three decades was immense.
I worked mainly to protect her image from speculation, and with passion and dedication I carried out a work that could bring out my mother’s human worth more and more. I firmly believe that if he were physically with us today, he would speak to us about the importance of always looking out for others.
Sean, what was the biggest lesson Audrey Hepburn left you with?
She was strictly averse to any kind of ideology. Her parents’ fascist attitude bothered her so much that she wanted to distance herself from them. He did not believe in global guilt, but in the responsibility of all of us to be able to change reality. He taught me to stay away from political extremism and religious fundamentalism, because all the greatest humanitarian tragedies spring from their very anger. Growing up in an ideology-free environment is perhaps my mother’s greatest gift.