{"id":510924,"date":"2020-09-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/numero.com\/culture\/ive-had-very-very-bad-trips-on-lsd-the-cult-interview-with-charlotte-rampling-2\/"},"modified":"2020-09-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","slug":"ive-had-very-very-bad-trips-on-lsd-the-cult-interview-with-charlotte-rampling-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/numero.com\/en\/culture-en\/ive-had-very-very-bad-trips-on-lsd-the-cult-interview-with-charlotte-rampling-2\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019ve had very, very bad trips on LSD.\u201d The cult interview with Charlotte Rampling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Charlotte Rampling by David Bailey.<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \n

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You once said that you saw interviews as a form of therapy. Hit the couch, then, Charlotte, and tell me about your childhood.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n

I grew up in different places; my father was in the army. We spent a couple of years in Wales, before moving to Norfolk, and then Fontainebleau. My childhood was alright. It wasn’t unhappy. <\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

As a teenager, were you already the picture of decorum that you are today?<\/strong> <\/p>\r\n\r\n

I was quite a fiery teenager; rather rebellious. My sister and I began earning a living very young, and both went off and did our own thing. It was the beginning of the sixties in London: there were jobs for everybody, and it was very easy to do a bit of modelling, get a flat and get going. It was an easy time for young people then.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Just how psychedelic were your swinging sixties?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n

I dabbled with drugs, although I’m fortunate enough not to have an addictive nature, so I never fell into anything too heavily.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

What was the designer drug of choice?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n

Mostly LSD, which really trips you out. Badly <\/em>out. You just sit there in your own psychedelic trip. For a hypersensitive person like myself, it could all turn rather nasty: I’ve had very, very bad trips on LSD. Having said that, at least it wasn’t as pernicious as drugs are today, which give you the impression that you can control them when, of course, you can’t.<\/p>\r\n\r\n


\r\nClearly smoking is a bad habit you still haven’t kicked.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n

Nor do I intend to. I don’t agree with the anti-smoking laws in New York: it’s like the Prohibition. It’s one thing if the laws apply to confined public spaces where smoking is totally overbearing, or to places that need to be kept clean. I originally thought it was a good idea, because it made people attentive to what they were doing. But then suddenly, in restaurants and bars, it blew into a ridiculous witch-hunt. Which only served to remind me why I didn’t like America.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

What is it about America?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n

I wouldn’t know, I’m not American. I’ve driven across America, lived in New York and Los Angeles, made films in Colorado and Salt Lake City, and spent a long time in San Francisco. But I have only ever seen America for what it is, from a European viewpoint. I consciously choose not to live and work there. I feel much freer here. I actually feel quite threatened in America. New York is a world of its own, and Los Angeles is movie world, but as for the rest of America… Well, I’m afraid I don’t really understand it.<\/p>\r\n\n

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