Giorgio Pasotti: “Who said that a hero cannot be fragile?”

Lea – A new day it could have been anywhere: the story of a woman from everywhere and every time. But, «it would have been anachronistic to decide to do something that had no ties to current events, to the two years we lived. It would have been misleading. ‘ Giorgio Pasottiwhich of the Rai fiction, starting in the early evening of Tuesday 8 February, is the co-star, he says it with simplicity, without pretending to embroider his tirade on the disastrous fabric of post-Covid Italy. «Some more, some less», he explains, «We are all transported by what we have seen in the last twenty-four months. Lea (produced by Banijay Studios Italy, ed) was proposed to me between the very first lockdown and the consequent reopening, but the project has changed since then, slave and son of this madness that has overwhelmed us. It often happens with these productions, you start in a way to continue differently ». How, it is difficult to explain. Lea it is not about Coronavirus. “We didn’t want to burden an audience already tried by the pandemic, not like the first season at least”. Yet, it orbits around hospitals, at the extreme sacrifices of medical and health personnel. It tells of sleepless nights, of lives suspended to save those of others. Lea it is the story of a couple, a primary care physician and a nurse, broken by the perinatal death of the child she would have wanted. And it is the story of “extremely human” heroes.

Isn’t it oxymoronic to call a hero human?
“No. Marco Colomba, the head physician I play, fascinated me for the extreme fragility that he was able to emanate. He dominates a common idea, an idea that wants doctors to be heroes in the round, inside and outside the service. Instead, it is necessary to normalize the figure of these people, of heroes who are such in spite of their weaknesses, of heroes made human by their weaknesses. Doctors have to deal with everyone’s problems, with internal difficulties at home. Unlike others and other professions, however, they must be able to keep all this at bay ».

And for Colomba and Lea (Anna Valle), his ex-wife, this difficulty is more marked.
“They lost a son and both work in the pediatric ward of the Ferrara hospital. A death is always a death, but in the case of children there is something more, the feeling that it is unnatural ».

It does not happen often that we talk about it on television, then.
«The television story is changing. The new series, coming from all over the planet and accessible thanks to streaming platforms, have led every medium to raise the bar, and we too have had to adapt. Finally, I would add. We are undermining the taboos, the things that could not be talked about. And I believe that this, today, seriality must do: talk about current events, without filters. There is a need for characters with whom the public can empathize, there is no more space for bogus characters and sweetened stories ».

So, can television still play a civil role?
«Yes, as long as completely abandoned film genres, forgotten languages ​​are recovered. We have to experiment. Bringing current stories to the public. We have relied on comedy for too many years, today I think you notice that pure comedy is badly digested. Whoever wants to laugh needs to laugh, yes, but on something that has its own depth ».

As a director, is this what you are doing?
“To date, I have made two films for the cinema and I am preparing the third. Where this third can be seen, I don’t know. Have faith, due to the Coronavirus, it was unable to make its debut in the hall. The central theme, however, will be the theme of work, because I believe it is today “THE” theme. We have all learned, with the pandemic, that the profession is very difficult to obtain and very difficult to keep. You have to be more and more competitive, more and more ambitious: you have to be able to get there, even by elbowing. The film will deal with the theme in the round. Whether you leave university with flying colors, whether you are a fifty-year-old who wants to return, a forty-year-old who wants to change, it’s always difficult ».

How difficult was it, then, to interpret a professional like Marco Colomba in the historical moment we are living?
“I’m from Bergamo, I’ve been glued to television for two years, following almost every interview with doctors and paramedics. When I found myself playing a doctor, I treasured what I saw and experienced. Not to mention, then, that once I finished high school I was sure I would be a doctor ».

You are welcome?
«The branch I wanted to embrace is that of sports medicine, but it is always medicine. Lea it was a dive into what my life could have been, a sliding doors. Unlike many, I don’t find hospital bumper. It is a place of tragedy and death, but it is at the same time a place of rebirth and hope. I like to think that doctors are carriers of healthy emotions ».

And fiction, is this also the bearer of healthy emotions?
“Lea it restores the difficulty of the medical profession, but, at the same time, it restores the hope of being able to heal, literally and metaphorically. They can heal patients, children in our case, and they can heal our characters ».

As a parent, however, how complicated it was to face the issues he deals with Lea?
“When you are dealing with children, everything is more touching. For me, the father of a twelve-year-old girl, seeing and having to stage difficult stories, of children who were less fortunate than my daughter, was very emotional. He learns not to take anything for granted ».

He said he pictured himself as a doctor. How did you become an actor?
«In my case, the change of direction was sudden and, above all, unexpected. I witness how much truth there is in John Lennon’s phrase, “Life is what happens to you while you are making your plans.” I was immersed in a sort of mission that I knew would last ten years. During college, I was offered to make a movie. Then, a second came, a third. I finished my medical degree, but I haven’t had time to think about it anymore. I discovered a profession that knew how to give me adrenaline, emotion ».

Ever had an afterthought?
“Never. I don’t deny that it could happen. I’ve always done what I liked in my life. Therefore, if tomorrow I had to wake up and find that my passion has run out, I would not hesitate for a moment to change my career ».

And what would it do?
«I don’t know, for now I still feel a fire burning. I feel a love for acting, for writing, for directing, which has led me to discover a new side of the profession ».

A profession that, to date, seems to change. Will cinemas survive?
“Unfortunately, it is very likely. I am nostalgic for the hall, but to be objective the offer that is made by the platforms is a varied, quality offer, designed to have a very low cost. With two cinema tickets, you can secure one year of subscription to one platform. That said, the room is magic, it is a place where imagination and dreams reign supreme. It has something sacred about it, and it will be a great challenge for those who make cinema to think of titles that are exclusive, curious, that convince people to leave the house ».

The pandemic then highlighted the fragility of the place, of the entertainment sector, the precariousness of those who work there.
“It is a serious problem, a very serious one. I could talk about it for hours. I am also the artistic director of a permanent theater, that of Abruzzo. My first thought was to support theatrical companies at risk of bankruptcy, which the state has not thought of. I therefore hope that the government, and not just the government, understands how important culture is. If the pandemic had a merit, it was that of demonstrating the centrality of entertainment and places of culture “.