But is it true that he became an actor thanks to his grandmother? Lino Guanciale laughs: “It’s exactly like that. Until I was 19 I certainly didn’t think of doing this job. It was my grandmother who intrigued me by claiming that the most important Italian school was that of, as she called it, Gassmà. I was a student university and I imagined it was the Silvio D’Amico Academy. I tried to enroll and they took me.” And so it all began. While waiting for a summer marked by some guests at festivals and well-deserved holidays at the Apulian seaside with his wife and son Pietro, Guanciale closes the ‘Space of the word’ cycle on Tuesday 25th at 6.30 pm in the Cantina Bentivoglio. Philological aperitifs’ curated by Professor Francesca Florimbii. The word he chose to think about is ‘path’. His speech will not be a reading but a sort of friendly lectio.
Why did you choose the term ‘path’? What does it mean for you?
“It is a widely used but often abused word. For me ‘path’ is not a short stretch of road but a value. We live in an era dominated by ‘everything now’ and by the codification of success in which the result counts rather than the process to obtain it. Here, in this result-based society, we need to recover the concept of path as a value of perspective. It is on the path that the future is built.”
How do you reconcile your theatrical activity with your vast television popularity?
“Popularity is a resource that must not become an end, it is a small heritage that has fallen to my lot to be integrated with a coherent theatrical path towards new audiences and towards texts that capture the present. I have always felt myself, as well as an actor, , cultural operator and therefore long live popularity if it serves to attract spectators attracted by a well-known face to the audience”.
When will we see her again on television?
“In autumn the third season of ‘Inspector Ricciardi’ will be scheduled, based on the novels by Maurizio De Giovanni which we have already shot, while in September I will be Mario Tobino in a Rai mini-series directed by Michele Soavi focused on some of his writings such as ‘Le libera donne of Magliano’. At the theater we will resume, by popular demand, at the Piccolo in Milan and around Italy the successful show by Claudio Longhi ‘I’m afraid torero’ from the novel by Pedro Lemebel. It all started from this extraordinary book that has me introduced my wife.”
Do you consider yourself a lucky man? “Luck favors those who seek it, even if there are very good colleagues who haven’t found it and who haven’t had my opportunities. The only thing that matters is honesty at work.”
Do you get angry if someone calls you a sex symbol?
“It doesn’t bother me, in fact I’m grateful to those who see me that way. And who knows if as I get older I’ll get even better and feel more at ease.”
