A father and son. A relationship made of clashes and reconciliations, pains and surprises, affection denied and then rediscovered. «We hated, ignored, loved each other», reveals Emanuele Salce, 53, actor and director, who lived his childhood and early youth alongside Vittorio Gassman: born from the union of Diletta D’Andrea with the director Luciano Salce (passed away in 1989), went to live with the Mattatore when his mother fell in love with him. He shared daily life with Gassman longer than his first biological children Paola, Vittoria, Alessandro. Vittorio left twenty years ago, on June 29, 2000: Emanuele, who dedicated the fortunate theatrical performance Mumble Mumble – or confessions of an orphan of art – to Luciano and Vittorio, has learned to dig himself in and today he remembers with tenderness, a pinch of pain tempered by irony, and an evident emotion, his life as an intruder next to the giant of the show. From which he also received the vocal imprinting: his theatrical speech unquestionably evokes Vittorio.
How long have you lived with the great actor?
«When Mum went to live with him in 1968, I was two years old and I stayed with them until 19. Vittorio was at the height of his success, the idol of everyone. It was Brancaleone. In 1980 Jacopo was born, then Alessandro also came to us. My relationship with my mother’s partner was difficult: he was a complex man in the private life, more at ease on the boards of the theater than on the floors of the house ».
And how did this affect your common life?
«Vittorio saw in me a rival who contended for him the love of my mother. He somehow feared me, because he did not conceive that she could pour strong feelings both on him and on me. I spent a stray childhood dividing myself between the Gassman house, the Salce house, the boarding school, my grandmother. We met with Vittorio when we were already adults and I had been on my own for years ».
How did the reconciliation go?
“He called me: I’m Gassman, do you have two hours on your agenda to see me?” We talked, we explained. He apologized: already in the throes of depression, he had become frail, inhabited by guilt. When his myth crumbled, he agreed to be imperfect, mortal like everyone else. We knew Gassman, the disease gave us back Vittorio ».
And you managed to forgive him easily?
«It took me a moment and it was very nice. I had had Stockholm syndrome, he was my beloved executioner. And a debt of affection denied, so I went to the collection: in recent years Vittorio wanted me next to him, I followed him in the work, I was his assistant-confidant ».
Has he finally become his son?
«Although Vittorio has shown parental maturity with Jacopo, the closest son, he has had a privileged relationship with me belatedly. We were two new people, we were finally nice. Sometimes I even protected him from his mother, the greatest, true and long-lived love of his life … These were beautiful years, full of sincerity: he, always reluctant to physical contacts, made me embrace myself ».
What is Vittorio’s dowry he remembers with more pleasure?
«Apart from the endless culture and intelligence, its out of the ordinary irony. I, who could not cultivate the relationship with my father Luciano who passed away too soon (he dedicated exhibitions and documentaries to him), I found a new person. Vittorio had been my enemy, in late age he became friend and companion ».
What is missing in the world of Gassman today?
«We were orphaned not only by Vittorio but also by characters like my father, Luigi Squarzina, and all the others of their generation, the artistic ruling class of the second half of the 1900s. They had culture and self-sacrifice: inconceivable qualities today when one is looking for a faster life ».
Did Luciano and Vittorio, friends from the time of the Academy and military together, quarrel when his mother left the former for the latter?
«They never broke. They were too far gone, intelligent and gentlemen to end up in little change. They remained until the very last adversaries of great class, the one they both possessed in abundance ».
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