Actors From Italy

"The audience that goes to see Vasco Rossi is made up of young Fantozzis: frayed sweaters, military boots, the same Martini sports glasses, the same imitation watches."

"Benigni appeals to Fantozzis precisely because he is easy to understand, very comforting, a bit Chaplinesque."

"Fantozzi no longer dresses like he did in the 1960s; baggy pants and boxer shorts, an incredible wife, an unimaginable daughter. Fantozzi had a different vibe back then. The name itself, Fantozzi, sounded like “fantocci” (puppets). All of that is gone now."

"TV is more dangerous because it is transparent: it magnifies flaws."

"Tenacity, tenacity to the max, especially in these times of crisis. Put on blinders like I did and say, “What the heck”: I'll suffer, I'll do a lot of things, but one day I'll get to do what I want. And if you want it, you'll do it."

"(About Lilli Carati) We called her the “velvet doll” because she was petite, not very tall and very beautiful. She had a well-proportioned body and was very sensual. [...] When we acted together, she was very young, while I was in my thirties or forties. She wasn't just beautiful, she was one of the few talented actresses of the time. Many of the girls who played those roles were foreigners, they were talented, but they had to struggle with the language. Each had a different kind of sensuality. She spoke well, she was very smart. I think she was also cultured, because she expressed herself correctly and demonstrated a certain level of education."

"For me, the arrival of my daughter was a burst of enthusiasm and death. We will have a condensed time. I will talk to her from day one. I don't want her to find out who her father was after I'm gone. Even now, I try to capture every moment. I write. I take photographs."

"Max Biaggi has never had it easy in life and has had to and must continually fight for his certainties. He has a sense of revenge against something that only he knows; this is why he wants to prove, to himself before others, that he is a strong person. As a rider, he is a great professional, someone who takes nothing for granted and who physically prepares himself more and better than the previous year. When he gets on his bike, he is a beast fuelled by his successes, but when he takes off his racing suit, he is an exceptional guy with a complex personality, but also very tender, affectionate and sensitive."

"In theory, I am in the worst possible condition to host an entertaining game show [L'Eredità], but my desire to play and to entertain the contestants and the audience at home overcomes any physical obstacle, and I find myself joking and bantering with them in a way I never did before: paradoxically, my illness has become an added value, an enrichment in my work."

"When there are two Italians, they confide secrets to each other; three make philosophical observations; four play cards; five play poker; six talk about soccer; seven found a party in which they all secretly aspire to the presidency; eight form a mountain choir."

"There were two very beautiful blond children, the children of rich people: all the children of rich people are blond and look alike, while the children of Calabrian farm laborers are dark-skinned and look different from each other."

"With Fantozzi, I tried to recount the adventure of those who live in that part of life that everyone (except the children of the powerful) goes through or has gone through: the moment when you are under someone else's thumb. Many come out of it with honor, many went through it at twenty, others at thirty, many remain there forever, and they are the majority. Fantozzi is one of them."

"I spent my childhood and youth with Fabrizio De André, then twenty years with Gassman, another twenty with Tognazzi, then Ferreri, Volonté, Fellini... In short... I only talk ‘about’ someone, not ‘with’ someone... oh well!"

"[After winning the 1990-1991 championship] I don't believe in God, but now I believe in Sampdoria."

"Our culture has not yet accepted an inferior culture such as that which comes from Africa. It is not skin color, it is cultural difference. Undoubtedly, it cannot be compared to the great European culture. [...] We do-gooders, we Europeans, we priests, we saints... we have all always pretended to be better than we really are. [...] Relations with black people today, except perhaps with Obama, are still marked by a slight hypocrisy."

"Comic behavior is childish behavior, which means that all comedians are children, immature. Stan Laurel is a child, he cries all the time [...], Jerry Lewis was a silly child, Totò never really touched a woman, Sordi the same. [...] Childish behavior, I would say, brings to light, in a sudden, unexpected way, the happiest period of life: childhood, which provokes a great emotion of happiness and therefore laughter. All great comedians have always moved and behaved immaturely, like children."

"(About Cécile Kyenge) He's not very charming. Absolutely not. Also because he speaks Italian... and he doesn't even have an Italian passport. [...] [The appointment to the Ministry of Integration is] Superfluous. It was very theatrical. [...] [Appointing a black minister] It's superfluous; all in all, it doesn't solve the problem [of integration]."

"(About Roberto Benigni He is always over the top, a euphoric clown. Only when he talks about money with his wife does he become very serious. His voice and face change. The farmer in him comes out. Benigni is a great man, even if he leaves nothing written."

"He wasn't a very likeable character, Paolo... he was cynical... just like some of his characters. (Orchidea De Santis)"

"Fantozzi at that time was a happy wretch; at least he had a steady job."

"I am enraged by this tendency, which exists above all in Italy, perhaps because of its Catholic roots, to recognize the merits of artists only after their death. As if death ennobled them."

"Young people have a habit right now of saying that you are unhappy, that you are afraid of the future, that this or that is to blame... and you blame our generation above all, the thieves, the politicians... no, that's not true, you are also to blame, believe me. My generation! When the war ended, the country was completely destroyed, there were no roads, no highways, no bridges, no hospitals, there was nothing, there were only churches. After a horrific tragedy like the war, there was nothing left, nothing, nothing! In fifteen years, we in Italy became the fourth most industrialized country on Earth. In just fifteen years! Oooh! So I beg you, guys, it's your fault. This constant complaining! I'm starting to think that we're happier as old people than you are as young people. Think about it, it's incredible!"

"(About Vittorio Gassman) Totò and Sordi were the funniest, Mastroianni the most charming, but Vittorio was the most complete: a great man of theater, cinema, and literature. He was a prince, far removed from the charlatanism of our milieu. His presence was enjoyable for his culture, his entertainment, and the honesty with which he approached every subject."

"At the beginning of spring, we used to go to Sampierdarena, a suburb of Genoa that is still one of the most atrocious things I have ever seen, of a terrible, repugnant atrocity. I acted as a guide and we were all equipped with fake tourist guides. [He stands up and begins to tell the story, using gestures to help him.] We started out like tourists. ‘What you see here [raising his voice] is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places in the world!’ [laughs] When a few people had gathered, intrigued to say the least, we began to say, 'How wonderful! How beautiful! Come, come here, look how well you can see' [laughs]. And then Fabrizio or someone else in our group would say, 'Look, apparently, it looks like shit [laughs]. But this is one of the most repulsive places on the face of the earth!"

"One day we were at the Ritz in Madrid, in a suite. Moana went to the bathroom and came back wearing only her underwear. She looked at me and said, ‘I will never make love to you. I love you very much. I am HIV positive.’ It was a sentence that struck me deeply. I hugged her and she was moved. [...] The most curious thing about Moana Pozzi was that she hated sex. [...] She was completely frigid. It's quite sad: she did a job that she actually hated. Her frigidity led her to do this job with a certain anger, she did it with little joy. Honestly, she didn't understand what was the right path to happiness. For her, born in a poor neighborhood, it was about making money any way she could, even at the risk of unhappiness."

"There haven't been many people as free as you in a country where satire is only directed at those who pose no threat. For this reason too, dear Paolo, Italy without you is a little sadder from today."

"I realize that for the general public, Reder had become Filini, but we must remember that his career went far beyond Filini. He was an extraordinary actor, invaluable to many great directors."

"(About Silvio Berlusconi) He told me I'm a great comedian. I'm very grateful to him for that and for losing the last election."

"I don't like Eduardo. I'm with Peppino. And even if Eduardo remains one of the few Italian authors, along with Pirandello, Goldoni, and Fo, to be performed abroad, who knows what the future holds. Perhaps posterity will appreciate Pappagone's extraordinary tirades more than Eduardo's serious, boring, and pretentious ones. A virtue for our Catholic and falsely committed country."

"Peppino was not born just to make people laugh. Those in the extra category like him can do anything. It is no coincidence that he played Molière, Machiavelli, and Pinter. Eduardo, on the other hand, only played himself."

"Paolo was the first teacher, cinematographically speaking, not only the teacher in the film Marco Tullio Sperelli, but a teacher of cinematic experience. We were all 14 children there. [...] Paolo was everything except the Fantozzi we expected him to be. [He was] a very serious person, very dutiful, very precise, not very clumsy... serious. Getting to know him in person and realizing that he was a totally different man from his character [...] was strange, especially through the eyes of an 8-year-old child."

"I met him for the first time in Pocol, above Cortina. I was an angry kid who swore a lot. he liked me because I was tormented and restless, and he was the same, only he was more controlled, perhaps because he was older than me, so he immediately took on the role of older brother and said to me: “Look, you mustn't swear, you swear to be the center of attention, you're an asshole.”"

"History defends us, and will continue to defend us in the future, but we can't keep thinking only about Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael. We're tied to memories, to our open-air museum."

"We're selling everything now. From Perugina to Fiat, there's nothing left here. Are we Italians, or do we just say we are?"

"(About Vladimir Putin) I have supported him since before he was in the spotlight. He is a great man. He has a religious sense of life. He rules with an iron fist, and I see nothing wrong with that."

"(About Vladimir Putin) They call him a dictator, but he has the people on his side."

"The separatists are asking for help: if a people wants to secede from a state, why not? A referendum was held in Crimea, 90 percent wanted to stay with Russia, and that was accepted."

"Putin has stood by the West even in the worst of times. He has always told us: I am your friend. However, if we are ungrateful and fail to understand his policy in Ukraine, then it is only right that he should say to us: be careful, I have Russia in my hands... No one did anything to Bush when he killed Saddam, who was no longer a threat. Yet Putin, who wants to help the Russians, is called a dictator. He is not attacking anyone. He is simply defending himself."

"I was having dinner at Il Dollaro, a restaurant in Milan that cost 660 lire, the equivalent of one dollar. Instead of spaghetti, the waiter brought a guitar and started singing. “What a voice!” I thought. It was Al Bano. During the day he worked at Breda, in the evening he waited tables. I told him to come to Rai the next morning."

"I'm not afraid of anything. I accepted the end of love, but what came after was truly unbearable. Otherwise, I would still be looking for opportunities to meet someone. But now I've made my choice."

"I am a conservative. If I analyze my life, I have never made any big changes."

"My father needed help with his fields, my mother pushed me to study."

"I always lived with her [Romina Power] knowing that it could be the last day. But I always defended our marriage tooth and nail. My ego and alter ego wage their inner wars inside me. But when the end of the marriage came, it was really hard to accept. Love can be born and it can die, it is written, but I didn't like how it died."

"I think Putin is right. That part of Ukraine was Russia and is Russia. Did you know that Khrushchev was Ukrainian too? The separatists are fighting to remain Russian. It's like Istria: we all know it's Italian, even though we accepted the diktats of the superpowers."

"I sent the first check for nine million to my father in Cellino to buy a tractor."

"(About Putin and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine) He, with all his potential, with all the good things he has done for Russia, with this sense of peace he has sown for many years, now forces his people to cross a country called Ukraine with tanks, guns, rifles, and children fleeing with their mothers. [...] We cannot remain indifferent in the face of this sowing of death. We need life, we need peace. Instead of firing cannons, throw bread and medicine to those in need."

"I met Putin, I sang for him, I liked him in the past and now I don't like him anymore, but I was sorry to see myself described as “Putin's friend” in recent days. Unfortunately, I am not his friend. If I were his friend, I would take a nice walk with him in the Kremlin and say to him: let's sit down for five minutes with a nice bottle of wine, or vodka, or pure water. Let's talk about it. It is not right to attack a nation, a country, a family; it is absurd. Now you have to deal with history."

"I'm saying this for the first time: the problem was marijuana. Romina smoked that junk up to four times a day. And she had been doing it for years, even before Ylenia disappeared. She was a different woman. She smoked and was cheerful. When the effect wore off, she became sad and cried. She was unrecognizable. She no longer expressed that attachment to things, that passion for life, for what we had experienced and built over those years. It was the beginning of the end."

"A glass of whiskey before concerts. On the advice of Placido Domingo: “It frees up your esophagus and vocal cords,” he told me. A cure-all."

"Ever since I was a child, I sang all the songs by Domenico Modugno and Claudio Villa. My father had bought a radio, and I sang along to all the songs they played. It was a kind of karaoke. When I finished, people outside would applaud."