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My guest today is a Gen X legend and someone I’ve been a little bit obsessed with ever since I saw her star in the definitive late 80s movie, Say Anything, . There was a time when it seemed like if there was a hot young actor - John Cusack, River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves - she got to snog them on screen. (I know, shallow, much.)
Ione has spent her life in the centre of the venn diagram of film, music and celebrity. The daughter of 60s superstar Donovan, she famously dated Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ Anthony Keidis, becoming both “breadwinner and babysitter” when she was just 16, and had an ill-fated marriage to Beastie Boy Adam Horowitz.
But there is so much more to Ione than all those male name drops.
She has starred in some of the most significant movies of their generation. She has worked with Sofia Coppola, Chloe Sevigny, Lena Dunham and Madonna. She’s written children’s books, directed short films and is an accomplished painter.
Oh, and I do just have to say that as a child she only lived next door to the iconic writer Eve Babitz!
Anyway It all adds up to one fascinating tumultuous story. One she’s addressed candidly in her new memoir, Say Everything. See what she did there?
Ione joined me from LA to talk about growing up in the 80s and 90s, being a nepo baby before nepo babies were a thing, having it all, losing it all and getting some of it back, what she’s learnt from her daughters and finally coming into herself in her 50s
Listen to the full episode here:
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