The Roman actor and director, on TV with «Nero a mezzo» and the film «I cassamortari»: «My professional regret? Having said no to Ferzan Özpetek’s “The Turkish Bath” “
The sixty will be completed next year, on February 16. But he has already celebrated his career forty this year. Working. Claudio Amendola answers us from Monopoli in an interval of the set of a new series for Mediaset, The Patriarch
. «I started with Story of love and friendship. I remember it as if it were yesterday, October 4, 1981, my father Ferruccio on the doorstep: “Ah regazzi ‘go to work in a place where there are a hundred people who depend on your big big face, see what then do'”.
But it was thanks to his mother, Rita Savagnone.
“True. He told me that the director, Franco Rossi, was looking for a guy with a face like mine. I didn’t think about it, I didn’t have the sacred fire of acting, I thought I would do something sooner or later. Better then. Like the entertainer in the Valtur villages ».
Morale?
“I went to the audition as an interview to be a salesman, more to do Mom a favor. And I found myself in a bed with Barbara De Rossi. She could have been worse. ‘
Searching for articles about her in the archive, descriptions come out like this: «He is considered the gladiator of Italian cinema and, according to some, the natural heir of Renato Salvatori. A sanguine actor, handsome and talented macho, whose tough face and mocking smile have granted him the reputation of a sex symbol made in Italy. Does he recognize himself in the portrait?
“I can’t lie, of course I recognize myself. It was like that, in part it still is, it’s a generous sum of what I did. The comparison with Renato Salvatori that has accompanied me from the beginning flatters me ».
Professional regrets?
«Not to have done The turkish bath di Ozpetek».
Why didn’t he do it?
“Because I didn’t think I was right, I didn’t think I was capable, I didn’t understand Ferzan, because I’m a jerk. I wasn’t mature enough to understand it. ‘
How did you come up with the idea of making a film like “I cassamortari”? Willing to exorcise death?
«Death has always fascinated me with all the pain that follows, the rituality, respect for those who leave and those who stay. I always try to find a side to play down, I always look for the positive side, the glass half full, it is my strength and also my limit, a matter of character. Funny things always happen at funerals, it’s embarrassing, it’s not nice to say, but I’ve seen scenes that made me laugh. And the world of funeral services, which in Rome we call cassamortari, has always intrigued me. First you see them with the faces of circumstance, very respectful and then as soon as the procession enters the church, they lean against the columns, smoke, fuck around ».
Is it true that George Clooney blew her up?
«I wrote it with an Italian-American screenwriter, I wanted to set it in the USA with him falling from his horse on Lake Como and ruining his face. And the funeral directors who rebuilt it for her funeral. I wrote a letter to Clooney’s lawyer ”
E?
“He did not answer me. So I brought the story back to Italy, it tells enough about our baseness ».
And he pulled in between Piero Pelù, Gabriele Arcangelo, in death and resurrection.
«I would have liked to have been a rocker, not a rock star, let’s be precise. I think it’s the only job I really envy. If I had had the necessary talent ».
Do you remember the first concert?
“And who forgets it?” The first forte, that most shocked me, that of the Clash in Florence, then, but I was already older, that of Pink Floyd. I grew up with that musical culture, with those bands that you could never see and that you mythologized. To say, Led Zeppelin had come to Milan when I was nine. But then I saw Robert Plant if I remember correctly on the Island of Elba. He was an old man now. ”
He has worked with great directors, Marco Risi, Marco Tullio Giordana, Ettore Scola, Carlo Mazzacurati, Patrice Chéreau just to name a few, but he has never disdained TV, not only fiction and series but also pop programs, “Amici”, “Miss Italy »,« Domenica in », talkshows, football broadcasts. Because?
“The truth is that I have a lot of fun on television, I take it very lightly. I am aware that my popularity comes mainly from the small screen, much more than from films, although I have made some important ones. It is the TV that has brought me into people’s homes since 1981, at almost sixty I am proud of it ».
He just got back there with the third season of «Half Black».
“Like Giulio de The Cesaroni, there are characters who accompany me, whom I love. I am very attached to Inspector Carlo Guerrieri, this year I also directed, inherited from the skilled hands of Marco Pontecorvo, I enjoy the relationship with the actors, all of them very talented, and the fact that I have inserted comedy situations into the detective story. , things that make you laugh ».
Didn’t finish high school, does it weigh you down?
“It is now an established fact, I passed the phase in which I was worried about it. I’ve come to terms with it. And also the one in which I boasted about it, fortunately. There are gaps that, without school, you can’t make up for anymore. Like philosophy, literature, things that are right to study when you are young, when you are a sponge. Then you can try but you no longer have the desire or the time to recover. Or maybe I’ll find him, who knows? ”
What bothers you that they say about you?
“I know very little what they say about me, I don’t have social networks, I don’t lead a social life, I have zero acquaintances with the environment. One thing I’m sorry ».
That is to say?
“When, it rarely happened but it did, I was described as arrogant, really forced. I’m not, I do it in the cinema. I consider it a slander and it hurts me. I am a calm and condescending one, up to a limit that I do not allow anyone to overcome. I have great respect for everyone’s work. The relationships you have with everyone who works with you matter a lot. They don’t listen to me just for my big face, as Sordi used to say ».
Do your children listen to you?
«I have very good relations with them, I am lucky. Alessia and Giulia – born from the bond with Marina Grande, ndr – they are adult women with safe lives, I respect them very much “.
And Rocco, born of his marriage to Francesca Neri?
«I told him a few no, I had more practice. He is 23 years old, after the pandemic he started working in production, the least glorious part of the set, the most tiring. He is doing a beautiful mess, from the bottom step. And this, I do not hide, fills me with pride ».
Who are his friends, who does he relax with?
«I try to stress myself as little as possible, this job depends on how you take it. I relax a lot with my grandchildren, with my children, it relaxes me a lot to play golf even if I get pissed off because I never get it again. I relax on the sofa to watch television ».
Golf, sofa, and the macho gladiator?
«Getting older is a great advantage. You also learn to enjoy the company of yourself. For example, I like going to restaurants alone, I have rich lunches. Like going to the cinema. My teacher Carlo Vanzina always went to the cinema alone ».
What memory do you have of him?
“Stupendous. I had worked with his father, Dr. Steno, who took a liking to me, I spent many sublime evenings there. And I found the same kindness and refinement in Carlo. He was really a great gentleman, he endured criticism – and he had a lot of it -, with a big smile. He called them “those smart guys”. He was a great cinephile, by the way. The cinema of him and Enrico turned up his nose to the left one, of which I am also a part. It was annoying that their films, especially those about eighties hedonism, told the country in a more direct way than those of many authors. He was not recognized that he had a more disenchanted eye on this country and closer to the comedy of the great masters than many of their colleagues. They also had another merit ».
Which?
“They did it while also cashing in good money. He made us all work and earn. As well as Vittorio Cecchi Gori ».
Who else do you miss?
“I’ve been missing Dad for a while. I don’t know why, maybe because I’m getting old, I like to walk, I wake up early in the morning, I take long walks, usually in Villa Borghese. The other day I arrived at Verano, and I went to see him. It was a long time since I went there. He made me so happy ».
In 2014 he made his directorial debut with “La mossa del pinguino” on an unlikely curling team: Edoardo Leo, Ricky Memphis, Fassari and Ennio Fantastichini. If Italy imagined that in Beijing 2022 Italy would win a gold?
“Honestly, who could have imagined it? Those of the Olympics were exciting days, towards the quarter-finals the phone calls began to thicken, they wanted to know how I had thought of making that film. It was nice to be a bit of a warning. The TVs put it back on the air and I was happy. But no, I’m not going to curling, golf is enough for me ».
Since you’ve made a funeral film, do you ever think about yours?
«Let’s put it this way. I would love to have lived all that life offers me so that the people I leave are smiling, that they can say: my father, my husband, my friend lived well, that’s okay. I would like a happy funeral. Where we sing ».
Thing?
“Perhaps the sky gets always more blue by Rino Gaetano ».
April 8, 2022 (change April 8, 2022 | 09:25)
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