Choose one from the quotes below (they're all from actresses of different eras) and explain why.

Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get

– Ingrid Bergman

If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner.

– Tallulah Bankhead

The greater your capacity to love, the greater your capacity to feel the pain

– Jennifer Aniston

Tallulah Bankhead, because of the three it is the one that makes the most sense.

How much do you need acting in your life and how much do you need your life in acting?

Having had no formal training I don’t have a technical approach to acting it therefore becomes essential for me to ‘draw’ on my personal experiences to feel my way into the character. As an actress you never know what type of character you may have to interpret, so the more life experience you have the more variation and colour you can give to the character.

Can you tell us about one of the happiest moments in your life?

The presentation of ‘Terrafirma’ at the Venice Festival. Because the whole experience of shooting Crialese’s film was one of the most intense and beautiful of my life, bringing the film to Venice was one of the most emotional events of my life. More so to see the faces of my parent and siblings so moved, as I am the youngest in the family, gave me great satisfaction.

Can you tell us about one of the most challenging moments in your life?

 

My travels alone, a month in Cuba in March 2007. Above all the discovery of my passion for photography thanks to my Nikon F6, which my sister gave to me as a present a few months before I left.

 

How do you feel in this very moment?

Ready to get on the next merry-go-round.

When acting, better to follow your self or your ego?

For me to follow one’s ego is never a good thing, so…

What daily ritual that you perform makes you feel the safest, and why?

I don’t have daily rituals. The only thing I do the same everyday is to drink coffee as soon as I wake up.

 

I recently spoke with a colleague, saying that, ‘an actor’s profession is one of the few that has remained ‘a craft’, in the sense that it is immune to contamination by the digital, 2.0, social etc etc. Lately, however, seen in another rising trend, is the actor wanting to build on the experience gained when, both, on and off the set/stage, expressing themselves in various other areas; art, writing, photography etc. This is yet another angle to the profession. This makes it less rigid/angular/closed and more rounded. Do you agree? You are also one of the ‘rounded’ actors, aren’t you? What’s you’re point of view?

I don’t really know how to answer. I have a fear of becoming trapped in one profession. I always like to change the cards on the table, monotony is the one thing that terrifies me so I cultivate thousands of interests and passions which I bring to many different types of work. I have always had the idea that there is a hidden place that is more right, for me or a job that I haven’t tried and that it’s important for me to try. The only rule I abide by to the maximum is that when I make a commitment I carry it out with the utmost seriousness. And in the end all you have one and all you have seen comes in useful when you least expect it.

What keeps you awake at night?

The fear of waking up late when you have something important to do.

Please name something that other people seem to care about, but that doesn’t matter at all to you, as well as something that you care about very much that seems unimportant to other people.

I don’t like to clutch at straws so it’s difficult to answer this question.

I recently watched again one of my favourite movies of all time. Fellini 8emezzo. It's such an amazing heritage he left us. All our italian prestige probably comes from his vision. What do you think we kept of that era? What we have lost? What young talented people like you can do to recover what is lost?

Certainly, we’ve lost a lot of our good taste. I don’t believe it’s possible to turn back so I believe it’s impossible to return to the prestige of those times in almost every field. It progresses and I think it will be other countries’ turns to attract attention. We young people can continue to fight, to not compromise ourselves and to not pollute our way of seeing things, and above all, to join forces, when there is a real need to do something you can do it even though all around you are unaware of its importance.

Tell us about the connection you need to create with the crew of a movie while you're filming it and especially with the director. I bet you had such amazing ones cause most of the movies you acted in were shot on islands, so kind of a magic enclosure.

What most fascinates me about cinema and filmmaking is the need to harmonise many different types of skilled work simultaneously. A film is directed by a director, is interpreted by actors but without the DOP and lighting technicians or without the designer and the entire costume department or the sound department… in short, if one of these is missing then the result wont be the same. To me, the film requires that everything and everyone move in harmony and mutual respect, this fascinates me. Working on location on the islands gives you the opportunity to spend your free time with the crew and develop relationships and work inevitably becomes even more fun.

If you were a tree, what tree would you be? 

A Wisteria

 What's your plan b?

I only have plan B’s, A’s are the ones I am missing.

What's the size of your hard disk?

I don’t have a hard disk any more, I broke one once and I never recovered. Now I save everything on CD that I want to keep.

Tell us a movie we have to watch RIGHT NOW.

Soy Cuba, a great classic. Synecdoche, a masterpiece ignored in recent years

What's next?

Who knows?

 

Written by Ivan Olita 

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