«A daughter is a constant call for attention». The one of Sara Serraiocco (Maria, two years old) requests them during a train journey. From Rome to Abruzzo, land of roots and grandparents. The actress is currently presenting the new international series around Italy Becoming Karl Lagerfeld with Daniel Brühl (available on Disney+ from June 7) in which he plays a cameo. «About Karl Lagerfeld», he says, «I remember the last fashion show, after his death. I was also there in Paris at Chanel, and I returned home with the first pages of Le Monde And Le Figaro. They all read “The king of fashion is dead”».
Thirty-three years old, Serraiocco became a mother in July 2022 (her partner is Maurilio Mangano, photographer and casting director), in the same year she was the protagonist of four films, and to comedies she has always preferred intense roles and auteur cinema (from The return of Casanova by Gabriele Salvatores a The lord of the ants by Gianni Amelio, just to mention the most recent ones). «My path was a bit reckless», he continues, «I was a dancer, I started acting by chance, I studied only later. And when you start as a young girl and work immediately becomes important, you let yourself be carried away by events, you don’t plan anything.”
Have you ever been afraid of not making it?
“No. And if this world didn’t scare me before, it obviously doesn’t scare me now. I just think I was lucky: it’s not easy to find your own path especially when you’re young. I found her, I liked her and I continued to follow her.”
The digital cover by Sara Serraiocco.
When they tell you that she is a Festival actress, because her films always go to the most important ones, what do you feel?
«When I make a film I never think about where it will be presented or the awards it will win me, I only think about the character, every film is different. And I believe in astral planning: they must coincide well. A film is never a mathematical reasoning, you have to let yourself go a bit, trusting is very important.”
Do you tend to trust?
«Yes, even if it doesn’t seem like it at first glance. From the outside I always seem reticent, a little closed, distrustful (laughs, ed.). I, on the other hand, trust a lot and when you get to know me it’s evident. I’m very selective, but in the end I’m a person who also gives a lot.”
Your parents had an ice cream shop in Francavilla Al Mare, what memories do you have?
«I go a bit by intuition because I was the age my daughter is today. I remember the scents, the sounds. I started dancing straight away and doing shows around Italy, I quickly learned independence. However, now that I am a mother, childhood memories are returning.”
Do you make comparisons?
«The nostalgia of being children returned to me, of reliving the affection that your family gave you and of making sure to give the same type of affection to my daughter. I would like to pass on the same values to her even though I know it will be completely different, she will grow up in a different social context, with a mother who does a completely different type of job, and this scares me a little. I grew up in a fairly traditional and very close-knit family.”
Maria brought her to the set immediately.
«Not only that, he also acted in a film. I was spinning Light on earth by Sara Fgaier and she plays my daughter in a flashback. She was seven months old and she didn’t cry once, we only shot the scene once. Her surname probably doesn’t lie to her: her name is Maria Mangano, even if she has nothing to do biologically with Silvana Mangano.”
Does having a child in this historical moment worry you?
«No, I was much more scared of the idea of becoming a mother, of seeing my life change. Every era has its pros and cons. We bring our children into the world but it doesn’t all depend on us, they are independent individuals.”
Do you like that it’s female?
“Very. There is always a need for females and I have always had a very strong relationship with the feminine. I grew up with my mother, my aunt, my sister, and they are still my reference figures.”
On Instagram he recently shared a poem by Alda Merini: «O poor and lonely women, raped by those who don’t know you (…) But free butterflies will emerge from these deep wounds».
«Alda Merini has always fascinated me, she paid the price for freedom through solitude. Her poems are direct, dry, but full of conflicting feelings. Here she talks about a woman who is wounded and who will be reborn from her wounds. She struck me for this, for the fact that we women must always suffer to be reborn free. I hope that one day it will no longer be like this.”
Haven’t we reached that point yet?
«No, definitely not. We hope that one day women can just be free, without suffering and without blackmail. We have made some steps forward, obviously, but today we are also taking many steps backwards. The law on pro-life volunteers within clinics is very serious, it is moral blackmail towards women who have already made the decision to have an abortion, when we should always be free to be mothers or not to be mothers. It seems to me that those in command are putting at risk some rights that should have been acquired by now. We live a few steps from France and the right to abortion has just been included in the Constitution there. Italy is not a country for women, unfortunately we are going backwards in terms of the conquests that our grandmothers had already made.”
The government today urges women to have more children.
«And then cuts the support, the aid. I felt very alone when I became a mother. We live in a country that doesn’t help a woman become a mother. I’ll give you a banal example: it’s very difficult to find a changing table in a restaurant and let’s not talk about the sky-high costs of nurseries.”
