Interview with Elio Germano
The Best of Youth

Elio Germano (left) with Riccardo Scamarcio

By Emiliano Pretto
march 2009

The 28-year-old Rome-born actor Elio Germano is relatively little-known outside Italy, but here he has already claimed a host of glittering prizes including a “David di Donatello” (the Italian Oscar) as Best Actor in 2007 for his performance in Daniele Luchetti's fluent, heartfelt movie “My brother is an only child”.

Just what is the state of Italian cinema forty years on from its golden age with Fellini, De Sica and Rossellini?
How did your career in acting begin?
I enrolled in drama school in 1994. After that it was the usual business of any aspiring actor: treading the boards in little theatres, small parts, big parts, endless auditions, a little money here and there from commercials. I landed my first screen role in 1999. I was about to leave for a season in repetory when I was offered a part in Carlo Vanzina’s “Il cielo in una stanza”. My teachers advised me to say yes. It’s far harder to find work in cinema than it is in the theatre.

Why acting?
Probably all forms of artistic endeavour spring from some kind of sickness or inability to get on with an everyday life. I don’t think it’s a special desire to communicate something. I don’t believe an actor should be aware of what he’s communicating, but rather he should simply substitute himself for a character and just be him. If anyone it’s the director who’s in charge of any message to be conveyed. For me acting is a way of avoiding finding a real job. At the start of shooting for each film you begin everything from scratch: a new film, new people, a new life. What interests me is the opportunity for change, for transformation.

There’s a new generation of thirty-something Italian actors who are starting to make a name for themselves both here and abroad: yourself, Claudio Santamaria, Pierfrancesco Favino to name but three. What do this generation need to enjoy the same levels of success as stars like Mastroianni, Gassman or dei Volontè?
Making a film involves lots of people and a lot of money. Quite simply, fewer films are made nowadays and so there are fewer stars. Also directors are far more tied to making commercial films. I don’t believe there’s a scarcity of talent. If Gassman or Mastroianni were young actors today they would face the same situation as us. Before you can start talking about actors you have to look at all the problems concerning production and distribution of movies; not to mention the almost total lack of support for cinema from the government …

What are the problems for distribution of films in Italy and how could the state give better support for cinema?
The distributors do their job. They distribute films which are going to do well at the box office. The problem is the absence of regulations. If 900 prints of the latest blockbuster are released, then there are hardly any screens left for quality art-house movies. This is where the state should intervene. For example, by introducing laws like those in other countries that establish a quota for a set number of domestic movies in a set number of cinemas. If you think the current government is supposedly made up of nationalist parties…
Then there’s the fact that the two biggest Italian movie distributors are the same who control the national television networks (Medusa Films. Those same networks who instead of broadcasting films fill up their schedules with quiz shows and reality programmes.

How do you expect Italians to develop an interest in quality cinema?
How do you prepare for a role?
I don’t think there’s just one way, there are many different ways depending on the character. Having said that I certainly don’t believe in a tightly controlled ultra rational approach when I’m working. What I try and do is to create a situation where I’m on the set and I just experience it as if I didn’t know what’s going on. I try not to be aware of what’s going to happen next. An actor should never look at himself from the outside.

Have you any role models among great Italian actors from the past or any of the international stars working today?
I wouldn’t say models but there are certainly some great actors working today who’ve done fabulous things. Daniel Day Lewis, Gary Oldman, Sean Penn, Philip Seymour Hoffman. Among the Italian actors from the past I particularly admire are Gian Maria Volontè, Nino Manfredi and Enrico Maria Salerno…

You’ve already worked with many top Italian directors like Gabriele Salvatores (1991 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film with “Mediterraneo”), Ettore Scola, Michele Placido. What goals have you set yourself? Are there any foreign directors you’d like to work with?
Actually I try not to set specific goals. I would be terrified by the idea of having to start all over, maybe with the aim of working in the States. The beautiful part of this job is being able to work with so many different people with different languages and cultures. That’s why it would be interesting to work abroad: to meet actors who’ve experienced different theatrical and cinematic languages. I especially like the way actors work in England or Eastern and Northern Europe.
The way Ken Loach and Mike Leigh work is simply fantastic: they help their actors eliminate every trace of “acting” until they end up living a real experience.

Is there any difference between a movie set in Italy and one in America?
In America there’s much more money. Everything’s bigger: the equipment, the sets, the number of people in every department. And there are huge differences on a strictly professional level. In the States everything revolves around the actor. For those who aren’t used to it there’s a terrifying silence when they’re shooting. The whole method is different too: you act as part of the whole scene which is shot all together. Here what often happens is that they’ll shoot the general context and then send the minor actors off-set before filming the close-ups and cutaways for the stars. Here in Italy we can’t use certain methods because they simply cost too much. We’re famous for making films, even quality films, with low budgets. … Can I add one final thing?

Of course.
For the good of cinema and the cinema-going public in Italy: please stop interrupting films half-way through. The interval is just an invention designed to sell popcorn and ice cream. And let’s have more films in original language versions!
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Biography

Elio Germano was born in Rome in 1980, the only son of an architect and an office worker. He entered drama school when he was 14. He then combined his theatrical studies with regular work at Scientific High School. He began studying philosophy at university but eventually dropped out to concentrate on acting.
His first screen role came in 1999, when he was 18, in Carlo Vanzina’s “Il cielo in una stanza”. Since then he has appeared in over 20 films. The latest is Gabriele Salvatores’ 2008 drama “As God commands”.
Since 1997 he has been a member of the indie rap group Bestierare. He has practiced judo for 11 years and is a passionate motor-cycle rider.
In Rome he loves the districts of Monteverde, Testaccio, Trastevere, San Lorenzo and especially Corviale, the massive housing project on the outskirts of the city where he lives: “the street people, the Serpentone [Big Snake] a huge undulating apartment block a full kilometer long. It’s so big it cuts off the west wind. It’s full of immigrants and squatters. It’s also a place where you never need to watch tv.”