Betsey Johnson

“I would like to start with the movie that inspired me to want to become a Rockette, which unfortunately I didn’t get around to doing. But I loved Moira Shearer in this exotic, bizarre, artistically over-the-top, colorful, extreme, wonderful story, and it’s called The Red Shoes. It’s just a fantasy of raw…”

“This is my all-time cornball, but wonderfully… Well, mostly Nicolas Cage couldn’t look more hot and sexy when he’s down in the bakery ovens with his little guinea tee, and Cher, and I just love… I always enjoy watching Moonstruck, no matter what. It’s just a great little old movie for any time of day and night to watch with anyone and everyone, and it’s an upper.”

“All righty, now let’s see something opposite. I can’t get this movie, I… I don’t like it when I can’t get a movie out of my head, but I can’t. It is Silence of the Lambs. Just chilling. To this day, Hannibal, to this day, the sniffing thing brings me right back to the movie.”

“Blue Velvet. This is Isabella Rossellini. She’s been on my runway, the loveliest lady ever. And, whoo, is she… a wicked, wild, mysteriously strange woman in this movie. Just… gorgeous. Frightening, but a different kind of frightening than Silence of the Lambs. This frightening I kind of like because it’s… it’s just so glamorous and beautifully visually done. You almost feel the Blue Velvet part of it. It’s just… It’s wonderful. I love it.”

“How did I ever happen to see McCabe & Mrs. Miller? Well, I’m a total, forever Julie Christie fan. So that started me off on the movie. Warren Beatty, okay. Early pioneer across America in the cold. Poor Julie Christie is running I think the little whorehouse with the ladies, so it’s very sexy, decadent, very kind of early Victoriana or… prairie dress cross, you know, hard life, cross country, snow, wet, rain, freezing cold. And of course she falls in love with Warren Beatty. Here we go. Oh, boy, there he is in the big fur coat and the bowler, whatever kind of hat that is. But anyway, it’s an unusual movie. It’s a very sensitive, artistic, beautifully done, very memorable, I don’t know why. For me, very, very memorable. And Julie Christie is brilliant.”