Anna Getty moves between roles with rare intensity. Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and the American Academy of Dramatic Art, she has worked as an actress, singer, and stylist. Today, she runs the Villa Afrodite Mediterraneo boutique hotel, and advocates for women&rsquo;s health through her Pregnancy Awareness Month initiative.

In this conversation with L&rsquo;Officiel Baltic, Getty speaks about motherhood and career, the changing social expectations between men and women, and how art and loss have shaped her.

Anna, you are deeply engaged in questions of women&rsquo;s health, a mother, an author, and the founder of the Pregnancy Awareness Month campaign. In your view, what lies behind the decline in birth rates in countries like the United States?
A.: Thank you. I am the mother of one &mdash; though I lost a baby at an early stage of pregnancy last year, so, to be honest, I still feel like the mother of two. It&rsquo;s a complicated question with many reasons. What I see is that society has taken a feminist turn, but men often use it as an excuse not to do the minimum. They expect women to split everything &mdash; dates, bills, the household, children &mdash; while men are still paid more and women&rsquo;s salaries haven&rsquo;t caught up. We&rsquo;re expected to pay for ourselves and run the home, and so naturally many women focus first on their careers. I did the same.
I gave birth at 31 &mdash; late by Slavic standards &mdash; after I had built Villa Afrodite and created stability for my family. I was fortunate and able to seize opportunities, but many women struggle every day in a male-dominated world. Some don&rsquo;t see the point of having a partner if motherhood means carrying the entire burden alone.
History shows that family can be a source of balance when it&rsquo;s healthy. Today in New York, many people buy dogs instead of having children. The city feels designed for dog owners, not mothers. I have a dog too &mdash; she helped me after my loss &mdash; but I believe pets sometimes substitute for deeper needs: to nurture, to love, to compromise with another person. Family and children fulfill that instinct in a different way.

Comparing different countries, how do you assess the approach to motherhood and working conditions for women in the U.S. and abroad? What changes are needed so women can combine career and motherhood without compromise?
A.: In many countries, maternity leave is substantial. In the U.S., it&rsquo;s only about two months &mdash; not enough. I know many brilliant women who want to keep working while pregnant and on their own terms. When I was pregnant, I accepted projects, but paid opportunities were rare. Fashion has a stigma against the pregnant body, though it&rsquo;s natural and beautiful. In music, men often refused to collaborate with me. Yet I didn&rsquo;t change my personality just because I was pregnant.
I&rsquo;ve seen women bring their babies to work. If companies offered support &mdash; like nannies available in offices &mdash; it would help enormously. Some children can stay with their mothers while they work. My own mother took me daily to her university in St. Petersburg until I was four. I grew up in that environment &mdash; and maybe that&rsquo;s why I became an actress.
You&rsquo;ve noted that modern men have become more &ldquo;feminine,&rdquo; while women have become more &ldquo;masculine.&rdquo; Should this be resisted, or is it inevitable?
A.: History repeats itself. Time has shown that men being providers gave women peace of mind &mdash; the space to heal after childbirth. Caring for a baby is already hard enough.
Now I see girls asking boys out on dates. I would never do that. To me it feels humiliating. I was raised in St. Petersburg with certain values: my brothers would never let me pay. A man inviting me was expected to book my car, as a bare minimum. My father would never accept a man living off me.
Later, in Italy, I saw a different kind of gallantry. Italian men may talk too much, but they still know how to treat a woman: opening doors, showing up in grief, never asking her to pay half on a date. Some even tattooed my name, sent flowers to my work, or flew across the world just to meet me for a few hours.
So moving to New York was a shock. Men invited me for drinks or pizza, and I thought they didn&rsquo;t like me. Casual dating, &ldquo;open relationships,&rdquo; non-exclusivity &mdash; to me, that feels empty and soulless. Too many people fall into temptation and forget to care for one another.

You have experience in acting, fashion, and music. What do you want to convey through your creative work?
A.: I used to write dark songs &mdash; about addiction, lost love, despair. My best work often came from the worst moments. Nicotine, which I only finished after nine long years of writing, was a very difficult piece for me. It opens with the line, &ldquo;I wish you could be addicted to me as to your nicotine.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s still unreleased because of issues with the video.
Another track, Anyway, written with Rue de Silva, did come out. That one was my heart laid bare. After yet another heartbreak, I locked myself in the studio for three and a half days and wrote it straight through. Then I flew to Miami to record it. A wasteful trip for a toxic relationship &mdash; but it gave me one of my strongest songs.
After that, I changed therapists and joined the film Feathers, directed by Robert Gunner Getty &mdash; who later became my husband. We began as friends, quickly fell in love, got engaged, and I became pregnant. That story was painful, but it shaped me.
We married in Central Park, near the Alice in Wonderland statue where he played as a child. I had just worked there as a stylist for a Disney-inspired fashion shoot for Harper&rsquo;s Bazaar Vietnam. Now I&rsquo;m excited for Feathers to finally be released this November, distributed by Gunpowder &amp; Sky.
I don&rsquo;t want to produce &mdash; my husband does most of Getty Productions and Getty Films. He is the writer and the force behind big productions. I help with fashion direction and styling, but he&rsquo;s the real king of the set.

What message would you like to give to women who are trying to build a career while being mothers?
A.: Keep going. Reach out to other working mothers. Remember that your body is art &mdash; like a Greek or Roman sculpture. However it looks, it&rsquo;s perfect, because it gave life and love to your child.
Don&rsquo;t postpone yourself. Begin the projects you&rsquo;ve been putting aside. Now is the best time. Believe in yourself, and good luck.

Model: ANNA GETTY @<a href="https://www.instagram.com/anna__getty/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">anna__getty</a> <a href="https://www.models.com/models/anna-getty" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.models.com/models/anna-getty</a>
Photo &amp; Video: NADIA BEDJ @<a href="https://www.instagram.com/bedj_visuals/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bedj_visuals</a> <a href="https://www.nadiabedj.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.nadiabedj.com</a>
Style: ELENA NEVANEVA @<a href="https://www.instagram.com/_nevaneva_/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">_nevaneva_</a>
Shooting: GETTY PRODUCTIONS @<a href="https://www.instagram.com/getty_productions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">getty_productions</a>
Video Editor: ROBERT GETTY @<a href="https://www.instagram.com/getty_productions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">getty_productions</a>
Hair: GEORGE GRIERSON <a href="https://www.geoxge.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.geoxge.com</a>
Make-up: Pat McGrath team GRACE YEN @<a href="https://www.instagram.com/graceyenmakeup/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">graceyenmakeup</a>
Producer: SAY MEDIA @<a href="https://www.instagram.com/say__media/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">say__media</a>

Anna Getty: A Woman of Many Voices

Recommended posts for you

Lifestyle

Anna Getty: A Woman of Many Voices

Fashion Week

Bottega Veneta Spring/Summer 2026

Beauty

Baltic Barber Expo 2025: the biggest event for hairdressers and barbers in Riga

Editorials

WOVEN DREAMS

Art & Culture

The 2025 Autumn Exhibition Season at the Zuzeum Art Museum

Editorials

COASTAL REVERIE

Editorials

Iveta Vecmane's new collection "MELANCHOLIA XIII: METAMORPHOSIS"

Fashion

Gucci sunglasses in a '90s retro touch