Part 4 will be available soon.
Part 4 will be available soon.
Adjani, The Famous Stranger
6 Parts
Articles in this series:
Part 4 will be available soon.
'Adjani has AIDS': When the actress fell victim to a vicious rumor
News'Adjani, The Famous Stranger' (3/6). In 1986, rumours spread that actress Isabelle Adjani, who had appeared little since the triumph of 'L'Eté Meurtrier' ('One Deadly Summer') three years earlier, was hiding an illness. It took her several months and a dramatic television appearance to dispel the rumours.
The question struck Isabelle Adjani as odd. "Are you okay?" a friend asked her. The serious, even worried tone suggested that something might be wrong. She was, in fact, doing very well. It was 1986. The actress was 31 years old and enjoying a celebrated and admired career, having already been honored with two Césars, France's national film awards. She was doing fine, but the world around her seemed to be spinning out of control. One seemingly innocuous question led to another, and then another, each one more alarming, in a surreal conversation Adjani recounted as if she had just heard it the previous day:
"Did you hear?"
"Hear what?" the actress shot back, annoyed.
"It would be good if you went out, people would see that you are well."
"Why would I need to prove that I'm well?"
Suddenly, the slightest everyday gesture was marked by strangeness. The actress entered an era of suspicion, unable to grasp what might be threatening her, unable to understand what mark of infamy might mark her. At the Carita hair salon, as she was about to have her hair washed, she heard the woman next to her say to the hairdresser, "Josyane, you are wearing gloves, aren't you?" At restaurants, it became difficult to ask for a spoon and fork. Touching them would contaminate the rest of the tableware. "I felt like no one saw me. I would go out and make myself visible, which I hate doing, and it was as if there was no way to be seen," the actress said.
Before the advent of the internet, social media and fake news, Adjani fell victim to a vicious rumor fueled by word of mouth, one of the most striking of the late 20th century. The actress was said to have AIDS, the virus that, since the very beginning of the 1980s, had killed mostly gay men and drug users.
You have 90.99% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.