Interview with Gianmarco Franchini: « So I learned to cry »

And from there, thanks to Stefano Sollima who in 2023 wanted it as protagonist of Adageit came up to the Venice Film Festival. «During Covid, when everything stopped, I started to really think about what I wanted to do. I tried to imagine where I wanted to be at 60 years old, and I said that the restricted vision of the country did not necessarily have to impose a direction to my life. That maybe I could have done something I really liked …  »

Gianmarco Franchini: from the province to the red carpet of Venice

Was it a leap into the void?

I had an absurd fear because every time I tried to talk about it with friends or my family, I always felt like saying: « But where do you want to go? Let it go! ». But instead of thinking about all those, and there are many, who did not make it prefer to look at the big ones and let me inspire them.

When did he understand that he had made it?

I am still waiting for mom to tell me that he saw me recite and I liked it … until recently my grandmother still called me to tell me that « the carabinieri competition was released ».

Well, where I come from at most they make you some tight mouth compliment. It is not for envy, only that people are simpler, direct.

Coming from such an environment, did you ever feel an outsider?

In reality on the set there is that same frankness. If a scene is not good, it is said without many laps of words, also because everything goes at a crazy speed.

They never bother the criticisms?

On the contrary, they excite me. Because they encourage me to do something more beautiful. It is important to train to maintain a positive energy otherwise there is a risk of becoming very self -financed. And instead there is little to be touchy, we are at the service of something bigger: the scenic act, the work of art.

Gianmarco Franchini: acting as therapy

In Adage He faced very strong scenes of child prostitution. Is there anything in front of which he felt uncomfortable?

I learned to « take away », coming to know me so deeply that they can remove every part of me and fully welcome the character. And at that point the modesty does not count anything anymore because it is not Gianmarco who is doing a « service », but Manuel.

Don’t come into play even afterwards, when you see again on the screen?

When I see me in reality, the meaning of a scene does not affect me anyway, but I focus on how I did it: I wonder if I could have used another tone of voice, move otherwise, put other nuances there. I am very self -critical, sometimes even a little too much.

When instead he can afford to be just a spectator what do you like to look at?

I don’t have a favorite genre, I love the irony of Quentin Tarantino and the close -ups of Sergio Leone, as well as the romantic films. There are works that touch certain strings of you in ways you would not expect. For example, I cried a lot with Madison County bridgesor as a child looking at Spiritwho was my favorite cartoon: I was there on the sofa next to mom and I tried to hold me back, until in the end I couldn’t take it anymore and a tear came out. With my brother who made fun of me. Even now when I’m just seeing a movie and I feel like crying I tell myself that I shouldn’t do it.

Have you become better to hold back?

No, indeed, another thing in which the acting helped me is to cry. I made certain liberating tears on stage that I would never do in life. But I also learned to laugh so much that my breath is missing, to get angry without a social context around that it could limit me. I would recommend a theater course to overcome the inconveniences that it is difficult to talk or shyness, to get in touch with others in a unique way. When you are staged you hear something inside that is inexplicable, in my opinion. I think this is a bit about what a singer feels when he is on the stage of a concert or a motorcyclist while running.

You have already dealt with the theme of mental health The House of the looks by Luca Zingaretti (presented at the Rome Film Festival 2024) who tells the story of a young alcoholic poet who after a bad accident begins to work in a pediatric hospital. And soon he will play an autistic boy at the theater. Two characters united by a particular sensitivity towards the world.

Both have a great inner world and find difficulty in having relations with the outside. Even the Marcolino de The House of the looks He felt such a social anxiety that he felt uncomfortable in speaking with anyone else was his father or bartender, he totally crushed him, he made him feel naked.

An incredibly current theme if you think that Daniele Mencarelli’s book from which the film is taken is set in the late nineties. Has our perception of psychological distress has changed since then?

Certainly in the city like Rome or Milan there is an opening and greater welcome regarding these themes, but in many provincial countries to go to the psychologist it is still seen as a whim that can afford those who have no other bigger problems. Coming from a place with this mentality, however, helped me to have fewer superstructures, a more honest way to relate to others.

Gianmarco Franchini out of the set

What makes you feel good? Law? Listen to music?

I have never particularly loved novels, I prefer poems because I like to dwell on words, looking around, reflecting, trying to understand diversity. During the studies at the acting school of Yvonne D’Abbraccio I discovered the beauty of the theatrical works, especially those of William Shakespeare, and I said « how is it possible that I never read them before? ». Music, on the other hand, is more a background for me, I never listen to it with the earphones because they make me feel isolated from everything around me. I like to be in the here and now and observe. Also for this use very little social media, I feel that they make me lose contact with others.