“We Need Fantasy, Darling”: Rossy de Palma Strips Down for the Holidays

When the minds behind the Spanish brand Bimba y Lola called up Rossy de Palma to star in their Christmas campaign, she was confused. “I’m not a very Christmas-y person,” the beloved actress remarked. “And the world is a little bit like science fiction now.” But de Palma tossed aside her self professed Grinch-like tendencies and took the ask in stride, exploring the lighter side of the holidays by transforming her hair into Christmas tree of its own, briefly stripping off, and decking herself out with cutesy animal charms and Scrabble-like letters from the collection. “We are in a very cynical world now, and we have to balance it with having fun and being innocent and genuine. It’s a great antidote to all that,” she said to Interview‘s Fashion Director Dara, to which the two firmly agreed: “In times of crisis, we must decorate.” 

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ROSSY DE PALMA: Hi.

DARA: Hi! 

DE PALMA: Where are you now? Is it Washington Square? 

DARA: No, I’m on Lafayette, actually. Right by the office, just grabbing a bite.

DE PALMA: I like your office.

DARA: Oh, thank you. I love your earrings. They’re beautiful.

DE PALMA: Yes. These are from Mitra Farahani, who is an Iranian director. Very beautiful girl. She made them and offered them to me. They’re amazing. Look.

DARA: They’re gorgeous. 

DE PALMA: They are. What a gift.

DARA: Where are you now?

DE PALMA: Madrid.

DARA: Madrid! Speaking of beautiful magical jewelry, can you tell me a little bit about this campaign and how you got involved?

DE PALMA: Yes. For me, Bimba y Lola is something very familiar. Even though we didn’t know each other personally, we’ve always had a very fluid relationship. Somebody always contacts me to send me some stuff. Even if I see something in a shop and I buy it, they send it to me. It was like a reciprocity that was very natural. And then suddenly, they called me for the Christmas campaign.

DARA: When did you shoot it?

DE PALMA: We shot it just a month ago.

DARA: Oh my goodness. So recent. 

DE PALMA: Yes. When they contacted me, I said “I’m not a very Christmas-y person.” The world is a little bit like science fiction now.

DARA: It’s a very surreal world we live in.

DE PALMA: It’s like hyperreality, no? When I was a little girl, there were all these movies about very evil people that were going to command the world, and then the superheroes arrived. Now I say, “It seems like those movies, but where are the superheroes?” I only see the evils. I don’t see superheroes.

DARA: We need a hero. 

DE PALMA: I think people with hearts, people who have compassion and empathy, we can be superheroes together. But it’s true that the evil forces are very strong. So when they asked me to do the campaign, I said, “Okay.” Since I was a little girl, I always felt sad at Christmas because I was always thinking about the people who have no money to buy presents or who have no family to be with.

DARA: Yeah, it’s a bittersweet time of year. 

DE PALMA: Always bittersweet. And then I said to all the amazing Bimba y Lola staff, “Listen, we have to do something funny, but light. Something for people who love Christmas, but people who don’t love it can still sympathize.” It’s fun playing with all these cliches of Christmas, but in a very light way. Not taking it seriously, yet at the same time giving some funny and beautiful things to celebrate that we are alive. We have to celebrate it, it’s our obligation. 

DARA: I agree. 

DE PALMA: Even now that I have friends that lost some people and I say, “Listen, we are all going to die one day or another.” Of course we are sad, but let’s celebrate for them and for us, that we are still living.” A friend of mine always says, “To be alive is already a success.” When we are healthy, we have to say thank you. Gratitude can be the perfect antidote, you know what I mean? Because we always have something to be grateful for. 

DARA: Yes. A smile is so universal that even if you don’t speak the same language, everyone understands the joy that comes from it. And that’s what’s so funny in the pictures, the Christmas tree hair.

DE PALMA: I always put everything on my head. I don’t know why.

DARA: Really?

DE PALMA: It’s really my thing. You don’t need that much to celebrate Christmas. You need to be funny, to be with people who you love, but the idea of Christmas doesn’t have to be so ambitious. We don’t need that much stuff. 

DARA: Do you have any Christmas traditions you do every year with you and your loved ones?

DE PALMA: In Spain, we have Papa Noel, like everybody. But also, on the last day of the year, we eat on the 12 sounds of the bell. We eat one grape for each.

DARA: Oh my god. My family does this!

DE PALMA: And this is very funny because when I lived in Paris, we didn’t have that. And I was like, “How boring!” But we have a lot of stuff that is typical, like turrón, which is so delicious. It’s something that they handcraft with the almonds. And we have polvorones.

DARA: Oh, I love polvorones. 

DE PALMA: We have a lot of stuff that is very, very typical from Spain. But not a lot of people know. My daughter loves Christmas and I’m very happy about that, because my son and I don’t like it. At least I say, “Thank god I didn’t traumatize her.” When she puts up all the decorations, she really loves that. It’s all the Bimba charms. Put it in the tree–

DARA: In a real tree or all over the house?

DE PALMA: In a real tree, mixed with all the decorations.

DARA: Do you have a favorite of the charms that you like the most?

DE PALMA: I like the animals.

DARA: Yes! So cute.

DE PALMA: But also all the letters, because it’s like Scrabble with the charms.

DARA: A necklace of Scrabble. Amazing.

DE PALMA: Yes. I’m a little bit of a Grinch, but a good Grinch. 

DARA: I love that you’re a Grinch in a Christmas campaign. It means you’re bringing it all together: everyone who hates Christmas and loves it.

DE PALMA: The best thing is to be honest, darling.

DARA: I agree.

DE PALMA: We don’t have to be fake at all. We come from the heart.

DARA: That’s the best way to celebrate, I think. Are you going to do the Christmas hair on Christmas?

DE PALMA: I love the Christmas hair.

DARA: You have to do the hair.

DE PALMA: And then I’ll put up all the lights.

DARA: Oh, tangled up in the lights?

DE PALMA: Yes, around me, and that is very funny. “What are you going to wear for the holidays?” The lights.

DARA: Just the lights. You don’t need more.

DE PALMA: Go naked in New York with all the lights around you.

DARA: That’s deeply glamorous. I love it.

DE PALMA: It’s perfect for Amanda Lepore.

DARA: Oh, totally. She would look amazing in just Christmas lights. What’s your craziest party story? Do you have a really good one?

DE PALMA: I don’t know. I just became 60 years old, darling. I’ve done so much.

DARA: No memory of what happened those nights.

DE PALMA: No. Too much partying. 

DARA: What’s your tip for throwing a really good party? 

DE PALMA: Now, all these people who are specialists in entertainment, they do amazing things, with good music and good company. A lot of fantasy around our clothes. We need fantasy, darling, more than ever. All the time the world has a crisis, and we need to compensate for all that to balance it. Now, all the feathers are going to come out.

DARA: Glamor is my favorite coping mechanism, for sure.

DE PALMA: Of course. And a lot of makeup too. We have to put all the stuff on.

DARA: That’s a great way to put it. We have to put it all on, all our Bimba y Lola charms. In times of crisis, we must decorate.