Meet The Actress Who Inspired Demi Moore To Become An Actor
She was inspired by her next door neighbor.
getty images Demi Moore's memoir "Inside Out" is making waves. She's letting it all hang out and it is fascinating.
From her turbulent, nomadic childhood to her Hollywood relationships, Demi Moore is giving readers an inside look at what it's like to be Demi Moore.
One of the fun tidbits she disclosed is that her next-door neighbor growing up in Los Angeles was Nastassja Kinski and she was the actress who inspired Demi to get into acting.
Who is Nastassja Kinski?
1. Natassja Kinski is German.
Nastassja Kinski is 60 years old, born on January 24, 1961, in West Berlin.
She is the daughter of well-known German actor Klaus Kinski and his second wife, actress Ruth Brigitte Tocki.
Nastassja is of Polish and German descent.
2. She's an actress and a model.
Kinski started modeling as a teenager. When she was 12, she was cast in the 1975 Wim Wenders film "The Wrong Move," in which she was topless. In 1976, Kinski appeared in the British horror film "To the Devil a Daughter," which she shot when she was 14 and in which she appeared in a scene where she was complete, full-frontal naked.
She also starred in "One from the Heart" (1982), "Cat People" (1982), "The Moon in the Gutter" (1983), "Exposed" (1983), "The Hotel New Hampshire" (1984), "Paris Texas" (1984), "Maria's Lovers" (1985) and "Faraway, So Close!" (1993).
She gained her popularity in the U.S. in 1979 when she starred in the Italian romance "Stay as You Are (Così come sei)" with Marcello Mastroianni.
Years later, in an interview with W Magazine, she said: "If I had had somebody to protect me or if I had felt more secure about myself, I would not have accepted certain things. Nudity things. And inside it was just tearing me apart."
3. Kinski's father allegedly sexually abused her.
Kinski's father is German actor and film icon Klaus Kinski.
He starred in more than 130 films, mostly known for his lead roles in Werner Herzog films including "Aguirre, the Wrath of God," "Nosferatu the Vampyre," "Woyzeck, Fitzcarraldo," and "Cobra Verde."
Herzog and Kinski had a 15-year working relationship, which ended after "Cobra Verde" because of clashes between production and Klaus including violent physical altercations, and death threats. In the only film that he directed called "Paganini" he yet again had issues between him and his producers, as they accused him of making the movie more pornographic and they sued him in court.
Klaus died of a sudden heart attack on November 23, 1991, at his home in Lagunitas, California.
In 2013, Nastassja Kinski accused her father of attempting to sexually abuse her. She said he didn't rape her, but that he tried to.
In an interview with "Bild am Sonntag," she said: "He always touched me far too much, held me so tightly against him that I thought I could not escape. At the time I was four or five years old and we were living in Munich."
Nastassja's allegations followed those of her sister Pola Kinski, who claimed her father started abusing her when she was five and raped her for the first time when she was nine.
4. She is known for her iconic Vogue Python photo.
In 1981, acclaimed photographer Richard Avedon took a photo of then 20-year-old Kinski for Vogue. She was naked with a Burmese python wrapped around her body.
The photo was released as a poster and became a best-seller that hung on the walls of teenage boys throughout the 1980s, cementing Nastassja's status as a sex symbol.
5. Kinski has a connection to Roman Polanski.
In 1976, Nastassja met director Roman Polanski at a party. Kinski got into method acting with Lee Strasberg in the U.S. after Polanski urged her to study and convinced her to take classes with Strasberg as he was a renowned acting teacher.
Polanski also offered her the title role in 1979's "Tess" (1979), which went on to score at the box office and was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. It won three.
6. Kinski married a filmmaker.
Kinski was rumored to be in a romantic relationship with then 43-year-old Roman Polanski when she was 15. She has characterized it as a flirtation, not a seduction.
In 1984, Kinski married Ibrahim Moussa, an Egyptian filmmaker. They have two children — son Aljosha was born in 1984 and daughter Sonja was born in 1986. Her marriage to Moussa ended in 1992.
Nastassja was also in a relationship with Quincy Jones from 1992 to 1995. Their daughter Kenya Kinski-Jones was born in 1993.
7. Natassja Kinski was Demi Moore's neighbor.
Demi Moore was working as a model and pinup girl in her teen years. She enrolled in acting classes because of Nastassja Kinski, who was her 17-year-old next-door neighbor at the time.
Amy Lamare is a Los Angeles-based writer and editor covering entertainment, pop culture, beauty, fashion, fitness, technology, and the intersection of technology, business, and philanthropy. You can find her on Instagram and Facebook.