On the stage of the Wired Next Fest of Milan also Emanuela Fanelliactress and author who in recent years has experienced enormous popularity thanks above all to the cult program A piece of Lundini on Rai 2 and which is now at the cinema in the new feature film by Paolo Virzì Drought.
The chat in the Cathedral room of the Milan steam factory inevitably starts from the film. “It was true: it is my ransom”, Fanelli begins, with a reference to one of the recurring gags of the last season of the Patch, in which Lundini never misses an opportunity to mock her, proving skeptical of the possibility that the director has really chosen her for one of his films. On the success of the last few years and the transition from comedy to the dramatic role of the film, the actress says that she actually “I like beautiful things, the things I would look at. Regardless of drama or comedy“; the role he plays in Drought is “a gift: tragedy and comedy together“. “Often the female roles in the cinema are the clumsy, the nice, the depressed, the beautiful “while what he plays in the film instead is “a character that has many facets, who resembles a real person“.
Acting in a film that boasts a cast with the likes of Silvio Orlando, Valerio Mastandrea and Monica Bellucci was like playing “the first match in the Champions League“. Drought speaks of aridity, environmental and human, and to the question of whether cinema also has the function of narrating battles such as that of climate change, the actress replies “I don’t know if it is needed. But watching the film I thought that a story was missing today. It is a beautiful photograph. Actually yes speaks of the climate emergency, of the Droughtbut the focus of the film is human aridity, which is also a bit at the origin of the environmental one“. On a more personal level, the film helped her explore herself: “When you have to play a character you look for hooks with character aspects that concern you. To play this role I had to hook a little bit to the sense of inadequacy, to the parts that were a little more delicate, inadequate and tender.“.
On his professional career, and in contrast to what the entertainment sector experienced during the period of the pandemic, Fanelli admits that “they were two lucky years, also lived with a little sense of guilt for friends and colleagues who weren’t working“.
On radio Fanelli also interprets a ‘influencera category of which it is not defined “detractor“, rather, “Speaking of changing languages, the first and most impactful ones were very good at understanding where things like advertising were going“.
Closing on disconnect between person and character and on the impassiveness of going back to the real Emanuela Fanelli. “Emanuela Fanelli from La pezza di Lundini, like Valerio Lundini, is not us. First of all, it’s more fun to always do something that doesn’t look like yourself. Then, there is also a bit of private modesty, I don’t like being seen. I don’t think my life is that interesting compared to what I can come up with”, Says the actress.
Emanuela Fanelli at Wired Next Fest Milan 2022: “My role in Drought is a gift”