and still photographer
Yoni S. Hamenachem on the set of ''
Maria's Lovers'' (1984) Kinski began working as a model as a teenager in Germany. Actress
Lisa Kreuzer of the
German New Wave helped get her the role of the mute Mignon in
Wim Wenders 1975 film
The Wrong Move, in which at the age of 14 she was depicted topless. She later played one of the leading roles in Wenders' film
Paris, Texas (1984) and appeared in his film
Faraway, So Close (1993). In 1976, while still a teenager, Kinski had her first two major roles: in
Wolfgang Petersen's
feature film-length episode
Reifezeugnis of the German TV crime series
Tatort. Next, she appeared in the British horror film
To the Devil a Daughter (1976), produced by
Hammer Film Productions, which was released in the UK just 40 days after Kinski's fifteenth birthday, making it a virtual certainty she was only fourteen when her scenes were shot (including full frontal nudity). In regards to her early films, Kinski has stated that she felt exploited by the industry. In an interview with
W, she said, "If I had had somebody to protect me or if I had felt more secure about myself, I would not have accepted certain things. Nudity things. And inside it was just tearing me apart." In 1978, Kinski starred in the Italian romance
Stay as You Are (
Così come sei) with
Marcello Mastroianni, gaining her recognition in the United States after
New Line Cinema released it there in December 1979.
Time wrote that she was "simply ravishing, genuinely sexy and high-spirited without being painfully aggressive about it." The film also received a major international release from
Columbia Pictures. Kinski met the director
Roman Polanski at a party in 1976. He urged her to study
method acting with
Lee Strasberg in the United States and she was offered the title role in Polanski's upcoming film,
Tess (1979). In 1978, Kinski underwent extensive preparation for the portrayal of an English peasant girl, which included acquiring a
Dorset accent through
elocution studies: 'Tess' was nominated for six awards, including Best Picture, at the
53rd Academy Awards, and won three. On 14 June 1981, Vogue editor
Polly Allen Mellen asked Nastassja Kinski what she liked and Kinski replied, "snakes," then a Burmese python was hired for the photoshoot with
Richard Avedon, with resulting photograph of Kinski with a
Burmese python coiled around her nude body, "Nastassja Kinski and the Serpent, Los Angeles, California, June 14, 1981". In 1982, she starred in
Francis Ford Coppola's romantic musical
One from the Heart, her first film made in the United States.
Texas Monthly described her as acting "as a
Felliniesque circus performer to represent the twinkling evanescence of
Eros." The film failed at the box office and was a major loss for Coppola's new
Zoetrope Studios. That year, she was also in the erotic supernatural horror movie
Cat People. On 29 December 1982, Kinski made a puzzling appearance on the program
Late Night with David Letterman, seeming somewhat oblivious to the jokes and everything else that was going on around her and appearing with an unusual hair style
Letterman described as "looking like there was an owl perched on top of her head." (Letterman's second guest,
John Candy, came out with his own hair moussed up in a pile as a spoof of Kinski's hair.)
Dudley Moore's comedy
Unfaithfully Yours and an adaptation of
John Irving's
The Hotel New Hampshire followed in 1984. Kinski reteamed with Wenders for the 1984 film
Paris, Texas. One of her most acclaimed films to date, it won the top award at the
Cannes Film Festival. Throughout the 1980s, Kinski split her time between Europe and the United States, making
Moon in the Gutter (1983),
Harem (1985) and
Torrents of Spring (1989) in Europe, and
Exposed (1983), ''
Maria's Lovers (1984), and Revolution'' (1985) in the United States. During the 1990s, Kinski appeared in a number of American films, including the action movie
Terminal Velocity opposite
Charlie Sheen, the
Mike Figgis 1997 adultery tale
One Night Stand,
Your Friends & Neighbors (1998),
John Landis's ''
Susan's Plan (1998), and The Lost Son'' (1999). Her most recent films include
David Lynch's
Inland Empire (2006) and Rotimi Rainwater's
Sugar (2013). In 2016, she competed in the German ''
Let's Dance'' show. ==Personal life==