by Candida Morvillo
The couple with 6.4 million followers. «In the first year we set ourselves the target of 10,000 subscribers: 300,000 came. If it had gone wrong, we would be pharmacists and pediatricians today. Now we’d like to get married, but get the fans involved.”
White t-shirt and jeans, good-guy faces, Sofia Scalia and Luigi Calagna have just returned from a Caribbean vacation to celebrate their ten-year engagement, quite a few, especially since she’s 25 and he’s 30. “It’s absurd, it seems to me that we met yesterday,” he says. “It’s unbelievable: If I heard from other peers that they have been together for 10 years, I would hold my tongue for hours,” she repeats. If you have no children or grandchildren between the ages of six and ten, their names mean nothing to you. Children know them as Sofì and Luì or as Me against You. You have 6,400,000 YouTube followers. Her first film of 2020, La Vendetta del Signor S, grossed nine and a half million euros, surpassed only by Checco Zalone. The following year, Enchanted School Mystery was #1 at the box office. The fourth film will be released January 19: Me against You – Jungle Mission, directed by Gianluca Leuzzi and produced by Colorado and Warner. The series The Royal Family is now being broadcast on Prime Video. Then there are the songs, a tour that has already filled the halls and which will start again on February 11th from Ancona, eight cities, 16 dates. Then there are the books (thirteen), comics, backpacks, sweatshirts… Yours is an entertainment industry. And if you ask a child if they know a young, engaged couple, they will answer Sofì and Luì.
What is the engagement date?
Sofì: “26. December 2012. We’ve been together for months, but this is first kiss day.”
Luì: «We first met at your cousin’s. For me it was love at first sight. Not for you.”
Sofi: «I hadn’t noticed that at all. Then he opened Facebook specifically to communicate with me, but he didn’t know how to use it: he wrote me private messages on the public bulletin board, like letters or song dedications. I found it cheesy, I didn’t like it. After that I had a difficult chemistry question and since he was studying pharmacy, I asked him for help».
Luì: «I introduced myself as a superhero of chemistry».
Sofì: «He was good: I got nine. From there I got to know him better and realized that he was the right person for me. And that it wasn’t cheesy: it was just a strategy. Not correct”.
First Video?
He. «In 2014. I was hooked on YouTube and we were always the ones entertaining friends. It was summer, we had a lot of free time. Nobody saw the first one, but we had fun».
Sofì: «The idea was to always shoot challenges and games. From here: me against you».
Luì: «After four months we had a thousand subscribers: we told ourselves that we didn’t have a thousand acquaintances and that something was going to happen».
Sofì: «We promised ourselves that if we had reached ten thousand subscribers in a year we would continue, otherwise we would stop: it was exhausting and we studied».
Luì: «Instead, we had three hundred thousand in one year».
Who were Sofì and Luiì before this day, what did they dream?
Luì: «In an alternative world I would be a pharmacist today with a hobby: I would make videos, take photos, play the guitar».
Sofì: «I would become a paediatrician».
Luì: «For us, there was no idea of leaving Partinico or Sicily. We lived in a place away from everything where we were considered two crazy people making weird videos. We started without learning anything. We intercepted the children, but that wasn’t what we wanted.”
What convinced you about each other?
Sofì: “His side as an artist: the time with him passed quickly, he was a lot of fun for me”.
Lui: «Beauty. Then his sweetness, his empathy. And above all, I found her very nice.
What was the step of coexistence?
Lui: «Of course. The first Disney Channel TV series was shot in Milan».
Sofì: «We were together from morning to night for the videos for three years, he ate lunch and dinner with me. Now we have a house in Milan and we stay in Rome several months a year to shoot films».
Does your house have candy colors like in your videos?
Sofi: «In the beginning yes. Now we have colorful spaces that serve as backdrops and the spaces we live in have soft, relaxing colors».
How was your day?
Luì: “Me against you is 99% of our lives. In the morning we record the video of the day. We dedicate the afternoon to the creativity of the following videos and this mega universe of music, books, films, toys and now even apps. After that we have dinner and then we watch a movie or a series or meet friends.”
Sofì: «We work all the time, but it’s not a burden. We joke about it: it’s like constantly devoting yourself to a hobby».
You often joke in the videos. Do you do that in life too?
Sofì: «He always falls for it when I make him think I’ve lost something of his: He takes great care of his things, he puts his initials on them, so I don’t take them. He’s going crazy: he doesn’t want me to take his stuff, let alone lose it.
Luì: «It’s just that I’m very tidy. You less, and when it enters my object sphere, it makes me uneasy».
Moments of crisis, doubts, temptations: how many have you had?
Lui: «Never, never, never. Not even a small crisis.
Sofì: «When I hear others talking about a crisis, I don’t even understand it: it has never happened to us before».
A year ago there was a marriage proposal at the Grand Hotel Tremezzo on Lake Como. Will there be a wedding?
Sofi: «We would like that. It was supposed to be this year, then between series, films, tours, we didn’t make it».
Luì: “We see it as a different film: we have to amaze and we want to involve the fans. But if we find a joint, we’ll do it this year.”
Did you also ask for your hand privately before the video?
Luiì: «Yes, at dinner, but without the ring. I offered her to make the video of the proposal, which was already considered a proposal».
How many times a day do you say “I love you”?
Lui: «A pair».
Sofì: “But it’s not so much the saying, it’s what counts. For example, I’m a sleepyhead and he brings me breakfast in bed every day.”
Mickey and Minnie have never kissed, nor have they ever exchanged affection in your videos: is that a rule of children’s entertainment?
Luì: «It is in our nature: we are modest in public».
do you want kids
Luì: «We have millions of digital ones, but we would also like to have real ones now».
Have you already earned enough to live on a pension?
Luì: «We have reinvested in various projects and bought a house in Milan. We are lucky, we work without first thinking about money, but about the freedom to do what we like».
What will «Jungle Mission» look like?
Luì: “The fourth chapter of the saga opens to new characters: let’s go to the jungle to stop a new villain, Viperiana, who wants to destroy nature. We must save nature and our friend Pongo: a beautiful metaphor for our time».
How do you picture yourself when you grow up?
Sofì: «I think we’re grown up».
Luì: “Age has gotten out of hand. But we want to continue in this direction and above all stay united and happy».
January 11, 2023 (change January 11, 2023 | 21:58)
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