The inevitable bare-chested close-ups are always there. As well as a copious dose of melo. However, the Gabriel Garko that we will see starting tonight on Canale 5, in the TV series “If I could say goodbye”, is not yet another alpha male in the style of Honor and Respect. For the first time Garko in fact measures himself with a broken character, with a modest, almost scruffy charm: “patient 13”, found half-alive and without memory in a Roman construction site, and whose life intersects with that of the neuropsychiatrist Elena (Anna Safroncik ).
Is it time for melò to also promote alternative models to the alpha male?
«In the past I have always played bad or very self-confident characters. This time it’s different. The protagonist of “If I Could Say Goodbye” is a fragile, insecure man who doesn’t remember who he is and where he comes from. This amnesia deeply destabilizes him. So yes, in some ways it is a turning point, and it is right that there is: a hero, to be a hero, does not necessarily have to appear strong and invincible. We tried to propose a more genuine model also from an aesthetic point of view.”
In what sense?
«I have given up on the perfection that has always characterized my heroes. You will see me more modest which is exactly how I appear in real life. When I get up in the morning I take a shower, I dry my hair at random, I go out without combing my hair and I get dressed as it happens. And you know what? I feel better like this than when I’m all varnished.”
One of your TV series hadn’t aired since 2017: why?
«I had just finished the Sanremo Festival and I was at the height of popularity: I felt I was so famous, too famous. And I’m terrified of excesses. So I felt it was important to stop, to find myself and do the math.”
But six years is a long time.
«I didn’t give myself a time limit. I honestly didn’t think I’d stay still all this time but the outbreak of Covid has extended my distance from the set.”
What did you find in the meantime?
“The serenity. At a certain point she disappeared: I was always in a hurry, I ran here and there, and in the end I lost sight of myself. I was thinking more about running than catching my breath. Furthermore, success had made me more alone. So I stopped, put some pieces back together and also did a bit of cleaning: I had surrounded myself with the wrong people, ending up in a cauldron where you are no longer the one pulling the strings of your life.”
Are you referring to the Tarallo case?
«It’s all a cauldron…»
Did the harsh criticism you received from the press also have a bearing on your decision to stop?
«No, because an actor’s career is made by the public: not by journalists. Among other things, criticism is often written without even seeing the fiction. For example, when I made Le faite ignoranti in 2000, all the newspapers praised me and then, a second later, came back to destroy me. And do you know why? Because the following title was not a film but a popular national TV product… Ergo, it should have been panned on principle. But I repeat: that’s fine. You move forward if the public likes you: that’s what counts.”
In 2020 he came out on Big Brother VIP: reactions?
«It was a liberating choice: I feel better than before and the public reacted very well».
But on TV they keep asking her to play the role of the straight womanizer.
«As an actor, I always try to immerse myself in roles that are as far away from me as possible. Having said that, I would never choose a project a priori just based on the orientation of the character: the story, the quality of him, must convince me. If you receive a tempting script, you will then gladly accept.
So it hasn’t arrived on your table yet?
“Not for now. Perhaps the problem is all here: I don’t know if the networks would ever make a rainbow love TV series.”
Is he now back to stay or is this a fleeting appearance?
«You will have to put up with me for a long time to come! As long as I have the strength I want to continue acting.”
