At 43, Isabella Rossellini was sacked as the face of Lancôme. Now, 20 years on, she’s been rehired. She talks movies, her mother, Ingrid Bergman, and her rollercoaster life

In 1996, when Isabella Rossellini was about to turn 44, she was sacked. After 14 years as the face and spokesperson of Lancôme cosmetics, she was told in no uncertain terms that she was past it. Beauty advertising was about the dream, executives told her, not the harsh reality, and women dreamed about being young; the actor’s face would soon become an unwelcome reminder of the ageing process. And so, despite Rossellini’s insistence that eternal youth was neither her dream nor that of any woman she knew (she says she told Lancôme that the new dream was to be independent, to be powerful, to assert yourself ), she was replaced, rather humiliatingly, by the very similar-looking Juliette Binoche – dark hair, pale skin, full lips,...