«Do we want to meet under the house?». We live not far away, Emanuela Fanelli and I. You happen to see her walking her dog around the neighborhood of Rome where she lives. It is not Morena, where the journey begins. «Better to chat and interrupt the writing meeting, if possible». Of course you can: would you have felt like interrupting the creative flow of an artist? Fresh from great successes, from the David di Donatello as an interpreter, from the global and authorial dimension of the films of Cortellesi and Virzì, Emanuela Fanelli returns to writing. «A little something of mine, which I should then turn around». Here, we recognize Fanelli’s understatement loud and clear: a style that can also surprise those who then laugh and enjoy his performances. But that is part of Emanuela’s life. News, Luana Pericoli of Call My Agent would have exclaimed. «They were wonderful years: work was kind to me. I have played roles written by great authors. And it was truly an honor, but I haven’t written something of my own since Lundini’s Pezza. That film that became my sketch with Alessandro Borghi, Afoot Scarzi. And then Simonetta’s fiction. And so, yes, I write.”
Writing for an actor can also be an act of protection during expectations, even if for her these seemed like hectic years.
«I don’t see life strategically: if the wheel of cinema stopped I could go back to the theatre. Writing serves me, first of all: the desire to do it wins. And I want to fuel it.”
She doesn’t really look like someone who stands behind a corner looking for the best pose to gain an advantage.
«The second thought, the rational one, is there but if I think about the turning points in life I have always made them on my gut. I believe I have a truly honest contact with the changing Emanuela. I’m rarely smart: sometimes, others tell me, I throw myself into utterances that aren’t appropriate for me. However, I prefer to look like myself, I like it if others recognize me as a clear, honest person. In the last six years there have been many strong emotions, many satisfactions but I am no different from how I was when I was a teacher with children in a school in Rome.”
Presenting Venice at a delicate moment, you did exactly what you said you would do before the event: did you physically participate among the very few in the cinema in the procession for Palestine, preferring not to use the Festival stage for personal messages?
«I believe that a presenter from Venice has never taken part in a demonstration during the Exhibition: for me, being there had meaning, I exercised my right as a citizen in the face of the genocide that I condemned. I speak on stage like artists do, I didn’t want to use that stage for my exhibition. I was not and am not a mythological figure half this, half that to be pulled by the sleeves: in those moments you jump into the ring of fire, then suddenly the attention passes and you go back to being the one to whom you say “I love you, you’re fantastic, you make me laugh as much as I do”. For the first time I was treated like a famous puppet. I didn’t like a few hearts here and there from some colleagues and I don’t even forgive them: maybe sometimes I have too much of a Candy Candy or Heidi look.”
These years for her, strong and Venetian emotions included, were intense and beautiful. He often uses the term gratitude.
«We are little animals who run around for years, you hope something happens and then it happens: a prize, a good film. And you don’t even stop to say to yourself: can we enjoy this moment? The little animal wants more and more. I tried to practice this exercise because it’s good for me. Try not to rush to the after. This is how you discover gratitude: of those who stop you on the street, perhaps just for an easy and hasty compliment, and you “sit in” and talk to them about your life. My friends tell me: “Emanue, you’re attacking these poor fans!” The real exercise is to reach people in any way. Making people laugh or moving, their reaction counts. It’s worth leaving the house, looking for parking, spending the money on that one… What would I be?
This seems like a healthy approach to me. Speaking of doing things that “arrive”: karaoke with Elodie and Pandolfi has “arrived”.
«I have a problem, when I’m tired I get what we call the “little coglionella” in Rome: translate it. We were picking up an award and there was music: so I say to Claudia, let’s have a little song. She thinks I’m crazy, then I see Elodie. Dragged Pandolfi onto the stage. We were friends in the pub. Let’s say that we also experienced some nice virality, okay. I do the same when I go to the barbecue festival in Arcinazzo. In Sorrento there was all the cinema… But I’m the one there, then sometimes I give myself a tone.”
Who inspires the petulant Luana Pericoli from Call My Agent?
«A puzzle of people I’ve seen. Luana is so endearing to me: she’s not bad, she knows she’s not what she says she is, she takes courage like that. She’s contemporary, Luana: the story of yourself matters more than who you are.”
Humor for Fanelli is…
«When I write I don’t do it to feel better than my characters: humor is the absence of judgement. Let’s all laugh a little: life is so much better when you realize it. This lifestyle doesn’t help me as a comedian, but as a person. In those two days of Venetian controversy this spirit helped me: I imagined myself on the Flottila with Susan Sarandon with her perhaps thinking “but who is this?” and I look at her in admiration.”
He talks a lot about everyday life: for a few years his focus was teaching.
«They called me Mela, without a teacher: you are Mela every day. I did many jobs to avoid burdening the family: call center, waitress, teacher. Lucia Vilma, the head of the school in Piazza Bologna, chose with only one criterion: those that are really good for the children. She says there aren’t many. They were nursery school children and I understood that this is a crucial time for life: those children aged 2 to 6 are pure human beings, they are you, a very young but very pure you. We give you a backpack family, friends, school and you store. Then open your backpack when you are older and if you have good teachers you know how to select the right emotions. We were very careful about conflict management: we gave rules to respect the thoughts and bodies of others. You can’t force him to play with you with that toy; Let’s find something we both like.”
Does it sound like the mythological “emotional education”?
«Well, I read about this battle in the newspapers and I ask myself: but if we introduce it, do we think it could get worse than this? In education there are two cornerstones: family and school, and many times we suffer at home. School can provide solidity: I strongly believe in education as the formation of better citizens, better boyfriends and girlfriends. Some children who are now young come to visit me: I have great faith in them. We talk a lot about social media, but I would take away mobile phones from adults, given the things I read. Once upon a time we would have told him take away the fiasco, now take away the phone. In general, teenagers are more careful about what they post. They know what bullying is, we suffered it and didn’t know it was called that. It’s a delicate time, in which what others think of you matters a lot: talking to my kids, I tenderly remembered that moment when you feel that it’s nice to become adults to feel less of that pressure. Others will come, but then you don’t know it.”
Two Davids by Donatello, sorry if I change the subject but what is the most difficult role to play?
«What I aim for when I play a role is that in the two hours of a film people, who know full well that it’s all fake, must believe that my character exists. The character of Raffaella in Siccità di Virzì comes to mind, someone who intimately says what we all say to each other: “love me, please”. I am very close to Marisa from There’s Still Tomorrow, for me she is my paternal grandmother, a woman friend: in that film friendship between women may not have been a central theme, but Paola Cortellesi portrayed it as a very high form of love. I still get emotional watching those scenes again because it’s really us, me and Paola. I know, it’s horrible to say it to yourself… But it’s as if we were peeking. Then I love how Daniela “rants” in Another Ferragosto: she says what we all have inside, that monologue.”
Another film is coming with Paolo Genovese, master of Italian comedy. After the cougar of “Follemente”.
«A very successful man, who knows everything about cinema, but for me a nice person who I like to joke with. The noise of new things, the film is called. In Follemente he makes me do the opposite of what I am in love relationships: I always have the thought that he doesn’t like me, I’m always acting shy, that maybe I misunderstood the potential partner’s advances.”
Three women of reference for Emanuela?
«Claudia Pandolfi, for the freedom to abstract oneself from the judgment of others. Paola Cortellesi, brilliant friend. I add Sabrina Ferilli: I love her, I don’t hang out with her much but she knows how to be wise like a grandmother and a five-year-old girl for the things that move her, for how she loves and knows how to be a friend.”
We are looking forward to 2026, at the end of a beautiful and humanly tiring year. Different.
«And in fact I gave my family a different Christmas: all together in a farmhouse in Umbria, far from home. It’s the first time and I needed it, one day I’ll explain why.”
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