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We republish the interview with Andrea Roncato of 1 June 2025
On the other end of the phone, Andrea Roncato, after greetings and pleasantries, starts charging: «How am I? Well. At my age I’m finally an actor, what I’ve always wanted to do since I was a child. When I started as a comedian together with my friend Gigi, it immediately went well and from the end of the Seventies onwards we managed to make many successful films and TV programmes. When you make people laugh, however, you more or less play yourself. When you immerse yourself in a character in a serious, dramatic and emotional story, it’s different. You become someone else, you approach a new humanity. And at this stage of my life I want to do this.”
And this is how at 78 years of age Roncato jumps from one set to another: he has just filmed the Rai1 series dedicated to the writer Giovannino Guareschi, I won’t die even if they kill mein which he plays the father; before that another series by Giacomo Campiotti, The girl behind the counterwith Cristiana Capotondi; and last night in Jesi he celebrated with the cast and crew the end of the filming of the new film by Dario D’Ambrosi, founder and director of the Teatro Patologico in Rome, entitled The prince of madnesswith Roncato and Alessandro Haber, in theaters soon. «A beautiful and original work», he adds, «which does not talk about violence against women or chauvinism, themes that are a little too recurrent, but about mental distress and loneliness. I play a taxi driver with no friends or family, who only talks to the transvestites or prostitutes he brings to work in a nightclub.”
A bit like the one from which his Loris Batacchi suffered, the caricature of Vitellone who boasted of having had many women, but accomplished little or nothing and deep down he only thought about the girlfriend who had left him, right?
«More or less that. Just think that even today there are guys who stop me to show me the tattoos with the writing Loris Batacchi, the one with a thousand conquests, but always alone and melancholy.”
Is it true that you have one on your arm with the Aztec sun, a gift from Mickey Rourke?
“Yes. I had met him in 1992 during a Telegatti evening in Milan, so when months later he saw me in a hotel in Miami, he immediately remembered me. He had just broken up with his wife, Carrè Otis, and wanted to talk. Then late at night he accompanied me to his tattoo artist. It was the first one I made: the others bear the names of my beloved dogs.”
Wasn’t there a bit of overlap between you and that character in the golden years? Like Batacchi, she too went crazy: 500 women conquered, big cars, parties in crowded discos…
«Never counted women in my life. But it’s true that I didn’t hold back and that in the 1980s it was necessary to give the image of a winner always and in any case. At the time everything was inflated, often to tragicomic levels. In reality, I have always been much calmer than I seemed.”
In the end, what were those blessed Eighties like for you?
«Beautiful. People were better off, they had fun and there was more money for everyone. I remember certain TV programs in which there were guests such as James Brown, Robert De Niro, Sylvester Stallone, Tony Curtis and Alain Delon.
International stars were queuing up to come and work with us.”
Was there a moment in those years when you got a little lost?
«Yes, but I think it can happen to anyone. With Gigi we were among the most famous comedians in Italy, we worked with the most beautiful stars, we had money and being a womanizer wasn’t that bad.”
He had affairs with Carol Alt, Elena Sofia Ricci, Moana Pozzi… In 1991 the porn star in her book “The Philosophy of Moana” gave ratings to her lovers and she got a 7 with the addition “a nice sex story”: what did Berlusconi tell her?
«Ahahaha… That was a kind of academic qualification for me. Moana was exceptional, very intelligent and sensitive. Berlusconi was a giant as an entrepreneur, he invented free TV and always established special relationships with people. I had a direct line with him: he called me at any time and wanted me to do the same in case of need.”
Have you ever found yourself talking about women?
“Yes, certainly. All men do it. And when he called the most beautiful ones on TV, he always told me: don’t be an idiot with those people, I’m the one who hires them and they have to work first.”
You have married twice: have you generally maintained good relationships with your exes?
«Almost with all of them. I can also get angry but after a minute it goes away. I can’t sleep if I’m in a relationship with someone. I am like this thanks to my parents: my father was a sexton and raised us in the faith. Knowing that they were always there, when I was young, stopped me from doing big shit.”
Type?
“Having triggered some very serious misunderstandings about me.”
Let me be clearer.
«That I am a woman addict and a drug addict. I took cocaine years ago, yes, but I gave it up after a while. Never been addicted. Except that I was sincere and told it, making a mistake.”
After graduation, how did your parents react when they saw that you wanted to do something else?
«They knew I would never be a lawyer. They were just afraid that I wouldn’t be able to support myself as a comedian.”
And yet in the end he earned a lot, right?
“Yes. But money comes and goes. My only true wealth is something else: I do a job that I love. I don’t have a boat, also because I don’t know how to swim, I no longer have a Ferrari, nor a house in the center or in the mountains. I live in the countryside with my wife, lots of animals, two thousand meters of garden and fifty trees twenty meters high. I have everything I need.”
Was there anything that scared you at the time of your great success?
“Yes. Losing people’s love. I am a Pisces, always looking for love, respect and validation. Thank God it went well: people haven’t abandoned me and still stop me on the street, they make me understand that they love me. Without all this I wouldn’t be here today.”
Instead, when success waned, who did he find close to him?
«True and consolidated affections. For the rest, you must always love this job, even when it gives you nothing in return. That’s how it works.”
Is the list of revenges to be taken long?
“No. The only one is with myself to try every time to improve in my work as an actor.”
Was making arthouse cinema difficult?
“No. It was my decision dictated by the awareness that the years pass and to be credible we need to change the way we live and work on the fly. It’s nice to offer people emotions that I couldn’t bring out before.”
What’s worked best for you so far?
«The character of the mother. The one who says to her son: “I made you, I will undo you”.
Who makes you laugh today?
«Checco Zalone, even if soon he too will have to look for some new path, otherwise he risks making the same film over and over again. I’m sure he will make it like Verdone, Aldo, Giovanni and Giacomo and many other champions.”
The biggest regret?
«Not having had children. My wife has two, which are like mine, and therefore I also have a granddaughter who calls me grandfather. Unfortunately, when we were young, my partner and I, when she became pregnant, decided together to have an abortion. I don’t forgive myself. I also wrote a book on this topic: I would have liked to».
What would never be said about her?
«That I am a simple and good person. A normal guy who likes to stay at home on the sofa, in front of the TV, with his wife and dogs around.”
Do you believe in God?
“Certain. I am the son of a sacristan. I also do things that I’m almost ashamed to talk about.”
Really?
«I keep the nativity scene at home all year round and I placed a bust of Padre Pio on it. Before going to bed, every evening I pray there and thank God for the day I’ve had. Then I go to the garden where eight of my dogs are buried and say goodbye to them one at a time.”
When, in a hundred years, what will become of her?
«I don’t know what will happen to me. I hope that someone remembers me, that maybe even smiles when they do it and that no one curses me. When it was grandparents’ day my granddaughter asked me what is love? I told her: “It’s that smile you’ll make when you think of me, when you grow up and I’m no longer here.” I couldn’t finish better than this. Let’s hope so”.
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