Life Lessons from Lisa Bonet

Welcome to Life Lessons. This week, we’re looking back to our April 1987 cover story with Lisa Bonet. At the time, Bonet was working on her debut feature film—a sensual, neo-noir horror flick called Angel Heart. To younger audiences, Bonet is probably best known as the never-aging mother to Zoë Kravitz, former “wifey” of Jason Momoa, and the gorgeous, cowboy hat-clad love interest in High Fidelity. Interview caught the captivating starlet just as she was outgrowing her childhood role as Denise on The Cosby Show. Read our favorite excerpts below.

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“Filming [the sex scene in Angel Heart] consisted of three hours of intense lovemaking with blood pouring on us…It was a wild night.”

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“Mickey [Rourke] and I were on the plane together and I was like clawing at my fingers, and he took my hand and said, ‘What are you doing?’ and I explained to him that I was very nervous that people would watch me and judge me. He said, ‘No one’s going to judge you; you’re your own harshest critic.’”

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“Then my agent said there’d be nudity [in Angel Heart], and I said I wasn’t really worried about that at all…And then a lot of people who work on Cosby said, ‘Bill’s not going to want you to do it,’ But I went to Cosby and he said, ‘Get out of my office and just do the film.’”

“The day before the [sex] scene I talked to my boyfriend on the phone and he gave me advice: ‘Make sure you are in the state of mind to turn yourself on, just in case Mickey doesn’t.’ When I got there, Mickey was playing the Pet Shop Boys, totally unromantic music, like we were at the Palladium or something.”

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“I realized I didn’t care what anyone around the set felt, because people were going to see me onscreen and judge me, anyway. So fuck everyone else and…go to town. I felt confident, that’s all.”

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“I didn’t become an actor to make a point. I became an actor to create, and I am an actor before I’m black.”

“I hated [Los Angeles], couldn’t wait to get out. See, I lived on the wrong side of the boulevard. All my friends were very rich and could screw around as much as they wanted—they knew they had a place in daddy’s business. But I really had to work.”

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“I don’t always dress nicely. Mostly I wear the same pair of Levi’s and hiking boots about five times a week. I like clothes, but only certain pieces, ones that all go together. I hate having to decide what I’m going to wear next. I like stuff that will look good without my having to look in a mirror and fix it up. I like the Japanese designers—Matsuda and Comme de Garçons.”

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“Love without attachment is the only way you can stay safe and not get angry or hurt…Love’s a terrible drug.”

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“I’d like to be in love, but I’m learning more and more that the things that go along with it are so unsatisfying to me.”

“The ultimate relationship, I think, as corny as it may sound, is with god and yourself. I’m happiest when I meditate, because you can be anywhere in the world and be anyone and anything and it’s totally unconditional…My life’s plan at this moment is to buy a castle in Spain, have two kids and roam around the world.”

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“I’d like to work with David Bowie. He makes me melt. I find him so magnetic.”

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“Sometimes I can be very attached to physical things, the mirror. The spiritual ego is the hardest of all to combat. I sometimes find myself bathing in my ego.”