The irresistible Vincenzo Melinconicoborn from the pen of Diego deSilva, is about to go on TV with the face, the expression and the ironic look of Massimiliano Gallo. After 35 years of work, dozens of successful films and series were created – from Una grande famiglia to Imma Tataranni passing through I bastardi di Pizzofalcone – the time has come for the Neapolitan actor to take the big leap. the one from absolute protagonist. Raised on bread and stage by two artist parents, who metabolized the long apprenticeship, he built a solid career of talent, a lot of theatre, beautiful roles and much more Meetings with great directors, from Özpetek to Sorrentino (who wanted it in It Was the Hand of God). And now comes one of the fictions of Rai 1 most anticipated of the season, at the start from Thursday 20 Octoberin which it embodies a semi-unemployed lawyera semi-divorced husband, a “Not winning” of success runs the risk of winning over the general public.
Maximilian, be honest: How do you feel in the shoes of the “moment figure”?
It’s fun and in a way exhausting. I truly believe that things never happen by accident. They tell me, “Such an important role came late”… maybe it was just the time needed to absorb a major change.
What’s the most obvious change?
The visibility, the way people start looking at you. It’s very strange to me.
Would you have never imagined this moment in your 35-year career?
Yes, but the effect is still strange. The spectator in the cinema or theater comes to us, makes a choice. With television, on the other hand, you enter people’s homes without asking permission, you become a family member. They stop me and treat me like a cousin like they’ve known me forever.
And is it something that amuses you or scares you?
I enjoy it and at the same time I feel it is a great responsibility. The effect of the television is disturbing.
But how did you feel playing Vincenzo Malinconico?
Very good, also because I really wanted to. I love De Silva’s books and I think this kind of role is a great gift for an actor: Melancholic has so many emotional and sentimental undertones, it covers such a wide range of colors that it’s an exception.
Your first reaction when you were offered this character?
Happiness and a bit of worry, especially after the first audition that didn’t go well. It wasn’t easy to frame melancholy, to catch him.
how did he do that?
“You don’t seem to have focused it well,” they told me when we first met. I worked on it, I despised it. And they got me. But it was an ongoing process, I tailored him to me on set, from walking to the things he does and says. And I’ve added some of my own neuroses.
Diego De Silva, who told you?
He gave me the best compliment he could give me. He never describes the characters in his books because he doesn’t want to limit the reader’s imagination. “It took me less to write because now I picture him melancholy just like Massimiliano,” he said. For me it’s like a declaration of love.
In a society that glorifies winners comes melancholy, which is a ready-made anti-hero.
A world with more people like Melancholic doesn’t hurt: he’s one who doesn’t care about being or being what he isn’t: professionally and emotionally insecure, he has a shaky but real life. And it’s a story that needs to be told, especially to younger people: we live in an absurd moment in which many on social networks tell of a life they don’t have. I think it’s sad.
What is your relationship with social networks?
I only have Instagram and it’s mostly a way to keep in touch with those who follow me. I don’t want to use them to show my private life, where I vacation, what I eat. And I don’t think people really care, even though I understand that the line between public and private has almost completely disappeared now.
What is the most common question they ask you when they stop you on the street?
It depends on who’s stopping me. There are the fans of the Bastardi di Pizzofalcone, those of Imma Tataranni… they are very attached to my characters, as if they recognize the effort I am making to make them three-dimensional.
The strength of Malinconico?
The irony and the distance to things.
Is he a loser or a non-winner?
A non-winner of your choice. He’s not a loser, on the contrary, he’s one who doesn’t care about being pigeonholed, he doesn’t care, he’s politically incorrect. It’s a fake loser.
You have a 35-year career behind you, on the other hand linear and without long stops. Besides talent, do you need more luck or willpower?
I don’t believe in luck. I believe in study, discipline and will. I do several master classes with young aspiring actors and they always have excuses on hand: “uh, but Italy”, “uh, but the recommendations”. The questions to ask are different, the horizon is wide so as not to risk being meteors. And then you have to know how to make the right decisions: Whoever only thinks about money is wrong, whoever also makes them unconsciously.
Have you often been wrong?
Yes but I had the power to choose and therefore to be free. Theater was and is my happy island, I made some weird choices going from successful fiction to movies with directors like Sorrentino and Garrone and then to independent movies that made me zero. I built my career bit by bit.
How important is resilience?
Very very much. You see co-workers swooping past you at the final audition, others having moments of glory as you trudge, but if you focus on that, you won’t get very far. I never look back or to the side, I look at my path and I try to be free in my choices. After all, being an artist is that too.
Speaking of the path, hers and Vanessa Scalera’s are somewhat similar. Long ranks, a lot of theater then TV and “success later”.
It broke out at Vanessa an artistic love that will last a lifetime. We were already recognized at the first castings for Imma Taratanni, somehow we mirrored each other. I consider our meeting a fortune. And after talking about two incredible characters like Imma and Pietro, in a few weeks we will also be on TV with Filumena Marturano directed by Francesco Amato. It’s an incredible bet and a responsibility given the legacy of Eduardo and Titina De Flippo and then Sophia Loren and Mastroianni.
As for Imma Tataranni, will Season 3 take place?
At the end of the month I will start shooting I bastardi di Pizzofalcone 4, in January those of Imma. And again at the beginning of next year the theater debut with the show Amanti, the first theatrical direction of Ivan Cotroneo. It was he who wrote the role of the brother-in-law I played in Loose Cannons: Ferzan Özpetek sensed my comedic potential.
His father was the unforgettable singer Nunzio Gallo, his mother the actress Bianca Maria Varriale. What would you say today about the success that has exploded in your hands over the last few years?
I think they wouldn’t be so excited by the success or popularity as by the way I built the work and presented my stuff. Which are the fruits of their teachings: they lived only in art and their work, They taught me discipline and the need to be able to do anything, from the stage manager to the lighting technician. And I will always be grateful to him for that.
Last question and only one choice: better the Napoli championship or a David di Donatello?
(laughs) What a very complicated choice… but you can’t have a blue David?