The actress and former model Patti D’Arbanville lives with her Pomeranian Bisou Marie Antoinette D’Arbanville in a shingled, white-trimmed cottage in one of Tryon’s oldest neighborhoods. The house has been in her family since 1965 and was left to her by her mother, the artist Jean Lynn Egan. Born and raised in New York City, Patti acted in her first film when she was eight years old. Later, swept up in the New York art scene of the 1960s and 1970s, Patti appeared in Andy Warhol’s films Flesh and L’Amour before embarking on an international modeling career and settling in France. Her later acting career brought her long-running roles in the soap operas Guiding Light and Another World; in the HBO series Nip/Tuck and in The Sopranos as Lorraine Calluzzo; and as Lt. Virginia Cooper in Fox-TV’s New York Undercover. Her feature film work has included roles in You Belong To Me, Perfect Stranger and Morning Glory. Married and divorced three times, she is the mother of four children.
It must be quite a contrast between your professional world and Tryon. Did you find it hard to adjust to a small mountain town?
I got here on July 4, 2011, not long after my mother passed away. I woke up the morning after I arrived and I thought, what have I done? There was my grandmother’s room like it had always been, and my mother’s room. And it was really quiet! The silence was deafening. I had a few friends here, but at that point I wasn’t sure if I was going to sell the house and move to Asheville, maybe, or to Savannah, which I love.
So what made you decide to stay?
My youngest son came down, and he loved it here. We started to work on the garden and on the house, updating it, and then I fell in love with it. I did a lot of the work myself, and I had so much fun working on what then really became my house. I painted my bedroom pink, made it a little boudoir – everything I ever wanted to do but wasn’t able to because I was living with somebody else or influenced by somebody else. I could do whatever I wanted! It was amazing! I gutted the kitchen, where all the appliances were that golden yellow color and the floor was multi-colored linoleum and the countertops were bright yellow. I guess it was the thing in 1967, but I mean…excusez-moi?
But you were familiar with the area from a long time ago, right?
Yes, I used to come through here as a little girl with my grandparents on their ‘driving tours of the South.’ We used to stay at the old White Oak Hall right downtown here. I remember in the dining room at meals everyone was dressed up, and they wheeled the food to the tables on heavy silver carts and everyone called me ‘Miss Patti.’ My grandparents bought the house in 1965 and retired here in 1967, and of course I had to visit them, so I’d come back from Europe, see my parents in New York, and then come here. It was lovely, but I remember at that age being bored out of my skull. Tryon was a little more of a happening place back then, though. There was a department store, and a grocery store, and Misseldine’s drug store.
What keeps you busy now?
I have my jewelry line that I started making when I moved here. I do pottery, too, and textiles, and I use the great studios they have set up at Tryon Arts & Crafts. I can’t sit still. Some people are able to just relax, but that’s not me. I like to do.
And there was restoring Tryon’s town mascot downtown, Morris the Horse.
Yeah, I went to a town meeting one evening and after all the business at hand they asked the gallery if anybody had anything to say, so I raised my hand. I said I’ve been coming here since I was a young girl and I’ve never seen Morris in such despicable shape and somebody really ought to do something about it. And they said, OK! Go for it! I didn’t quite know how to go about it since I was pretty new here, but I had made a few girlfriends and we got a group together and came up with the great idea that Morris had been kidnapped and was being held for ransom. We made T-shirts and posters and flyers, and we raised about $15,000. The entire town got involved. Everyone was just wonderful about it.
So you consider Tryon your home now?
Oh, yeah. Absolutely home.
Do you ever watch any of your old films?
No. Every once in awhile I’ll be channel surfing and come across New York Undercover and watch it. But what? Am I teaching myself something? I don’t think so. But I like watching films over and over again. I like to revisit movies.
Such as?
West Side Story. I’ve probably watched that about 30 times. Mean Streets. Oh, and The Godfather. I can quote practically the whole film verbatim.
So that must have made the role of Lorraine Caluzzo on The Sopranos especially satisfying?
Yeah, it was a lot of fun. But it was kind of weird because everyone on the set was kind of Method, so they were all like really being those people. They stayed in character all the time and seemed to have stepped into their characters in a really scary way. You got the feeling you were actually talking to thugs, which was a tad disconcerting, to say the least. I didn’t come up like that as an actor.
Favorite directors you’ve worked with?
I loved Tony Scott and was so sad when he passed away last year. He was one of the funniest people I ever met in my life. He used to make Bob DeNiro laugh all the time, and that is unusual! Woody Allen, too. He just lets you go with your instincts.
What would you consider your most challenging role?
