Of
Elvira Serra
The show girl and her memories: «Frizzi’s compliments and Ventura’s advice». The future: «With my husband Antonio Orso I understood that we can start again»
We are republishing Elvira Serra’s interview with Sara Tommasi, published on 22 April 2025, one of the most appreciated by our readers in 2025.
Sara Tommasi he smiles kindly, with a naivety that is endearing. As she asks him to bring her a coffee, she calls out “love” her husband and agent Antonio Orsowho married with Covid restrictions on March 21, 2021 in Massa Martana, wedding lunch in the only resort that cooked for guests. There were seven guests: the newlyweds, the grandmother and her father, the mother with her housekeeper and then the driver. Today he lives between Terni and Sharm el-Sheikh. It is far from the full beauty of its golden, glittering and tragic years. But she moved on and wants to tell it.
Your first happy memory?
«With my parents at an amusement park. They took me to Gardaland, Mirabilandia, Eurodisney. We had fun on roller coasters, archery… We were always happy.”
Are your parents still there?
«No, mum passed away three years ago. He suffered from Parkinson’s. He was the light of everything.”
And his father?
«He is still there. He suffers from bipolar disorder, like me.”
Who is he most like?
«To my maternal grandmother: she always wore high-heeled shoes. My mother Cinzia was also beautiful, but she was more sporty.”
His grandparents had one of the most important pastry shops in Terni.
«Every afternoon I went to them for a snack, I ate lots of pizzas, fried donuts, I brought them to my friends».
Is it true that you participated in the preparation of the pink cake in Roberto Benigni’s film “Life is Beautiful”?
«Yes, I helped my grandfather and his trusted pastry chef, Rocco. But then I didn’t accompany him to the delivery.”
What did you dream of as a child?
«I didn’t know until I was 13. Then I started watching Non è la Rai, I liked Ambra a lot, I knew T’artengo by heart. And I understood that I wanted to be an actress or at least enter the world of entertainment.”
She succeeded in Milan, where she attended Bocconi.
«I graduated in Economics with Professor Dallocchio. I got 105. A bank made me an offer, but I was already working at Paperissima: after that, I wouldn’t have been a credible economist…”.
How did it start?
«My agent was Lele Mora. I had met him in the disco: they told me he was the manager of the divas and I went to introduce myself.”
What were you doing?
«I always went to his office because the castings and shootings were done there and the contracts were closed. From there we left to spend evenings around Italy. It was all very nice and healthy.”
How much did they pay you for a night at the disco?
«Even 10,000 euros. And we’re talking about 20 years ago.”
How did you invest the money?
«In real estate».
Admirers?
«They sent me flowers to the dressing room or waited for me outside with the photos to have them signed. I have wonderful memories, it’s a shame that I then got sick.
Afterwards, everyone moved away.”
Some time ago on «Iene» he spoke about bipolar disorder.
«After that monologue, many people wrote to me: fathers, mothers, young people. You feel euphoric or depressed, but the problem is when you don’t accept having an illness: at that moment you can make mistakes from which you can’t go back.”
Are you referring to porn films? In 2022 the Court of Salerno acquitted the five defendants accused of sexual violence against him.
«The process was long. Now I don’t think about it anymore, it’s a thing of the past and the mistakes were mine too. I’m angry with myself because I didn’t stop for treatment when my mother asked me to. If I had taken a year off then nothing would have happened to me. But at that moment I didn’t want to leave the program I co-hosted on Rete 4: Europa League special. In fact, I thought it was a conspiracy against me to keep me from working. Think how stupid I was!
She wasn’t stupid, she was sick. She was also hospitalized.
“Three times. The longest hospital stay was six months. I honestly don’t remember the first two hospitalizations, I wasn’t myself. The last time I was at Villa Maria Pia here in Rome.”
Are you no longer taking medications?
«No, since I got married I’ve been going through a very peaceful phase».
How did you meet your husband?
«For work. Antonio is a manager. We started collaborating in 2020. Then one day, at a Valentine’s Day event in Gubbio with Taylor Mega, a fight broke out and I, scared, held onto him. Let’s say that the spark was struck like this.”
What role does it have in your life?
«He talks to me and I feel good. I sleep, I eat well, I go to the gym, I live a healthy lifestyle, I work…”.
How did Antonio’s brothers welcome her?
“Everyone is fine, he was very good at making my true nature understood, at the time there was still a lot of prejudice.”
Don’t you have check-ups?
«I haven’t been to the doctor for three years. Antonio knows that if he sees something that doesn’t add up, we talk about it and then we go to the specialist.”
Why did you choose Sharm el-Sheikh?
«In Sharm I had to do an advertisement for a resort. Once there, we fell in love with the place and after three days we bought a house. We travel back and forth to Terni. But we moved only after my mother passed away.”
Did you manage to say goodbye?
«Yes, I went to the hospital every day. I was with her until the end, together with my husband: she was sure that he was a good boy.”
Did she wonder how she got lost?
«With drugs. I felt down and instead of taking the prescribed medications, I took other substances. That really drove me nuts.”
Let’s go back to the beautiful moments of his career. Which ones come to mind?
«Simona Ventura was a volcano, I was the cue card for her: she had the line ready, she always told me to commit myself to dancing, to do the breaks».
He also worked with Gerry Scotti and Fabrizio Frizzi.
«A Very ducky Gerry Scotti made fun of us, Fabrizio Frizzi instead told me I was good. They were truly magical years for me.”
The experience you were most fond of?
«The Island of the famousin 2006. It was tiring, but there was the sea, I always went swimming, we were in swimsuits. I was very good friends with Alessandra Pierelli: I saw her again recently, we created a jewelery line for Capricci Store: mine is called Butterfly».
Are you happy with Max’s calendar?
«But yes, in the end Canalis and Santarelli did it too… And then thanks to that calendar I made the film Last of the class and I won the plaque for best emerging actress.”
Do they recognize her on the street?
«Yes, they ask me how I am, maybe they saw me at One or by Monica Setta for Women at the crossroads. Their affection gives me the strength to continue. If new proposals arrive I will evaluate them with my husband.”
What do you watch on TV?
«I like Del Debbio and Bianca Berlinguer on Network 4 and Myrta Merlino on Channel 5».
What would she like to do?
«A solar program. And then there is the prospect of a documentary film about my life, to talk about bipolarism.”
Do you want a child?
«Yes, but I had uterine surgery and it would be a very risky pregnancy. We are thinking about adoption. Take it easy, though: we are still in the adolescent phase of our love, we like to go out to eat ice cream, to visit his parents…”.
In the 2021 book, «Ricomincio da Sara», he also thanks the pain.
«It was part of a road with a thousand falls and just as many recoveries. Pain shapes you. But you have to learn to value what you have, otherwise you’ll be left with the feeling that you’re always missing something. Unfortunately I understood it when I lost everything.”
December 31, 2025
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