Of
Roberta Scorranese
Interview with actress Anna Mazzamauro: «We are not friends with Milena Vuukotic, also because on stage we were truly rivals: we spoke to each other for the first time a short time ago. On TV, Villaggio said of me that he had chosen me like one chooses a toilet, and I replied with a hard face: then, with the cameras off, he told me that I was beautiful. First love? I don’t remember it, but I remember the first show on stage”
We are republishing Roberta Scorranese’s interview with Anna Mazzamauro, published on 19 August, one of the most appreciated by our readers in 2025.
Anna Mazzamauro, do people still call you “Miss Silvani” on the street today?
«On the street, at the market, at the post office. If I could, I would strangle that Miss Silvani.”
But it was the character that brought her fame.
«Yes, but it has also become a cage. Since then, which director could have entrusted me with the role of, say, Medea? But can you imagine, me insulting Jason? People immediately think of Silvani saying “shit”.
A wonderful cage, though. One of the most beloved characters in the Fantozzi saga, a saga that is half a century old (the first film was from 1975).
«And to think that I did my first audition for the role of Pina. I didn’t know they were looking for a “cess”, so I dressed in red, tight dress. Then it was Paolo who suggested to the director, Luciano Salce: “This one is full of defects, but it wears them on its heels”. And they took me as the object of Fantozzi’s desire. Someone who knows how to be a saint and a devil at the same time, a tragic and therefore comical woman.”
Paolo, obviously, is Villaggio.
“We weren’t friends if that’s what you want to ask. And perhaps for this reason we respected each other. Both he and I have retained the disenchantment of actors: we don’t necessarily have to be nice.”
After six films together…
«And today I regret not having said many things to him, both good and bad. But on the other hand, it was he himself who set the bar. One day he came to my trailer to revise the part and I ventured: “Paolo, why do we never see each other outside of the set?”. And he replied: “Because I only hang out with rich and famous people.” Of course, I think it was one of his many provocations, but not that much.”
Was he cynical?
“Enough. But he was the one who gave me the best compliment I ever received.”
Which?
«We went on TV together. In front of the cameras it was very hard. When the presenter, Barbara D’Urso, asked him how he chose me, he replied: “How do you choose a toilet”. I then replied, equally mean: “But you earned a lot with that toilet.” Then, however, when we left the television studio he approached me, looked at me tenderly and said: “Anna, you are beautiful”.
It meant many things.
«That “beautiful” was not for my physical appearance, but for my skill, for my ability to stay in character, for my visceral love for theatre, for my ability to laugh at things, even terrible ones. He understood that on stage or on set I become someone else: I feel sensual, free, unbridled.”
She will turn 87 next December 1st. Are you still in love with theatre?
«Meanwhile I’m still taking a show dedicated to Fantozzi around Italy entitled How is she still human. But above all, at the end of November I made my debut at the Tor Bella Monaca theater with Brava, brava, even less. Producer Nicola Canonico, Sasà Calabrese orchestra, original music by Emanuele Belloni and also on stage Sonia Tabacco. Among the monologues there is one in which I tear Silvani to pieces.”
This character is truly a persecution.
«Yes, it is my joy and my boredom, because no director has subsequently had the courage to dare and unhinge this cage. Only Francesca Archibugi did it, and I thank her, even if I later refused.”
What did he propose to her?
«A small part: I was supposed to play an old, hunchbacked nun, but I said no».
Why?
«Because I only had three bars. You see, we actors are really as we imagine: tough, vain, sometimes bad. And we act, we always act. I am certain that much of Villaggio’s cynicism was due to his inexhaustible tendency to act. But can I tell you something nice?”.
Right.
«Al Pacino chose a photo of me for one of his films in progress and I’ll tell you more: I also did the second audition. I’ll just tell you that I play the part of a Calabrian mother in the kitchen. Let’s see how it ends, I can’t say more.”
Be’, mica male.
«Actors are full of fears: before going on stage, if they wait for a phone call from a director, if they have to be paid. I, who am used to fake checks, today want to thank Nicola Canonico because he is a good guy.”
She didn’t go to the party for the fiftieth anniversary of Fantozzi’s films in Rome.
“No, but I think my absence was felt.”
There was Mariangela, that is, Plinio Fernando.
«Pliny, how dear. At first he called me every day, then we lost touch. Sometimes she would stay in her little girl’s clothes between takes just to be pampered.”
And the accountant Filini?
«He was one of my closest friends. Gigi Reder, who I called Gigi Rider, was the desperation of make-up artists: before shooting a scene he and I laughed like crazy and the make-up always melted away.”
Miss Silvani ends up marrying the surveyor Calboni.
«The late Giuseppe Anatrelli. Paradoxically he was more serious than Gigi, but when he hugged me I started laughing.”
Mrs. Fantozzi.
«Without taking anything away from Milena (Vukotic, ed.), for me the real Mrs. Fantozzi was the first, Liù Bosisio. She, appropriately made up, was not only ugly but also sad, depressing. What the heck, Milena was cute, sweet, kind. Sometimes on stage I asked myself: “But why should this poor guy fall in love with me when he has her at home”?”
Are you friends with Vukotic?
«No, also because we were rivals on stage. And I’m not joking when I say that we real actors believe in the characters we play.”
But you spent a lot of time together.
«We spoke to Milena for the first time recently, when we went on a show together. We had never spoken to each other before. And not because there was friction, on the contrary. It’s just that cinema deceives you. It makes you believe that this is real life and so you spend years and years on set with someone without ever really getting to know them. How sad. What a beauty.”
You will be a guest of the Carpi Film Fest on September 4th. Will he also talk about Fantozzi here?
«It is my bittersweet destiny. I don’t deny that he consecrated me as one of the characters of Italian cinema, but not everyone knows that there was a Mazzamauro before Silvani.”
Stories.
«Well, I did Cyrano de Bergerac, in the sense that I played the protagonist: just see me in profile, look at that nose».
But he also did TV.
«With Lino Banfi I did thirteen episodes of Finally Sunday, in the Seventies. We were a couple who, in the director’s words, must have “read some books but then forgotten about them”. Good, but today when he talks about his career Lino always talks only about Fenech. I understand that Fenech is beautiful, but I’ve been there too.”
A great love?
«The theatre. For my coffin they will have to use the wooden planks from the stage.”
But there must have been some love.
«Also because I have a daughter, Guendalina, my life. I had a man, of course, who stayed by my side for twenty-five years and then couldn’t do it anymore.”
And first love?
«I remember the first show on stage, but not the first love».
I don’t believe it.
«Wait, now I remember: he was one of those “dramatic” men. One fine day, driving away on his scooter, he shouted at me: “Anna, I love you but I can’t love you”.
And law?
«I put my hands on my hips and shouted back at him: “But go away quickly…”.
January 1, 2026
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