He wanted to become a priest and be a missionary in Paraguay like his uncle, but for a love affair with a nun he was thrown out of boarding school. A significant debut for the future actor, director and also heartthrob women that he would then marry three times and have five children. But Michele Placido, born in Ascoli Satriano 75 years ago, minimizes: «I was a 12 year old boy, at the time I had a sincere vocation and that story was innocent. Her name was Antonietta, she was 18 years old, she was a cloistered nun and she was employed in the boarding school, where I had been since I was 9, to change the linen of us pupils. I passed my sack of clothing to her through the famous wheel. We didn’t see each other, but I could hear her sweet little voice blossoming from her mouth that I only imagined. We began to exchange information: what’s your name, where were you born, she was from Benevento and came from a very poor family. Then we started writing notes, a secret correspondence across the wheel. And when the parcels of provisions arrived from home, with caciocavallo, cured meats, sweets, I also passed her some things to eat, because her family didn’t send her anything. Until Christmas came and that evening we managed to meet at night in the sports field. It was terribly cold, I run away from my bed and she from the convent ».
«Well … Antonietta, never seen before, was ugly: she with the frock, I with the pants. We began to consume my food, then we hugged, kissed and, perhaps, a few more things … It was the first female body I came into contact with. She whispered to me “you are my husband: you and Jesus” ».
How did the superiors find out?
«Perhaps I confided my adventure to a companion and I told the confessor that I had sinned. From behind the grate he asked me: Did you touch yourself? And I, in my total innocence, replied with a voice broken by the fear that I had done bad things … We were both kicked out and our love story ended. I put an end to my path: I would not have done the missionary, my sexuality had blossomed and I could not accept the idea of chastity. I was very sorry for Antonietta: we have not seen each other again ».
How did dad Beniamino and mum Maria take it?
“Not very well, but I was happy to be back home, in my large family, 8 children: five boys and three girls … And in my country, however, at school I had to deal with my learning disability”.
«In elementary school my attention faded when there were subjects like mathematics, chemistry, physics … I was distracted, I was a real pacifier. But I was attentive to the Italian lessons, there my brain was activated with higher energy than that of my classmates. I liked poetry very much, I knew Pascoli’s poetry so well that, when the inspectors arrived at school, the teacher made me recite them ».
Then did he continue his studies at the classical high school?
“Not at all! My father, a surveyor, made me enroll in the industrial technical institute. A disaster. I was always postponed and then rejected. My parents were worried and asked my uncle the marshal to let me into the police. I won the competition with only the eighth grade diploma because, in truth, I had been recommended: a relative of ours was secretary of the then Minister of the Interior Taviani. I was 19 years old, I came to Rome and I found myself doing the cop when in ’68 there were the riots of the students in Valle Giulia ».
The cops defended by Pier Paolo Pasolini in the famous poem “Il Pci ai Giovani”?
“Exact. The poet wrote to the students: you have the faces of father’s children, the policemen are the children of the poor. I remember a rowdy girl who, during the clashes in front of the Faculty of Architecture, spit on me. I was armed with a truncheon and, after all that spitting and insults, I take her by the hair. I’m about to give her a blow but she, looking at me fixedly, tells me: how beautiful you are! A little story was born between us, which did not last long: she belonged to a middle-class family and they must have told her, but what are you up to with a policeman? ».
How did your passion for theater and cinema come about?
“When I was still living in the village, I went to the cinema every evening, there were no theaters. Leaving the room, at night, I walked: there was no one on the street, but I identified with the actors of the big screen, I imagined I had cameras around me and I posed. Real narcissism, necessary to be an actor. The last film I happened to see, before leaving for Rome, strangely enough, was Pasolini’s Accattone ».
The career as a policeman was short …
«The police door closes and the door of the Silvio d’Amico Academy opens. I had prepared for the audition in the barracks, where there was a library that no one attended ».
Was he so good that he passed the audition and was admitted? «Also recommended this time. In Rome I met Ilaria, with whom I was engaged and then she became my first wife. His grandmother, Raissa Olkienizkaia Naldi, an important translator of Russian origin, was a friend of Orazio Costa, then director of the Academy. I introduced myself dressed as a policeman and someone from the commission laughed. I begin to recite a song, but my Apulian accent didn’t help, I was mortified and thought: I suck, I’m leaving. But since I was recommended, Costa held me back, invited me to declaim a poem. While I was declaiming, I was demoralized, I was crying, I knew that I would be kicked out of there too. And instead…”.
His father dreamed of an industrial technician son and found himself an actor son: how did he take it?
«In the main bar of the village he proudly announced to the villagers present: my son has entered the important Academy from which great actors have come out!».
And his debut was in “Orlando furioso” directed by Luca Ronconi. “I was 20, I played Agramante. Luca loved me, but he got angry because I was undisciplined and didn’t study much. But he appreciated my instinct: his school made me understand the theatrical vocation and I am grateful to him. How grateful I am to Strehler, when he entrusted me with the role of Caliban in the Tempest. According to him I had something different from the others and he said: you have no self-esteem, but you are endowed with a natural interiority. Then he added: I will transform you. Just as Lina Wertmüller wanted to transform me, in a rather heavy way ».
“We were rehearsing for Wesker’s Kitchen. She yelled at me: you are a dog! He would kick my ass, humiliate me because I didn’t know the part. ‘
The usual learning disorder problem?
“I think so. I decided to drop everything, but Lina came looking for me saying, Michelino you are beautiful, you are good, you can become a leading man, why don’t you learn the script? ».
He became a leading actor, in theater, cinema, television …
«The Octopus of Damiano Damiani gave me, in addition to the visibility of Commissioner Cattani, a civil training. With this fiction, an act of denunciation, I learned a lot about the mafia ».
What did you feel when you played Giovanni Falcone?
«An immense responsibility. Thanks to his and Borsellino’s sacrifice, the Sicilians and Italy opened their eyes: the two magistrates were killed because they were left alone like politics dogs. I dedicate my next effort to this theme: for Rai I am working on a series on Rosario Livatino who was beatified by Pope Francis last May ».
Stage, cinema and tv. Where are you comfortable?
«When I make cinema, I love cinema, but on stage I experience the greatest emotions and, at my age, I don’t give up on tours: in the coming months I will be shooting with La bottega del caffè. I confess that I would like to grow old on stage ».
And recently he became president of the Ferrara Municipal Theater Foundation.
“Yes, with Moni Ovadia in the role of director. The strange thing is that we have been called to a city with a Northern League mayor. From the deep South I find myself in the deep North ».
His great love is always his land.
“The only holiday I conceive is to return to the Apulian countryside where you can breathe the beauty, but also the fragility of human nature: I try to convey this feeling to my children”.
Five, from three different women.
“I come from a large family. I attended the births of all my children, fascinated by the sacrifice, by the suffering of women and by seeing the origin of life ».
June 20, 2021 (change June 20, 2021 | 21:22)
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