by Emilia Costantini
The actor: “Comencini and Masina rejected me because of the accent.” The agony: «As a child I felt ignorant, I hated the studies I had done. Every now and then I found myself crying in front of Lake Iseo ». The most difficult role: “Recalling Walter Chiari”
«Two things in life you cannot choose: where you are born and in which family. I was born in the Sarnico hospital into a proletarian family of tilers», says Alessio Boni, who, however, did not work as a tiler. “My father and his relatives did this job in Villongo and it would have been normal for him if I had done the same. For a while I satisfied him while attending evening courses at the accounting institute, but I felt ignorant, I hated this job, this type of study and even the country that surrounded me. Every now and then I’ve gone to cry in front of the nearby Lake Iseo and asked myself: Why is all this happening to me? ».
And after crying?
“I’ve decided: I’ll run away, I’ll go to the police. I ask the question, they take me to the police. I was happy, I thought I was going to be a serpico, but I didn’t like all those plastered hierarchies and I’m running away again, I’m going to the United States and… you’ll see, I’m going to work in an important company, me will import, export, I will learn English … Instead I do the dishwasher, the babysitter, even in black, yes, dear Americans, even in black! But the money to support me is never enough and I go back to Italy with the Pive in my pocket. I’m not giving up, the tiler really isn’t and I’m starting to become a tour operator, I’m starting to get excited about creating these little shows for the village’s guests. I could always get the audience involved. The chief animator, observing my discreet acting skills, says to me one day: why not try the center? I look at him and since we were on the Gargano I answer him: the center of Vieste? And he answers: But no, the Experimental Center of Cinematography! I choose again: I go to Rome to try writing, they will expel me … Instead I pass writing, then the second phase and in the third fateful phase I find myself in front of the sacred monsters ».
who were they
«Luigi Comencini, Giulietta Masina, Mauro Bolognini… I begin with a firm voice: Good morning. And Comencini immediately asks me: Bergamo or Brescia? Oh my god!, I think: do you feel so much? I thought I didn’t have such a strong accent. And I won’t pass the selection, but it’s an injection of confidence ».
Trust? But what if he fails!
“Yes, because I realized how ignorant I was. So I look for a job, find one as a waiter, then register with Alessandro Fersen and find out here that Stanislavsky wasn’t a center forward for a Russian soccer team, but a drama teacher. Thanks to the diction teacher, I also discover that I had a strong dialectal cadence: I had never heard of it, I notice it during an essay and out of shame I think I haven’t spoken for two days ».
So, was your passion for theater immediate?
“In the beginning I just wanted to do cinema. Theater struck me as boring stuff for old people. But one evening some Roman friends suggested I go to the Sistina. I’ve never been there and asked for advice on how to dress, imagine the answer … I look at the Cinderella cat with Beppe Barra as the protagonist and my brain is exposed: I understood that I wanted to do theater and what was most important school? The Silvio d’Amico Academy. I’m leaving, I’m signing up to do the audition ».
With that dialect accent and a simple accounting degree?
«I had overcome the accent thanks to the frequent use of heels. For the diploma as an accountant not only the classic Abitur was required, even if my colleagues asked me what it means to be a tiler … Of course I felt like a fish out of water … Until the stroke of fate on the day of the audition …”
What happens?
«The commission was very strict, they were blown … Something very strange happened to me. I had prepared a piece of Seven Against Thebes, but just before it was my turn I couldn’t even remember the opening line. Ten seconds of terror, madness: I see myself acting from the outside as if I were in ecstasy. I ended up not knowing what I had done. But I passed the exam ».
And how did the tiler father react to his son who wanted to be an actor?
“He was ashamed. The villagers’ comments were scornful, they told him: is Alessio traveling around the world at your expense? I understand it, because he came from the post-war period, he rolled up his sleeves, he painstakingly built up his small empire, the tile business, a secure future for us three sons. He felt betrayed and I felt the weight of his disapproval: I had long hair, ripped jeans, I traveled the world… a waste of money even if I supported myself. When I returned home in the summer, he kept me busy with his work until I had said enough and then I had the first important experiences with the chaser, the Ronconi … ».
Did her parents come to applaud her?
“At first they didn’t understand what I was doing. It wasn’t until I got some visibility in the early films, when my photo appeared in the newspaper, that my mother told me that my father bought a dozen copies and gave them to relatives and villagers. It made me tender, it was his revenge, as if to say: You see, my son is not a Lazzarone, he just wants to do another job. And the consecration came with The Best of Youth: The whole family attended the presentation at the Cannes Film Festival. I turn around and see my father, Nordic, strict, moved. He was proud of me, even if he never managed to tell me: good”.
American dreams archived?
“Absolutely not, but an unpleasant episode happened to me. I was 24, still in academy, and my agency sent out my resume to suggest me to some producers. I am contacted about a meeting in a mega hotel in Piazza di Spagna where an American producer was looking for young actors for a new project. I am received in an imperial suite. I didn’t express myself in excellent English, but I did it well enough and they chose me. This election stank a little: how was it possible that they took me? However, luck can change, so I head to America and am invited to New York by the producer for dinner at another wonderful hotel in Central Park. He explains to me that he intended to make me a new Hollywood star, but then… he starts making advances and just tells me: If you become my lover, you become a star. I looked at him in shock. What had fooled me was that I knew he was married and had a child, so the possibility of his sexual proposal didn’t cross the hall of my brain. I take the plane and return to the Academy ».
Which of the many figures of classical repertoire he embodied was the most difficult to portray to the public?
“It wasn’t a classic, but I say Walter Chiari. And not because the characters of Greek tragedies are simple, but because the viewer has never known these characters, never encountered them. Everyone knows Chiari and even the housewife from Voghera could say: no, this one played by Boni has nothing to do with the real Chiari. To remember it was for me the most difficult task of my career, it was an eel that slipped into my hands and on the set I regretted having signed this contract several times ».
Was it just as difficult to interpret Matteo Carati from «The best of Youth», which has the sad ending of suicide?
“I didn’t know what suicide was, what comes to mind for whoever comes to that tragic decision. Unfortunately, two people I knew well did: one jumped off the top floor of a hotel, the other cut her veins. The encounter with death made me more charged with humanity, you will no longer free yourself from this image ».
Speaking of humanity: Have you ever had an argument with a colleague that you later regretted?
“Sometimes I argue heatedly without coming to a confrontation.”
An insulting criticism of your work that hurt you?
«Some negative things have happened, but they keep improving. Alda Merini used to say: I thank my enemies because they pay the most attention to what I write. I fondly remember the best compliment I’ve ever received. Once I was in Lecce to present The Best of Youth and after the screening a lady came with her daughter, a blind girl and my big fan. She told me that I moved her because although she didn’t see my facial features could see my inner strength, my actions with the heart, she has achieved ».
Why did he say he would like to play a drag queen?
«It’s a world very far from mine, I don’t know it, I want to get to know it up close and not with the carelessness of those who sometimes try to play this role. I would like to understand why some people are born with an envelope, their body, that they are not comfortable in. And it would fascinate me to understand the transition from one gender to another, the perplexity, the difficulties of confronting existence ».
Your partner and mother of your children is the journalist Nina Verdelli: Can you give you any media advice?
“He’s a lot more social than me and suggests posting news on Instagram or not. I always follow his valuable advice ».
His recently published book is entitled “Biting the fog”. How long did it take you to come from Bergamo to do your job?
“Bergamo has helped me so much, giving me the incentive to show what I can do. I feel from Bergamo because I’m stubborn: when I set goals I keep going, I don’t give up and I don’t give up, maybe I hit my head. Biting the fog is a motto for young people: understand what lies behind the fog without being afraid of it ».
10/12/2022 (Change 10/12/2022 | 07:33)
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