The actress, who has published a new book, tells her story in the round: from the beginnings as a child to successes and falls as an adult
She dreamed of being a dancer. “Yes, but I was too tall, too thin and with too long feet. My mother told me: when you raise your arms you look like a corkscrew. The comparison made me understand that I was immeasurable ». The dream of Veronica Pivettiafter attending a dance school for three years, she vanished and changed direction: “I was convinced to be a painter, in fact after the artistic high school, I graduated from the Brera Academy and I also worked, for a period, in the workshop of a painter “.
But then when, how and why did you start dubbing and then the actress?
«It is a story that starts from afar. I was 6 years old, the daughter of a director and an actress, since I was a child I haunted the environment. I am noticed by Bruno Bozzetto, who was supposed to shoot an advertising spot with Maurizio Nichetti. He needed a girl who had to wander around, with a bewildered air, at an adult party, where for the first time pitted olives, the Saclà, were offered. He liked my absurd face and he signed me. I was very amused by this new adventure, but terrified of having to eat olives: I hated them! Anyway it was my debut as an actress, even if, always as a child I started dubbing. The curious thing was that, being small, to reach the lectern too high for me, I was placed on a bench. It was a real school, she taught me various things ».
“The absolute rigor of a serious job and having to adhere to the character I dubbed: if he coughed I had to cough, if he yawned I had to yawn, if he laughed I had to know how to laugh … The darkness of the room taught me that it is the least self-centered that can exist . When you are alone, nobody sees your face and the only thing that matters is your voice, it makes you understand that you are at the service of the task that has been assigned to you. I never felt the frustration of dubbing, it was a commitment of great dignity and fun ».
The funniest episodes?
“We are in 1994, my sister had recently been elected president of the Chamber. Adriano Celentano had to advertise the state railways and, in the commercial, he needed a female voice, so he listens to the simple recording of three voices: he chooses mine. He didn’t know me and, when I introduce myself with my name and surname, he jokingly asked me: are you Irene Pivetti’s cousin? I answer, I’m really the sister. It was rather strange that the sister of a political figure did my kind of job, however I continued to do so and a few years later another curious episode occurs: doing dubbing for the beautiful film All about my mother by Pedro Almodóvar. The director was looking for a voice for the character of Agrado, a transsexual, and they had both me and a real transsexual auditioned: well, Almodóvar chose me. “
Was your sister’s public role cumbersome or did it make her career easier?
“Neither one nor the other. If I had also wanted to pursue a political career, of course, the figure of Irene would have been cumbersome, suffice it to say that even now they are wrong and they call me Irene, but I was very busy on other things and I began to have good opportunities, of which she absolutely did not know. nothing. When I was called by Fabio Fazio to be sent to Those who … football, it was the clerks of the Chamber who told her that they had seen me on TV. I have never felt facilitated or even uncomfortable for the job I was doing far from her. And then, let’s face it: in my environment it’s such a knife fight that giving me the roles just because I was the sister of … it seems really unlikely to me ».
So it was facilitated by the parents, director and actress?
“For charity! The only thing they repeated to me was to stay away from their work, they called it a bad environment and they always downplayed my performances, they didn’t want me to get mad ».
The turning point comes with Carlo Verdone in «Honeymoons».
«A milestone. I was lucky enough not only to work with Carlo, but to catch a film that later became a cult and a character, Fosca, who I liked madly, allowing me to express my natural shyness. That wife, victim of that absurd husband, vexed and with a beaten-up air, cleared me through customs as a comic actress, giving me the opportunity to disguise myself in a disheartened, unlucky figure … And in fact, then, I get another role as a loser in the series Orders».
A success that will then lead her to lead the Sanremo Festival with Raimondo Vianello and Eva Herzigova.
«I am chosen next to Eva, such a beautiful woman, a model known all over the world, it is useless to make comparisons between her and me. And work with a real gentleman, funny, witty like Vianello. Between the three of us a report on velvet, we went together to eat soup in the restaurant near our hotel ».
Why, immediately after that extraordinary experience, did they catch her stealing in a supermarket in Rome?
“Pure madness. I had just returned from a stratospheric festival, where millions of people had seen me and I stole a packet of slices. But they caught me right away! They stop me at the exit asking me: lady what do you have in your bag? Obviously, I immediately pulled out the swag and paid what I owed, apologizing ».
An attack of kleptomania?
“Not at all! The classic idiot’s bravado, who looks like m … ».
And to think that, later on, she was the protagonist of the series “The Thief”.
“Yes, but there I used to steal for good, to give things away to people in need.”
Many successes, including cinema, TV, theater, books … Why was she affected by the depression that she recounts in her first book «I stopped crying»?
«As a character, I am apparently an extrovert, a joker, in truth I am a bear, never been sociable since I was a child, unlike Irene who is a leader by nature, she immediately socialized. Depression came from a thyroid problem: I was treated poorly, with abuse of the wrong drugs. But I always continued to work. At that time I was in Marshal Rocca, with the legendary Gigi Proietti ».
Depressed in a fiction-comedy: how did she do it?
«I was able to split up, I pretended and this helped me: immersing myself in a character that was anything but dramatic, it made me come out of my depressive state. Between one take and the next, however, a river of tears and my make-up artist chased me to reattach the false eyelashes on my eyelids ».
And did the comrades on the set notice it?
“No, not even Gigi noticed. In depression you don’t give a damn, but I had a job to do and it was saving. “
Because then he published another book called “Never up to par”. Up to whom?
“Anyone!” It is the story of the constant inadequacy that I have been struggling with since I was born. Although I am aware of my worth, when it comes to relating to others I feel less and less. Even though I feel the warmth of the audience, I’m never sure of myself … it’s an imprinting that I’ve carried around since I was a child. But in the second part of my life, I dedicate myself to the exercise of being more at peace with myself ».
Is separation from her husband and not having children somehow related to her loner character?
“None of that. What we have is what we want. Separation is something that happens. I didn’t have children maybe because I didn’t want them so much. If they had come, I think I would have been happy, but the important thing is to feel free in making choices ».
In his third book published last year, “For women only”, he spoke of freedom, even sexual.
“It was a shameless novel, I enjoyed using explicit language, using forbidden terms. After the age of 50 I felt the desire to talk about sex from a female point of view, because it is not true that with menopause you are a dirty rag and everything ends … you experience sexuality in a different way. And then I also talked about women ravenous with lust, homosexual women … The curious thing is that they told me: it looks like a book written by a man. Can only men talk about sex? ‘
And the new novel is even a Mexican thriller: «Tequila bang bang».
«I asked myself the question: will I be able to write it? A crazy test because in a yellow the accounts have to balance. It all started with my cell phone, the Nokia 3310, which is the one used by drug traffickers, because it cannot be intercepted, you can only call us. And this kind of cell phone has become the protagonist of the story, set in Mexico. In the story that I tell, there are many murders, many people die, it is very bloody, splatter … I am an admirer of Tarantino. I would call it a comic noir ».
Lots of books and lots of theater too. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the show she is touring with now is “They’re shooting our song.”
“It is set in the 1920s, a century ago, and impersonates Jenny Talento, a florist by day, an opium dealer at night … and, incidentally, there is also talk of the Spanish epidemic.”
Was it or is it still frightened by Covid?
“Generally, I’m not afraid of disease. Sure, the pandemic does exist, but it didn’t bother me that much. The ongoing war worries me much more. If I had Putin in front of me, I would tell him: after Covid, bombs too? Well that’s enough now! ».
May 10, 2022 (change May 13, 2022 | 10:33)
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