For decades now, Raquel Welch has played to her strengths — that enviable bo𒆙ne structure, that amazing, hourglass figure (both still intact at age 73) — that it’s refreshing to see her camouflage hꦏer natural vivacity in “House of Versace.”
The Lifetime movie, which debuts Saturday night, tells a well-known story — the vicious murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace — but reminds viewers how his sister, the temperamental Donatella, played with supreme arrogance by Gina Gershon in a꧅ blond wig that won♈’t quit, almost squandered her brother’s legacy through a series of terrible business decisions and the usual fashionista temptations of pills and cocaine.
Welch plays the Versaces’ Aunt Lucia, a reserved wom༺an who had no interest in fashion and who cared for the Versace’s mother, Franca, the mastermind of the family brand, when she was ill. Franca♏ had a successful bridal gown business; Lucia’s idea of fashion was a well-constructed suit, practical and understated in its elegance.
“When Franca was dying, she mꦉade Lucia promise to look after the kids,” Welch says. “She was related to Franca and kind of grew up with the family. She lost her own family when sh🌟e was young. Franca ran the show.”
Welch conceived Lucia’s look after watching some old Italian films, in particul🎶ar Vittoria De Sica’s “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow,” which starred Sophia Loren in three different roles. “I was interested in all the different looks,” Welch says. “Those hairdos. The Grecian boy look with the short dark hair from the 1950s. I made conservative choices, but mostly I had to not be too assertive. I had to be reactive.”
She took the small pa🐻rt because she wanted to work with Gershon, “I thought Lucia was so understated I wondered if it’s good for me to play thꦇis kind of a role,” Welch says. “Everything depends on who plays Donatella. And Gina killed it. I hope she gets the recognition she’s long deserved for her acting chops.”
In addition to tಞhe classic movies she made in the 1970s, like “Fantastic Voyage” and “The Three Musket💮eers,” Welch did occasional parts on TV. One of her favorites was playing Abby Lassiter on ABC’s “Spin City.” The jokes were all visual.
“I was Richard Kind’s mother,” she says. “That was the joke. Like, This is your motheℱr? What happened?’ Richard is a genius comedian. All I had to be was straight-forward. But I did get to wear this 🍸gorgeous Oscar de la Renta outfit.”
Asked to name her 𝕴favorite leading me🧸n, Welch, who has worked with Burt Reynolds, Frank Sinatra and Richard Burton, pauses and says, “They’re all dead darling. They always cast you 30 years younger than your leading man. Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Stewart, Dean Martin, Robert Culp. Burt Reynolds is still around. He’s a great guy.
“Richard Burton was really very flirtatious. Marcello Mastroianni was very mellow. Frank was great. A real charmer. You could no💙t be a woman in his presence without him being very attentive. He might have been the first big, big star I worked with. I was a little green. I had to hit him in a scene and I said, ‘I just can’t slap you.’ He said, ‘Just haul off and do it.’ ”
Welch attributes her longevity to her vitality and her work ethic. “I just have a lot of energy and I knew I had to♈ use it,” she says. “I wanted to be in the 🥃performing arts. I didn’t think that reality was all that interesting. The real world was fraught with disappointment. I thought it would be so much more fun if you could be dancing and singing. The way that I thought of the movies was a completely different bag of beans than it is today. It was really kind of an art form removed from reality.”