The actress: «I can’t bear that actresses are paid less than male colleagues. But when I acted with Mastroianni and Sordi I couldn’t say a word “
It happened between high school and university. “It was as if at that time I was looking for something, without really knowing what it was. I understood that I was in turbulence, but I didn’t realize how it would end ». With a rather gentle glide on a stage. Angela Finocchiaro’s career began like this and still today, after dozens of theater shows, films and TV series; after successful programs, prizes and awards, in the very blue and mischievous eyes of the actress there seems to be the same astonishment of those who find themselves in a place where she finally recognizes herself, even though she has not planned to go there.
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“On my wanderings I ended up in Grock’s mime school. It wasn’t what I thought I wanted to do: I was just looking for something that would interest me. I think what made me stop was finding a group of people I was fine with … after a while my teachers asked me to do a very small part and I remember thinking just before entering the scene: now I’m leaving”.
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“It was more panic. I repeated to myself: but who made me do it. Instead I stayed. I didn’t imagine building a career, I was moving forward step by step for something that moved me intimately. And at the same time I was starting the Faculty of Medicine ».
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«But no, it’s a choice that didn’t last for anything, in fact I immediately switched to Psychology. But, even there, I soon realized that I liked theater better. I had joined the Teatro del Sole: there were shows in schools every day and everyone did everything, including putting up the lights or driving the minibus. I worked on it for four years and it was a great training. But I wasn’t yet in the mood to say: it’s my job. It became so simply because I always did it, organizing workshops, training, improvising. It was towards the end of the seventies and in Milan there was a very important movement that favored the birth of groups of this kind. You had the feeling that you could communicate what you wanted ».
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So, in those years, did it finally find its dimension?
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«Actually no: I left the Teatro del Sole with two other actors, we founded our own group, from which I also left. I always felt like a loose dog and in the end the groups were close to me, despite being my roots. I needed my space of freedom: I built the projects I wanted to work on without having to wait for a phone call “.
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How had her parents experienced the choice to leave Medicine for the stage?
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«Around my 18 years they were separating and I took advantage of that situation to enter an otherwise very difficult passage. There was the commonplace that it was a leap in the dark to work in the show, not to mention that you had to graduate … but even timidly entering the theater gave me the opportunity to take an acceleration that I would not have had by myself. So I managed to get myself out of the cocoon and also free myself from a certain education that came from my mother, strongly linked to fatigue, to the respect of her man … ».
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Do you consider yourself a feminist?
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“I am a woman and as such it would seem very strange to me not to think I am. If you are a woman at least you are a feminist ».
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Instead, there are not a few women who give in to male-dominated legacies, don’t you think?
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“Yes true. Perhaps I have met quite enlightened people in this sense on my path, but we are still at stake with the story of the salary: I certainly am paid less than the males with whom I share the same role. It happens above all happens in the cinema ».
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Where even the roles for women are much less and, basically, more stereotyped.
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“Yes, that side is also very tiring.”
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Don’t feel like writing something?
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“No. I like to collaborate. With Nichetti we wrote a story, a screenplay, let’s see what we can do ».
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Is Maurizio Nichetti a great friend of yours?
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“Always. He is a very important figure: he was one of the teachers of Grock’s school and was the first to make me understand that I had comic times. He just told me, and then took me to his first film, Ratataplan, which was a stellar success. We remained very close. Then we did the series together Mammamia! where my children were really my children … ».
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«Yes, I didn’t want to do it and they were little: they were 3 and 5 years old. But Maurizio, who had always known them, was so engaging that they had a lot of fun: I’m very happy about it ».
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What are your children doing today? Don’t they work in the show?
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Glance of amused despair. “One chose scenography and the other directed, but I didn’t do anything to direct them … I think today it’s an even more difficult environment but at the same time I seem to be like my parents: you were not born in the complexity of now and annihilates you. So I shut up: they are passionate, they make their way with confidence and I keep my sweat droplet and I don’t show it “
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He left Milan to live in the countryside.
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“Yes, it happened about thirty years ago. Now my children have moved to Milan, a city they adore like me: when I left, in the nineties, it seemed a bit inflected and I was holed up. Now she is beautiful again. Then I wanted to change, so I took the leap of getting engaged to a Tuscan and I moved there. But I have kept all my doctors in Milan and when I have to go there I take the train ».
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And, in the meantime, even the Tuscan remained …
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“In the beginning we worked together, he took care of the staging of the shows. Until the children went to school we always took them with us: I wanted them to know they were mum and dad when they weren’t with them. We don’t talk exaggeratedly about work, in the family, and I don’t know what parents we were, even if we recently had a tip: a friend told us that our son said he was very happy with his mom and dad … who has been crying ever since. “
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How do you remember the years in «Zelig»?
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“For me it was total anguish. I enjoyed the moment I was able to do it, but there are deadly rules – he laughs -. That is, every one-two-three there must be the roar of laughter. I don’t have that nature, so this always made me feel beastly anxious. In the theater you arrive at laughter at different times and, above all, you never know if something will really make you laugh: I like to discover it with the public. Instead, there are Gino and Michele, who are my best friends and who gave me that opportunity, but who are also perfidious … they are war machines. Let’s say I tried to do cabaret but I didn’t survive. I think they too must have thought: poor thing, we’ll make her come but it’s not really hers … ».
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It was one of the columns of «Girls’ TV». Drama there too?
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“Well, it was different there, you built your sketches … there had to be a comic closure but it wasn’t like being in a sort of colosseum, intended as an amphitheater, where you have to go and if it doesn’t come down it’s a problem”.
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Before the show came, did you know you were nice?
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“Not particularly. I was very shy, at parties I did upholstery. I had hair that looked like it had taken the shock, lean lean, long nose. This work was a therapy ».
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“Also. Then I became very attached to many people I grew up with, including Silvio Orlando, Claudio Bisio, Diego Abatantuono or Christian De Sica, with whom I am shooting a film ».
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Lots of friends, other than tapestry for parties …
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«Well, I also worked with Alberto Sordi and Marcello Mastroianni but I totally imploded in their presence. I was young: I was not afraid of work, rather of off-stage moments, in which I had to chat face to face with them. They were both very kind … once the crew had celebrated my birthday and Mastroianni had joined in to wish me well. Well, I could die, I evaporated, I disappeared, I didn’t taste the moment at all … what a hideous character I have. Him in this series that we were shooting, At what point is the nighthe went in and out of his character with a simplicity and ease that you asked yourself: but where does it come from? ».
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And with Sordi? Did it get better?
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“Not at all. We had made a movie and had also gone to Los Angeles together. He, very kind, even took me out but I’m not proud at all of how I handled that invitation: I didn’t speak. He must have thought: what a ball ».
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It could be a side to exploit: would you like to test yourself in more dramatic roles?
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«At the theater, no, I don’t really want to go and skin my soul every night for months. I can not do it. At the cinema, on the other hand, I think it’s nice to find directors who broaden your conscience, who put you in difficulty by making you do different things. The beast in the heart for me it was a transition, Cristina Comencini also took away my fears with that film, giving me a jolt. Then it’s not always possible, in the sense that you don’t always have a way to get out of your comfort zone. Every now and then I ask myself the question: do I always play the same roles? ».
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“I don’t know, but I know that sometimes I wonder. That said, freedom of choice is a wonderful thing but there are times in life when I haven’t been able to exercise it. But my luck is one: every time, even with the smallest projects, I end up falling in love with what I do ».
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June 20, 2022 (change June 20, 2022 | 08:05)
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