by Laura Martellini
40 years after the film’s release, the actor-director wrote: “You radiated sweetness, where are you?” Il Corriere tracked her down: “Hello Carlo, here I am! Few are as elegant as you. My new life as a cat fostering volunteer”
«I am amazed at so much outcry. Friends from Italy called me to warn me of Carlo Verdone’s appeal Who was wondering where I was on social media? Here I am, I live in Miami and I’m his Sandy!”: From America to the Corriere della Sera Natasha Hoveythe leading actress of “Soap and Water”, whom the director remembered a day ago, 40 years after its release, and asked himself with nostalgia: “You radiate sweetness and grace, the brightness of your face couldn’t help but bewitch. Where are you now, Natasha?’
House in Miami
The answer comes from a beautiful home with an outdoor seating area in Miami, where Natasha Hovey, 56, now lives with her husband, a rheumatologist by profession his son David, 24 years old. “After Acqua e Sapone and Compagni di scuola, filmed with Carlo, and other works for Rai, a few dramas, I moved to France out of love for my husband, with whom I founded the family that still means everything to me today.” My parents separated, I wanted a different life. A story that was forever. So I flew to Paris and married my partner in 1999, experiencing a kind of transference: the feeling I had for the cinema transformed into absolute love for my Parisian husband and our friend. It won’t have been easy: “Not at all. Parisians are cold and reserved. Completely different from the Italians. But my affection satisfied me immediately. I’ve moved on.
No regret
Without any regret: “Sometimes with David I tried to re-watch films in which I was the protagonist as a young girl, but a film like Soap and Water has a humor that is not so immediate in France.” We are different . My son also speaks little Italian. Nostalgia? When I feel more melancholy, I think about the career I could have had and the one I gave up. I see many of my colleagues from back then who are now established actresses. But when I’m feeling good, I’m happy about the success I’ve had and think, “Oh my God, that little girl in those movies shaped the woman I am today.”
Many memories
How did things go with Verdone? She was a girl of just 15 years old (she turned 16 on the set), he was an already established director. “I never thought I would ever be able to work in the cinema. I had difficulty communicating, I was quite reserved. My mother, of Dutch origin, came to Rome because she was attracted by the climate and character of the Italians. One day she took me to have a memory of my 13 years some black and white photos taken by a photographer, who advised her to expose my face for the advertisement. So I did a few commercials but stayed silent: I was rejected from an ad for an anti-dandruff product because I had to say a sentence but I couldn’t get a word out! To solve my blockages, my mother enrolled me in an acting school, and little by little I melted away. At the first audition for Carlo Verdone I was able to say a few lines. During the first selection, I gave him a photo of myself doing a lot of makeup for a wedding dress magazine, and at that moment the spark lit up in him: I embodied the perfect woman-child. He later told me that he wrote the script with that image in front of him. When I showed up at the second casting, he took me with him. He had also seen hundreds of girls in northern Italy. He and I also had a school together: the Nazarene School in Rome. The famous kiss scene? “Look, I particularly remember the big laughs from the set. We always joked. And on this occasion there were dozens of technicians and operators around us. My mother is always present. Today I don’t know if it would be possible to make such a film. But in Acqua e Sapone there was no malice. Just a lot of tenderness.”
With her sisters in “their” America
That’s why Natasha moved to America with her family a few years ago: “One of my sisters lives next to me, the other in Oregon.” My father came from Boston and I have dual citizenship. However, we and my family chose to live in Miami because it is closer to our Latin American spirit. I feel good, even if it’s a crazy place!” Undertaking in the Roman dialect. His day? «The city is full of cats, many of which are not sterilizedwho live in extreme distress. They have no food, no shelter. That’s why we work together with other volunteers to ensure their livelihood. I have six myself: some come and go from the house’s outdoor living room, which was custom-made for them. There are also two raccoons and some opossums. And my son, of course: like all parents, we thought of a future for him as a doctor or lawyer, and instead he became a film producer. You can see it was fate…”
Return to Italy
Italy? Forgotten ones? “I come back two to three times a year, partly because My mother loves it and has settled in the south of Naples. Next time I will also visit Carlo. In the meantime, rest assured that I will contact him privately. I stay away from social media: I don’t need it. Once you start using them, you never stop, just like with computers. That’s fine. But I wonder: why all this attention to this very beautiful and elegant contribution from Carlo to a film released 40 years ago? Maybe people need lightness with what’s happening in the world… calmness and escape.”
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October 15, 2023 (changed October 16, 2023 | 1:15 p.m.)
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