Antonella Elia: From Laughter to Tears, a Life in Television

He laughs often, but then he is moved to tears. Antonella Elia she is witty, even self-deprecating, she embodies that lightness which she has always brought to television and which has been her fortune. The playful, goose-like side (her words). By nature or by contract, fueling doubt. Childhood and adolescence were, to say the least, uphill: “My mother died when I was one year old and I grew up with my grandparents until I was six, then my father – who was a perfect stranger to me – came to me find every now and then – he decided to take me to live with him, perhaps out of jealousy towards those who raised me, and it was a big tear. Grandma was my mom to me. She took me to a house that was beautiful, but sad and dark at the same time, where she felt the emptiness of the loss of my mother».

Then her father died in a car accident when she was 15. Did he go back to his grandparents?
Anus. He had had a wild fight with them and I haven’t seen them for years. In the meantime he had remarried and I lived with his wife, but my relationship with her, without my dad’s presence, quickly deteriorated… at the age of 18 the first thing I did was leave home».

Leaving home at 18. What did he do?
“The model. Partly because I needed to work, partly perhaps out of self-centeredness. I did TV commercials and in the meantime I devoted myself to my great passions: I studied acting, singing and dancing».

The first work on TV is immediately a bang: “La Corrida” by Corrado.
«My dream was to be an actress, I kept auditioning for the cinema, but they didn’t take me. Instead Corrado caught me on the fly».

How did it affect Corrado?
“I made him laugh, he loved my natural gaffes, he focused a lot on improvisation and used my clumsiness to put on a show as also happened with Raimondo and Mike”.

At the time he was doing theater, he dreamed of cinema, but ended up in Serie B, TV…
«TV was terrifying for me, I was afraid of appearing, when I went down the stairs I was dying of shame. However, compared to the theatrical tours I was used to, TV was a privileged world. When I worked for the theater I shared a room with three girls».

The tv was full…
‘That’s actually what screwed me over. I said to myself, you know what? Who cares about the theater… The only cool tours I remember were those of the musicals, because the singers and dancers are very nice, the prose actors on the other hand are a bit heavy, infinitely heavy, really two balls. Now they will take it, touchy as they are… but they must know it».

She arrived at «Non è la Rai», but she was «old».
“I was 27, the other girls 15-16. I was doing a program with Jocelyn and they took me halfway off her show to go to Non è la Rai. Jocelyn didn’t take it very well, she tied it to her finger … Boncompagni chose me because I made him laugh».

How did you live that year of heated, violent popularity?
«I’ve always experienced popularity a bit badly, I’ve never thought it was cool, on the contrary, this marasmus of delirious kids who were waiting for us outside the studios made me nervous. I also did a lot of club nights, but I felt weird going to a club to sign autographs and get paid for it. I was wondering: how is this possible? I go there, do nothing for an hour, and they pay me.’

How much did they pay?
‘A lot, even five million, or maybe four. Exorbitant figures… I was small, I was 27 years old and you will say, not that small, but I had an irregular development, I was always 20 years younger than my biological age. I was overwhelmed by all this popularity, it destabilized me. You ask yourself questions: do I really deserve, am I worth all this? The same madness happened to me after the first Island of the famous, with paparazzi and ordinary people chasing me».

He also did three years of «Pressing» with Vianello. A football broadcast without knowing anything about football. The famous expertise…
(smiles) “The one I don’t think I ever have, that was the apotheosis. Raimondo absolutely didn’t want me to know anything about football, I went to see Sunday’s matches with Raimondo and the group of writers, and he said to me: get your nails done, don’t worry about the ball. In the evening I was desperate, I went on the air and tried to say something, but whatever I said Rimondo used it to make people laugh».

So ditzy by profession or by DNA?
‘You have to say it yourself. Ditzy by profession for sure, because everyone I worked with asked me to be clumsy and make people laugh, no one taught me to be serious, polite and professional».

She didn’t even try…
“I marched there, it was convenient for me and it was required of me. If I had said sensible things Raimondo would have kicked me out. Sure seeing me again now, I say to myself: kill what a goose I was, I’m embarrassed seeing me, my goodness; okay, I was a little girl, but I was already 30 years old».

Which for her are ten though.
“That too is true. I feel a certain embarrassment seeing myself again, I look like a 30-year-old teenager. Yes, I was really goose».

Isn’t that goose anymore?
(Ride) “I asked for it… let’s say that today I can handle the roles a little more serious, so I always goose down, but there’s more professionalism and hair on my stomach”.

The nineties were amazing for her: Corrado, Vianello and even Mike Bongiorno, who called her to the “Wheel of Fortune”. Did she always bewitch him thanks to the ocaggine?
“Yes, absolutely. Actually I didn’t want to do The Wheel, I was at the peak of my career and going and turning the squares seemed to go backwards. Everyone thinks I stayed there ten years, but it was only one year. Of fire. Everything happened».

Why did he accept even though he thought it was a step backwards?
“Mike called me every day and tried to convince me, in the end I gave in, it seemed impolite to refuse”.

Today the scene in which she complimented the animal rights competitor who refused the fur won thanks to the sponsor would go viral… Mike insulted her and invited her to leave, she replied piqued: “Of course I’m leaving”.
«Mike got mad like crazy, he told me two or three, I started crying and he had me called to the dressing room: ‘Why are you so upset? I just told you that you’re stoned.” And he hugged me. Mike loved me, like Raimondo and Corrado».

He was at his peak and decided to go into theater.
“Fatal mistake to leave the TV to go and do The beauty and the Beast at the theater, a crap show, because unfortunately I sang and I’m not good at singing. It was a disaster, I destroyed my career there».

Also because in the meantime he also agreed to go to Telemontecarlo.
«That genius of my agent, Lele Mora, sent me to make a very stupid show, that genius claimed that Tmc would be the new pole, but I had the exclusive with Canale 5. So Mediaset tore the contract in my face, Mike was very angry: I let you go to the theater and you go with the competition. You’re done with us!”

What did he do then?
“I went to Los Angeles to live for three years to study acting, with the solid goal of being an actress. But even there I failed.’

In fact Pupi Avati told her that he didn’t know how to act. Was she right?
“No, but when ever… The audition went like crap, he split me in two and only when I started crying did he say: see now you’re credible”.

But it didn’t help, he didn’t take it…
«Obviously not, only grown-ups act with him and I was too small and bitchy to work with him. Which then, it was a fiction that I also saw, nothing special, it could have taken me without making it so long».

She is engaged to the actor Pietro Delle Piane. Are you getting married?
‘I decided not to. At the moment. Then we’ll see.’

But he asked her twice.
‘I always said yes, because it’s impolite to say no. And then in dreams it would be wonderful to get married».

He is 10 down. Does the age difference weigh?
“Yes. I can’t accept the idea of ​​my man suddenly seeing me as ugly and old. I’ll be 70 in ten years, he’ll be 60, he’ll be in his prime… I feel like crying».

Don’t cry, I’m moved too, he’ll love her anyway.
“Ten years is a long time, getting old scares me a lot, it’s unacceptable that it sees me fall apart… I’ve always lived as a stray, I didn’t have a family, and maybe that’s why I didn’t recreate it”.

Let’s go back to TV. You won an “Island of the Famous” in 2012, but everyone remembers that of 2004. The quarrel with Aida Yespica was a cult.
“Two shoves and two hair pulls, but luckily they took it off me, otherwise it would make me black. She was scary: she transformed, even her different voice came out, she revealed herself».

Leo up the sleeve?
‘I wish. But you can’t, it’s not socially correct. But I’d gladly give you two slaps when I’m arguing with someone.’

What memories do you have of the “Island”?
“I adore the Isola dei Famosi. There is passion, fun. I would do it all my life. What do you do as a profession? The Island of the Famous. I love being in the wild nature. And then I was born to lead the Island, I would be the queen. When I look at it I ask myself: why don’t I lead it?’

Would she be better than Ilary Blasi?
(Ride) «Well of course, there is not the slightest doubt. Come on, I’m joking. Perhaps I would be so chaotic that nothing would be understood, therefore I would not be suitable to be a presenter, too noisy».

So what is she good at?
(He bursts out laughing) “Nothing”.