She says that she returns to Paraná and is still “La Rusa.” She celebrated her 50th birthday at the hotel where she had celebrated her 15th birthday, surrounded by the same lifelong friends of hers. She was a relevant swimmer, but her destiny had some surprises in store for her. She came to Buenos Aires like so many other kids who finish school, she had a fight, she met a boy who she sensed was the love of her life and she felt that she was born to be her mother. Someone will say that it is no longer customary to say those things, but she stands firm in her words. She understands perfectly that mothering is not everyone’s desire, but that is her story. One that could be very similar to many others, if it were not Valeria Mazza’s.
Supermodel in a world without self-perceived influencers, cover of Sports Illustrated, muse of Versace and Armani, friend of Antonio Banderas, guest of David Letterman and Jay Leno, nemesis of Schiffer, owner of all the catwalks. She doesn’t return because she never left, but she reveals unknown aspects of her life in the docuseries. Valeria Mazza: “A golden dream”now available on Paramount+ and sits down to talk to NEWS about everything we ever wanted to ask him.
News: It has always maintained a balance between the public and the private. Why now did she decide to make a series about her life?
Valeria Mazza: I think it has to do with the moment in life I am in and how I consider the future. I really want to do television and then thinking about where I wanted to stand on TV, chatting with Alejandro (Gravier, her husband) I said: “And why not do a documentary?” It was starting to tell my story. Which is ultimately a nice story. Because it tells a little about the construction of a career, about how to reconcile public and intimate aspects, about how to combine life as a mother with work. In some aspects, beyond my profession, it seems to me that a lot of women can relate. I also feel that people have an image of Valeria Mazza as a model that is different from what I am in life. To some extent I assume I am guilty of that, because we have shown certain facets over the years. and the public was left with the image they received. Now I’ll actually tell you how I built that image.
News: When it comes to deconstructing the supermodel myth, we’re going to spoil it a little and say that the series starts with you cooking polenta for your family. We didn’t see that chef Valeria coming, any culinary secrets to share?
Mazza: (laughs) My family hates polenta. I have always loved cooking and I am not much of a recipe follower. I like to eat delicious food, so every time I try things I go back and try to recreate them. In my house there is Valeria Cake, Valeria Sauce…
News: Valeria is also the name of the fragrance that launched a few days ago
Mazza: Yes, I already had several with my brand because I love the process of creating a fragrance. This is a mix of flowers and citrus, it is delicate, fresh and sensual. It drives me crazy! I have it on now.
News: Let’s return to other aromas, those of the kitchen. I am a journalist and I like to write down, you owe me the recipe. What is Valeria Sauce like?
Mazza: There goes my secret, it is a tomato sauce with tuna and it is spectacular. I don’t cook every day, but I really cook a lot. Cooking is a way of giving love, in my house we are very open-door, I am very hostess. Coming from an Italian family, it reminds me a lot of my grandparents that everything happens at the family table.
News: To endure, is it necessary to embrace one’s own history and incorporate it into the present?
Mazza: Totally, the past is part of your present, of who you are.. Paraná is fundamental to my essence, all my memories from childhood and adolescence are there, without a doubt they have formed me. Much of what helped me maintain balance in life are the values I learned at home and the training I did in swimming, that prepared me for everything I experienced later. Having the strength to overcome situations, discipline, knowing how to compete, the effort to improve myself, I learned all those things in the club pool. I didn’t know it at the time, butThat helped me enormously to get through all the moments of loneliness and competition in the modeling world.
News: And was that competition fair?
Mazza: It was complicated, I think that at a first world level, wherever you are competing, nothing is easy. I left Paraná, I came to live in Buenos Aires without knowing practically anyone and suddenly a few months later I went to Europe. It wasn’t easy.
News: We have to think about a world where there was no talk of globalization or hyperconnection. Was daring such an adventure being a kamikaze?
Mazza: Yes, I left alone, without knowing how to speak the language. I started working and a thousand things happened to me, some of them appear in the series. Alejandro tells something that goes like this, we are talking about very young girls, there was a lack of protection, the agencies stole from you. There was no one behind you who really took care of you, they gave you a piece of paper, you signed it and without knowing it you were giving up all the image rights for them to use indiscriminately. 30 years ago the place of women in society was very different, you were exposed. Young, pretty and alone woman. You were a prey to the business.
News: We are talking about the time when the supermodel phenomenon was created, how did you get to that place?
Mazza: It was difficult because when you finally got to the shows, the photographers and the magazines were all fighting for the same place. And I’m not talking about the elbows they show in Roberto Giordano’s shows, there the fight was on another level, you didn’t step on the catwalk directly if you didn’t want to. That’s for me It happened to me with Claudia Schiffer, I had a situation that was unpleasant for me. But I also learned that your place is defended tooth and nail although each one chooses how to do it. Mine was always to give the best I had, for me fame is not an objective but a consequence.
News: The level of exposure of 90s supermodels is unimaginable for digital natives accustomed to influencers emerging from Instagram and TikTok. How did you experience the pressure of those castings?
Mazza: Every time you came to work in a new market you were like starting over. Casting meant being in little clothing and walking in front of a group of people who looked at you from top to bottom and talked to each other without you understanding anything. I felt very intimidated by that other’s look.
News: There has been talk, and more recently, about certain dubious practices in the world of fashion. Did they ask you for anything out of place?
Mazza: It could happen that they ask you to get naked or kiss someone in an advertisement, you are very young and there is always that pressure of thinking that if you refuse they will never call you again. I have suffered a lot because of that, but at the same time he couldn’t agree and betray me. I got red saying no, until one day I realized that they were the ones who had to get red for asking a girl to stay naked. I always did things my way, I did what I could, with what I had and I am very proud of that.
