She burst on the scene with the film “L’amore imperfetto” (Imperfect Love) by Francesca Muci, released on the big screen in 2012. Cinema and theatre actress, she will soon be also protagonist on the web. Native of Palermo, she has been living in Rome for five years together with her partner, actor Alessio Vassallo, The Young Montalbano and bad boy of the TV-series Agrodolce, where he met and won good-looking Lorena’s love. Bright, nice and ironic, she describes herself in this interview, saying despite stereotypes “at work? Better to have female colleagues”.
On your Facebook page, you ironically describe yourself as a woman that has been having a strong attitude to “fiction” since childhood. So becoming an actress is an innate disposition?
I guess so. However, talent alone is not enough, you definitely have to enhance with study and research, but this concerns my profession as much as others I believe. It’s also true, as I often hear my teachers at the Silvio D’Amico saying, that no one that can teach you how to be an actor, if you don’t have the right stuff to do it.
Cinema, TV and theatre. Which one of these gave you most?
Theatre has always been my love. It owns a sacredness and magic that make it unique and immortal. However, it is undeniable that even cinema and television, and now even the web, have their irrepressible fascination. The relationship with the film camera is enigmatic; the so-called “dessì”, that is the focus on the more or less important actions in filmmaking or on TV is not left to the spectator; instead, at the theatre he decides himself where to direct his glance. However, each of these “acting places” has given me and keeps on giving me experiences and new awareness.
In “L’amore imperfetto” you interpreted Adriana, attractive eighteen-year-old having an affair with a woman. It even was a female film direction. What do you think of the relationship between women in life and at work? Harmony or competition?
I adore women. I’m more comfortable in dealing with them at work as well as in life than with men (even if male exceptions that have to do with me are people, whose extraordinariness and intelligence have to be considered a rarity for their gender). From the bitch to the loveliest one, women take along a complexity that makes any kind of relationship difficult, and that is exactly why I like them. In my job, I have had more problems with actors, who would sell their mother to steal a close-up.
You have also been among the cast of the “Teatranti” project, born and realized without any production budget with the aim to spread potentiality of professional Sicilian actors. What results did the actors and in general the Sicilian film industry obtained?
I believe, and episode zero of Teatranti shows evidence, that the actors are embarrassingly skilled, and this is exactly what both cinema and television as well as Sicily would need: finally enthusiastic and lively people able to do their job. The era of wax masks and unskilled people has been lasting too long. And I hope to celebrate this victory with them soon, because I’m sure it’s not far from being and will come.
Which interpreted character did you love most and which one most reflected your personality?
I loved them all indiscriminately, but they have all been really far away from what I am. However, I had the chance to experience way of beings and lives through them, which I would have never known otherwise. Erzebeth Bathory, sanguinary countess I represented in a short drama directed by me for a festival of the Academy, is the one that most conquered my heart and mind. An absolutely freakish woman, if you consider that she has been one of the first serial killers in history. I read several biographies about her, but I swear I have never killed anybody and just the sight of blood makes me feel dizzy in real life.
What are your current and future projects?
I am shooting a very funny web series for corriere.it directed by Bergesio entitled “#140”, which deals with everyday life stories in the Twitter Era and which will be published online after Spring, I think. From February to April, I will be busy with the theatre tour of “The equestrian circus sgueglia”, comedy of Raffaele Viviani directed by the great Argentinian master Alfredo Arias, travelling through different Italian cities.
You currently live in Rome. Was the choice of leaving Palermo dictated by love or career?
My partner Alessio is from Palermo, like me, and we have been living in Rome for five years. I very much love Palermo, but the city did not offer me much to carry out this profession. I hope things are going to change, and maybe they are actually changing, given that Emma Dante, one of the directors I dream of working with, finally got her permanent artistic residence in Palermo.
You often talk about healthy eating (you seem to be a vegetarian!). What role plays coffee in your diet?
I’ve been a committed vegetarian for more than one year and are having incredible benefits thenceforth not only for my health, but also in terms of taste. Coffee is my cross and pleasure, in the sense that I like it so much that I would even drink more. Let’s say that I am currently having on average one warm coffee pot just for myself, which I drink in the morning only. In the afternoon, to avoid missing it, I sometimes make tasty coffee puddings with soymilk (obviously).
Recommended song for the reading of the present article: Planet of Women – Sonny and the sunset
