From Miss Iulm to MTV Veejay: The Career and Adventures of Georgia Surina

«I was 19 and I was in my first year of university, I was attending the Iulm in Milan and at the time there was this competition – Miss Iulm – in which some friends had signed me up. I won».

The Miss Italy of the Iulm…
‘Yeah, something like that, a little lame. She was crowned by Alberoni with a domopak wreath. As a prize I also won a collaboration with a fashion agency. I started doing auditions, I went to castings, but after doing some publicity I realized I wanted to talk. I couldn’t just be a silent model, I needed to express myself in other ways. So they made me audition for a TV show on Junior TV and took me. My television adventure began unexpectedly. Absolutely by chance.’

By chance and unexpectedly Georgia Surina she became the face and voice of a generation at the turn of the millennium, Mtv veejay, the evolution of the deejay species because the face of those who peddled music also counted for the first, the beginning of that idolatry for the image that has definitely exploded with social media. His career exploded immediately, violently. First job, first success. So her parable takes different turns: actress in various fiction, now radio presenter on Rtl, writer. Her private life also records “famous” relationships: five years with the former Rai dg Antonio Campo Dall’Orto (at the time he was the big boss of MTV) and then a lightning marriage (two years) with a comet from the cinema, Nicolas Vaporidis. But she doesn’t unbutton: “Private life is private, after so much shouting it’s better to have some silence”.

Did you like being the center of attention?
‘Not at all. I was shy as hell, but I realized that the more I auditioned the less bad I was when I had to take exams at the university. For me, every exam was a tragedy: shortness of breath, cold sweat, sudden forgetfulness. Those very first work experiences were my weaning».

After Junior TV she moved on to MTV…
«Mtv Italia had just been born and they were carrying out a campaign to buy Italian faces. They had seen me on Junior TV and a talent scout recommended me. I auditioned and was taken. It was a simple audition but they required knowledge of English and a good knowledge of music».

At the time it was less obvious to know, how did he learn English?
«I was passionate about my own, when I could I watched films in their original language, I got busy on my own. I’ve always been a nerd, even at school. For the musical part, the basics were given to me by my dad who listened to a lot of music at home, every Sunday he put on new records, a background that helped me a lot to enter musical TV».

The emotional photography of those years?
«A sensorial bombardment, an explosion of emotions, I entered at 20 and exited at 30. I ate up the experiences that appeared in front of me. It was my first big job, I kept studying even when they sent me to London for Select I went back to Italy for the exam sessions».

London, 20 years, how many transgressions…
‘Zero. My dream was to go and live in London and… tac, it’s here. I took it as my professional stepping stone. I never went out, I never lived the life that one can imagine as a twenty-year-old in a city like that: I went to the studio, I worked, I prepared for the interviews and in the meantime I studied for my university exams like a geek».

He has done many interviews with great personalities. Which ones to remember?
“Two. When I met Anthony Hopkins I was terrified, he was great and I had to live up to it. I had to loosen the atmosphere and put the interviewee at ease. With such a great character I felt small and inadequate, but instead he was very kind: you can call me Tony, don’t be in a hurry, I’ll tell you everything you want. There you see the greatness of a character, there you understand who has what it takes».

The other one?
“George Michael was incredibly nice. I thought that if he pulled her, he was distant, difficult to catch, instead we had fun like two kids, he was spontaneous, he made jokes. The real artist assists you and helps you, because he knows that we both have to come out well».

Who was obnoxious instead?
“Mary J. Blige. It was me and Marco Maccarini at our first Trl, and spoke only to him. It was embarrassing, I asked the question and she turned away from him. I was very bad at it».

Your video-snack partner, Marco Maccarini: what relationship did you have?
«Like Sandra and Raimondo, two half-brothers, two cronies. We’ve always enjoyed the sets together, zero jealousies, he’s one of the best people I’ve worked with. After the live however, I on one side, he on the other. Maybe this was the secret: we never became real friends, but when we see each other it’s like a day hasn’t passed».

She also teamed up with Alessandro Cattelan…
“A great professional. He was already good then, working with the good ones makes you give your best, you have an extra boost in not wanting to disappoint those around you».

«Total Request Live» (TRL) generated a kind of collective madness, thousands of people under your balcony.
“We rewarded those who stood out creatively, so anything happened. I remember guys naked even in winter, in their underwear just for decency, because the goal was to be able to be taken up to the studio and look out onto the balcony with their idol. Until that moment it was impossible to meet an artist up close and we were a bridge between those who listened to that music and the artists, we united two worlds that only met at concerts».

An image of those times?
«I still remember the first episode of Trl with Ligabue, with Piazza San Babila and Corso Vittorio Emanuele blocked and the angry merchants. Marco and I also filed a complaint for blocking the pedestrian road, something like that. The police escorted us because we couldn’t get out of the studio and go home. It was an explosion that we hadn’t foreseen, Mtv was small, there were 30 of us including the secretary. I’ve seen crazy things that I don’t think we’ll ever see again.’

Type?
«We had entered the list of things to visit for school trips from all over Italy: the Castello Sforzesco, the Last Supper, Trl in Piazza Duomo… we were one of the attractions not to be missed. Many boys proposed trips to Milan rather than to more natural places to visit, such as Rome and Venice; it was a collective ritual.

Do you miss that adrenaline?
“It’s a priceless adrenaline, those who do my job look for that kind of adrenaline”.

Why did he leave?
«Because after 10 years in MTV I wanted to confront the outside world. I had just turned 30, I needed to grow up, for new stimuli».

He also conducted «Zelig off».
«I was still working for MTV and both Bisio and Gino and Michele asked me to use English terms, to speak at full throttle, to make a caricature of myself. They saw me as the weird one. At the time we at MTV were seen as the weird ones, those of alternative TV, they said to me: do it like you do on MTV».

What struck her?
«The debut of Checco Zalone and Geppi Cucciari. It was clear that they had something extra, the theater was coming down, they had a disruptive creative talent. She brought the character of Wonder Woman on stage, Checco was a neo-melodic singer with that tight pink shirt».

Among the new stimuli she was looking for came that of an actress. You starred in «Don Matteo» with Terence Hill.
“One of the greatest professionals I have ever met, extraordinarily kind and polite, always the first to arrive on set. And then very humble. Once he rested on the steps, he was there, with his hat on his face like Trinity, lying on the stairs, very uncomfortable, with his arms across his chest and I thought: ok he’s dead. He told me that the girls from the tailor shop were on their lunch break and he didn’t want to disturb them».

New stimuli. Even a novel, “It will be easier for two to stay awake” (Giunti), released a year ago.
«And it will become a film, Giovanni Veronesi has bought the rights as producer and is having the screenplay developed. We talk about single motherhood, one of the hot topics of society, of our future, more and more a need for women. I think it’s an extremely great act of love, the difference is how much a child has been desired, chosen, wanted, not if it’s the result of an evening of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll».

Is there anything autobiographical?
“No, at the moment I have a companion… It was born from the feelings of a friend and I understood that there was an underground sea to give a voice to: it’s not a whim, it’s an urgency, a gesture of immense love».

She also did a cover of “Max†not exactly nude, but not properly dressed either.
‘It was a whim. MTV had the cover done for Max to other naked vjs, but I was in London at the time. I was bad at it. I was wondering: why not me? And so I did it by myself.’

Do you miss the TV?
“The first one, yes. It was another tv. For the basic correctness: if you are valid, you go ahead».