Appointment at 4pm. Will the Milanese sciura ever find a hole in the agenda?
«Are we talking about the sciura or the young sciura? Because you know, the routines are very different.”
Let’s start with the sciura-sciura.
«The lady from Milan (sciura, ed) at 4pm he finished lunch – a sandwich-but-just-a-bite-one -, already collected the boys from the San Carlo College, took Ceci horse riding and Guido Maria to football (what a trauma: he needs to sign up for golf ), and is directed by Costanza to talk about everyone – we meet at Romanengo and not at Marchesi, who at this time is a chaos and also not -. So at 4pm, if you really have to, you will make it… ».
And the young lady?
«He’s doing a low-paid internship in a consultancy firm and has been struggling with an Excel spreadsheet he understands nothing about for four hours. He got all the sums wrong. The changes are gone. In the evening at the bee, however, he will tell his friends that he saved the world. And, guys, I moved lots of money…”.
Instead, what does Carolina de’ Castiglioni do at 4pm?
«An interview and she is very happy to talk not only about science, because now everyone identifies her with them».
There is a reason: in less than eight months, i.e. from landing on Instagram thanks to the profile carothesituation, Carolina de’ Castiglioni’s gags have gone viral. In Milan and beyond. She admits that «I only discovered the comedic side now. I was looking for lightness after having tackled challenging topics in the theater.” Former very shy (“I spoke little as a child”), a high school student with the classic Manzoni style, student at the Litta Theater and then at Columbia University, graduated with honors and specialized in acting and philosophy at the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University (“I wanted to show that I was studying something “real””), de’ Castiglioni has only 27 years old but short films on feminicide, eating disorders, harassment, refugees. His first play, Sýrma, revisits a Greek myth and in 2020 had sold out performances starting from the New York Theater Festival. Therefore, “the sciura” yes and too actress all round.
Do you support yourself by acting?
«To pay the bills I still teach yoga both online and live – oh, speaking of diary, I have class at 7pm -. I don’t deny the dark moments: I lived in New York and with the pandemic I returned to Italy. I had just graduated and boom, the theater stopped. I sent two hundred thousand resumes as an actress, nothing. Another two hundred thousand at the gyms, nothing. How do I get out? Do I ask my parents for help? No. I was about to give up. It seems like a lifetime ago, today things are better but I still have anxiety.”
Also because Milan is expensive.
«I’m lucky enough to live with my boyfriend, we split the costs in an apartment with the rent inherited from his brother stopped in 2016. Only in this way can we stay in the centre, of course the house is 45 square metres. Among peers we often talk about how inaccessible the city has become.”
Are you Milanese from…?
«Near Via Torino: the kingdom of sciure. My characters were born from observation, I looked at them and picked up snatches of conversation. The “teacher can hear me now!”, Ceci “wasn’t invited but let’s not tell her”. Ultimately for the science it’s as if nothing bad could really happen.”
Carolina, are you a little unsure?
“Much. Especially in clothing: all the Friulian and Indian jackets are mine.”
Via Torino: family well?
«Mum worked in advertising, dad is a lawyer: I seem privileged, I am, yet I repeat that I don’t want to burden my family. There are months in which, even if I kill myself with yoga, I know that making ends meet is a challenge. Since last September, that is, since I started with social media and partnerships, things have been better: I have to produce three pieces of content a week. I write the texts, I take care of the characters, the videos in detail.”
Long live Instagram that makes young actors make ends meet.
«It’s one of the stages. He helped me work on the comic vein: fast tempos, incisive jokes or you lose the following. Then I have an almost infallible coach who fails me on anything that isn’t funny.”
Who is?
«My mother, Daniela. Always an inflexible judge. Sometimes I tell her that she doesn’t understand the jokes because she’s from another generation, then I think about it and actually she’s right. Every post under scrutiny, she says: yes, no, ni ».
And is Mrs. Daniela safe?
«He’s from Turin while the sciura by definition is Milanese, but he has the aptitude».
It’s true that he told her: if you really want to be an actress you have to attend the best school in town.
« Years ago the Sciuresque response would have been: go to Bocconi and earn money, rather than an actress. Instead, at home they supported me, even in my choice to go abroad. At the time of the classic Manzoni I lived for six months in Australia: it was the first time I acted in English and, unfortunately for mum – who secretly hoped I would take a shovelful and change my path – I loved it. They put me to the test: let’s see if they select you at Columbia, if you make it we’re with you.”
They selected her, as then at New York University.
«I studied and was a waitress, an extra, an assistant director, a screenwriter. Same here: I’m proud to say that I’m a sidekick in the film The lying down with Claudio Bisio”.
In what sense?
«In a literal sense. I was an assistant and an extra was needed. They propose: you do it, I was convinced that I would have a huge success – guys the way to the Oscar – in truth in the end you could just see one shoulder of me.”
He filmed «The Immortals» with Jovanotti.
«I play one of the five fans whose life is told. Nine years ago, I was very young. She called the producer, they took me. We only met Jovanotti at the end, at the concert. Unforgettable”.
She said that, when she left for America, she didn’t miss the “excess of chatter” of Milan.
“When I hear people talking badly for the sake of speaking badly, I don’t like it.”
Have you experienced these situations?
«As a girl I went to Beltrami middle school, I once told a friend that we had to prevent a third girl from smoking cigarettes. What a nurse. However, the confidence was reported to others, it was annoying, I found myself with eight-nine girls who insulted me on Messenger. I was sick. I was fragile, I just wanted to be accepted by the group: becoming a target terrified me. For a while I didn’t want to go out anymore. Until mom intercepted the chat and took her to the principal. Open heaven: I was afraid it would get even worse. Some parents belittled: it was impossible for girls to write certain things. Nightmare. Then, at a certain point, the bullies’ interest in me waned. After years I found the sheets printed by mother and tore them up: what a liberation. In my short The cumbersome guest (written and performed by her, directed by Claudia Campoli and presented at Gam in 2021) there is also my story. Then something happened.”
What?
«A girl who was in middle school with me looked for me on social media, she wrote: you’re talking about cyberbullying as a victim and not about the fact that you did those things to me. I had no idea, I didn’t remember, until I connected: to feel integrated I let myself be carried away. And it happened: I reiterated on others how much she had hurt me. By doing so, was I trying to tell myself that the behavior I suffered from the bullies was acceptable? I don’t know and I don’t justify myself: I was wrong. I made a lot of mistakes. I apologized.”
Have you remained friends?
«I don’t think he accepted my apologies. Also because he had to come and get them. I had never spoken about this in public. But for her, for me, for others who may suffer or attack, it is right that she does so. My path also leads here.”
