Her debut as a writer and new projects in the pipeline ” Tutto Asks Salvation 2″, the TV series on Rai 1 “Gerri” and soon on Mediaset with the biopic “Bardot”
It’s a golden year for Valentina Romani that after the success of the cult TV series “Sea Outside”, in the role of Naditza, has made space for herself in the world of cinema with other challenges and other roles. There is also room for fiction with her first novel entitled “Look, it’s true” (Rizzoli).
The protagonist is 24-year-old Ellen who loves books, travel and her city, Rome. To make a living, Ellen does a little of everything, waiting to understand what she wants to do when she grows up. She deals with translations, she tried to be a bookseller, then a barmaid and at the same time tutor-mentor-babysitter of Giuseppe, a 7-year-old scion of the Roma club. From that moment everything changes.
Valentina is divided between different sets and commitments, she is filming two new top secret projects at the same time, as they arrive the Netflix series “Everything Asks Salvation 2”, the TV series on Rai 1 “Gerri” and on 17 June on Canale 5 with the biopic “Bardot”.
The book is dedicated to your grandparents, “guides of my journey. Eternal lights of my life.” What did they teach you?
The love for simple things, the preciousness of time. They are the thought in which I take refuge when things are not going well, but above all the thought where I go when things are going extremely well. I don’t know what I would give to be able to tell them, in person, everything extraordinary that is happening to me.
In the acknowledgments you say thank you to the “little girl I continually lose and find again in my own eyes”. What remained of Valentina as a child?
I care a lot about my child side, it is that part of me that still today makes me feel deeply what I experience, the one that makes me experience things with amazement, as if it were always the first time; but also the one that sometimes makes me act on impulse. And luckily!
Ellen does a bit of everything for a living, waiting to understand what she wants to do when she grows up. What do you want to be when you grow up?
I hope to never feel so old that I have to give up lightness, but I hope to continue my artistic journey exactly as I am doing it today. ‘When I grow up’ I dream of never losing sight of myself, of remaining anchored to my roots.
“When you know what you want moment after moment, the path comes by itself” is one of the phrases in the book. Is this one of your mantras? Do you believe?
I believe in it a lot, I believe that our destiny is written and that sometimes letting what is right for us reach us, without the urgency of doing it ourselves, can be rewarding and saving.
The book talks about loneliness. What relationship do you have with loneliness?
Healthy. I’m looking for it. It’s good for me, it recharges me. I like moments of ‘suspension’ which are nothing else, for me, than moments of infinite and precious boredom.
“Listening rhymes with loving if you let yourself be guided.” Are you letting yourself be guided in this phase of your life?
I try, I always try. Precisely because for me most of our destiny is written, I open myself to the doors of the future with great serenity and welcome; I’m curious to know what life has in store for me day after day.
You are as reserved about your private life as the tennis champion Sinner. On Google your name is associated with Maupas. What do you think of this algorithm?
No comment.
You are among the protagonists of the Netflix TV series ‘Everything Asks Salvation 2’ on the topic of mental health. In your opinion is enough being done in Italy?
Mental health, which is sometimes considered an invisible issue, has never mattered less to me than physical health. I believe that there is a lot of work to be done in Italy, there is a lack of space and funds for it to be accessible to everyone. Cutting the funds for the psychologist bonus was certainly not an option to my liking. Mental health is everyone’s right.
You will also be in the Rai1 TV series ‘Gerri’ from the novels by Giorgia Lepore. What role will you play and what did you like about this script.
In Gerri I play Lea, a shrewd and intuitive policewoman, who probably chose to do this job so as not to look too much inside herself, because sometimes taking care of others is easier for us than taking care of ourselves. We filmed in Trani, a wonderful Apulian city that welcomed us with great warmth. The thing I liked most about this project is the common thread that links all the episodes; they all tell stories linked to minors in difficulty and I think this is new for Rai.
Soon you will also be on Canale 5 with the biopic ‘Bardot’. What is the thing you liked most about the great cinema diva?
Certainly its avant-garde and explosive character. BB is a free spirit who can be said to have dictated the rules of fashion of those years and of a new way of seeing and experiencing cinema. It was nice and fun to dive into the 70s and live for some time with the idea of being part of the life of a great diva.
What role haven’t you been offered yet that you would like to play?
I dream of a period project in the style of Downtown Abbey, The Crown, shall we launch an appeal?
(photo credit Sara Sabatino)
