The great actor tells himself: “I will not celebrate, I always think about the future”. And he tells of Lorenzo, his eldest son who died at 19 in 1987: “One day he asked me what’s after his death, I answered him with a story”
«When you take an onion and start browning it, you feel how the smell changes…». If you want to please Giancarlo Giannini, the actor of great dexterity, attention to detail, sometimes extreme and paradoxical stories, add a seat at the table and talk about food. But anniversaries … “No, I won’t celebrate, I’m not an anniversary type, I don’t care about the past, I think about the future, about the things I can still do,” he says. Giancarlo Giannini, 80 years old on August 1st. One of his most recurring words, alongside mathematical formulas, numbers and faith, is “normal”. The praise of simplicity. «My films, in light of the big themes, are small things». Find another actor who starts talking first about his colleagues and then about himself …
It doesn’t have to be difficult to work with her …
“I think so, one of the few requests is to have a hotel room with a kitchenette, I like to prepare myself something to eat at the end of the day on set. From my grandmother Luisa I got into the habit of never throwing away leftovers. Once in America they wanted to interview me for a movie, instead I talked for an hour about my pasta with pesto, since then they have been calling me The king of pesto. I consider it a divine nectar ».
And it takes it back to its roots.
«Yes, it takes me back to my Liguria, to the peasants of my land, splendid, tenacious, tough people. They have a motto that is also mine: if I have little, I have to live with little. My world, as I say in my autobiography, I am still a child (but no one can scold me), is made up of simple things and dreams. I also told of my greatest pain, the loss of Lorenzo, my eldest son, who died in 1987, at 19, from an aneurysm… I want to delete this word. One day, strangely, he asked me what is after death. I didn’t know how to answer, I told him a story, imagine many colors in space, they exist but then they end, it’s like a mountain to climb, you reach other colors… I told him about death as a feeling of knowledge. I was desperate but I did not cry, I also strengthened myself for the other family members, I thought that he has reached knowledge, that he is better off than us who ask ourselves questions and it was not just a consoling light ».
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You have worked with the greatest actors …
“I’ve seen them all die. Sometimes, when I am stopped on the street and maybe someone recognizes my face but my name doesn’t come, and they mistake me for Gassman, Mastroianni, Tognazzi, Manfredi, I do the autograph for them ».
Di Vittorio Gassman was a very good friend.
«Our first film together, in 1987, was“ I picari ”. He had an extraordinary humanity, fragile, very sweet, he had taken me as a confidant, he spoke to me of his depression about him, it is as if I had the light off, he said. He was afraid of loneliness. I humored him when he got sad. He had an extraordinary memory, once I confessed to him that I did not know the part and he replied: I am enough for both of us. And he suggested lines to me on set like a ventriloquist ».
You are linked to many American films and actors …
“Jack Nicholson is the one who most impressed me. I dubbed it I don’t know how many times, sometimes I blocked the dubbing from the enchantment with which I looked at it. He is unpredictable, crazy, I have said it other times, with him you enter a parallel world. A friend is Dustin Hoffman, every now and then we talk on the phone about the decadence of cinema, but there is no shortage of talents here too: Toni Servillo, Paolo Sorrentino … I had fun with my two 007s, I invented my agent from scratch secret, but reading the script I did not understand if I was with James Bond or against, producer and director told me that they still had to decide. With America it has always been a relationship of love and detachment. After “Pasqualino settebellezze”Lina and I all wanted to meet us ».
Chapter Lina Wertmüller.
«It gave me irony, freedom, lightness, the happiness of doing this job even if I never had the actor’s sacred fire. He had a grotesque view of life. And with Mariangela Melato, her grace, intelligence, intensity, I spent my most important moments in cinema ».
Who is Giancarlo Giannini?
«I come from scientific studies, among us non-humanists we recognize ourselves, we are humble. Even today I feel like a failed electronic expert. I am a free man who has never had saints in Heaven, who continues to work while playing, who loves discretion and solitude. Orazio Costa, the first teacher, told me: you are good but never rest on your laurels. Visconti, a genius, saw me silent and serious, he said to me: you’re used to working in the casino, well, I’ll take care of it, and he asked the crew to make more noise. Zeffirelli, another one to whom I must say thanks. Fellini, a great inspirer, depending on my mood called me Giancarlino because I was small and young, or the bat of the night because I swooped on his sets at night with the camera. Once I asked Marlon Brando to reveal his secret about him, he said to me, screaming as he walked through a revolving door: it’s simple, don’t read the scripts. ‘
July 23, 2022 (change July 23, 2022 | 07:35)
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