It’s not easy having famous parents and it was hard for Vera to have a hulking and handsome dad like Giuliano Gemma. Vera grew up in a family where aesthetics was an absolute value from an early age. “It was a real obsession for my parents, it was forbidden to gain weight, better than getting addicted to heroin,” said the actress, presenting Vera back at the Venice Film Festival in the Horizons section (where she won Director and Best Actress ) and now from March 23 with Wanted in Italian cinemas.
Directed by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel, the film sees VeraGemma in her role as herself, a not-too-happy, good woman caught between badly ended auditions, men who exploit her, luxury shopping, and friendships full of affinities like the one lives with Asia Argento. Western hat on, Vera seems to have the search for her identity as her only mission. When her driver runs over and injures an eight-year-old boy in a suburb of Rome, the guilt-ridden woman begins an intense relationship with him and his father. But he’ll quickly find that for all his goodwill, there’s always someone willing to take advantage of his generosity.
Speaking of the film, when asked if the failed auditions for the film were true, he replied, “Yes, of course. It’s true they never took me. When I auditioned, there was always a ‘but’, something wasn’t right.” The film was certainly a turning point in her life: “For the first time I stripped completely naked, without shame and without fear to show that I’m wearing extensions and that I’ve done it again.”
And again: «I have not stopped dreaming because I am a fighter. I discovered that there are other ways to be an artist. I was a stripper in Los Angeles and a lion and tiger tamer. All in all I didn’t miss anything. I then went to the island of the famous to show that I had courage: I was hungry like everyone else, but I never complained. I knew that the hunger would end soon, and then I worked, they paid me. Then why complain like everyone else?
Vera Gemma reveals: “I feel less ugly, accept myself more and also notice that men like me. However, all my life I have felt guilty about not being as beautiful as my father, but not everyone can live up to an ideal role model».