Claudia Gerini, what is it like to live with three people and two daughters?
“I have been pulling the cart for many years. Rosa is 18 years old, studying at New York University, Linda is 13. I never raise my voice, I couldn’t beat her, I just had a pretty tough fight with Rosa, three summers ago, I pulled her, she wanted I shake, feeling offended. I remember this episode as a horrible thing. I don’t like scolding harshly, I have a sense of harmony»
Are the two fathers present?
“Yes, but everyday life is different. I broke up with Alessandro Enginoli, an entrepreneur, when Rosa was one year old. We speak to Federico Zampaglione, Linda’s father, whom I broke up with six years ago, we have become friends. Better a civil separation than a marriage or a sad union».
is she single now
“I am in an observation phase. I have binoculars. I am experiencing a phase of great freedom. After so many lives together, I had to be one on one with myself».
Are you out of your comfort zone?
“Continuous. I consider myself one of the few actresses to get involved. I act, dance, sing, do theatre, change gender. I don’t get stuck. Sometimes I feel like a showgirl before I become an actress».
Not just Jessica.
“I made 86 films. I’m Jessica, Lorenza, Maria, Giovanna. I performed at the Mercadante in Naples for two weeks Pasolini’s Italian songwriter. I made my first film when I was 16, I’m 51. Ciao ma’ by Giandomenico Curi, co-authored by Roberto D’Agostino. That same summer I did Sergio Corbucci’s Stuff for rich people. Shortly after that I started at TV Non è la Rai. But Italy, we know, is a country without memory, it always seems as if you have done nothing».
Have you ever received pocket money from your parents?
“Never. I also did various advertisements, I made good money with Baci Perugina. I come from a humble background, dad had a car wash, later he came to the AMA, the municipal waste disposal company. Trasteverino doc, he’s in fifth grade, but he knows everything about cinema».
Does Political Correctness Threaten Freedom?
“On social media you can say anything and hide behind anonymity. The world is full of bullies, there is a lot of meanness, they are all angry and ready to shoot you if you miss a word. As civilization advances, it’s better to have these hypocritical problems than we had before. I get my hands on men as a form of blackmail and power in any work environment. It used to be normal.”
Catherine Deneuve, Valeria Golino and their other colleagues say we need to distinguish between advances, harassment and violence.
‘True, very true. Advances, perhaps unpleasant, ugly, unwanted, just as reprehensible, are not the same as violence. I say this out of respect for those who have suffered unprecedented violence. My daughter Rosa thought about the fact that men no longer use the lift for fear of being reported. I say it’s better for men to be scared than to put my hands where they want. There are debts that men must pay, in quotes, mistakes that are repeated throughout the ages. Men are raised to behave differently today. Then there can be dire consequences. I’m thinking of the clause in American film productions that a director or producer can’t stare into an actress’s eyes for more than a certain number of seconds.”
The rhetoric…
“There are directors who only make films about women, for women. It becomes a kind of lobby. I don’t think there should be a women’s quota. Just as I think it’s madness, 55 years after being duped into a nude scene, as Olivia Hussey denounced for Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet, to be denounced.”
Has she been molested?
«Of course there were attempts that I avoided, I even attracted attention. I was a little girl, I was 17, I was lucky and I could walk».
is there sorority
“Women don’t band together. In her song, Shakira has more to do with the woman who took her husband away than with him, Piqué, the soccer player. As a result, more was sold. I love women, Sabrina Impacciatore, Cristiana Capotondi, Maria Sole Tognazzi are sisters. And I’m protective. If a spider appears on the wall of the holiday home, I will take care of it.”
What is it like to be an adult femme fatale?
“I can be a worker but not a sexy role? I consider myself a femme fatale, I don’t: I was born there! Can’t I look at a man seductively, can’t I put on a sheer stocking when I still have a beautiful body?”.
How do you experience the defeats, the failed castings?
«A lot of colleagues don’t want that: They’re like this, how dare you ask me to audition? For me, on the other hand, they prolong life, they force the cards to be reshuffled. It is an exercise in humility. There are no defeats in this profession, but of course I suffered when Paolo Sorrentino chose Cécil de France in The Young Pope and not me. In Matter of the Heart, Francesca Archibugi chose Micaela Ramazzotti. I’m too strong willed and that kind of fragility was needed, a somewhat clueless woman. That’s right. I don’t argue with ego. I went to New York for the Nine audition, I sang and danced on Broadway, they said nice things to me, but they took Marion Cotillard for that role. But I think there is always something different.”
The encounter that surprised you?
«With Liliana Cavani. With Alessandro Gassman I shot his new film The Order of Time, inspired by the novel by Carlo Rovelli. On the set he told us: “Where are my two comedians?”. Liliana told me she was rereading the Iliad. At 90, it’s exhilarating. One day she told me she liked me so much in a movie she couldn’t remember the name of. Maybe it’s Tornatore’s unknown wife, I suggested. He said no with his fingers. You’re not moving away from Castellitto? Nothing. Then he screamed: Jessica! I immediately called Carlo Verdone who said to me: do you know who was another big Viaggi di nozze fan? Michelangelo Antonioni. I thought it was divine.”