Teresa Saponangelo: “I’m in my place”

Many, perhaps most, it is as if they had never seen before. Before she got on the crushed lambretta between Tony Servillo and Philip Scottias the mother of Paolo Sorrentino in It was the hand of God. Nevertheless, Teresa Saponangelo49 years old, has to his credit an infinite number of theatrical stages, about thirty films for the cinema and 23 TV series which are about to become 24. On 9 and 10 January, on Rai 1, he airs Our Generalpublic and private portrait of Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, which set up the Special Anti-Terrorism Unit to deal with the attack by the Red Brigades on the State in the 1970s. Theresa is Dora Fabbo, his first wife, died of a heart attack at the age of 52. “I know, it’s dangerous to always choose such maternal roles, set in the same historical period and even with the same bonnet. But it’s still an upgrade: I don’t remember how long I was the sister of». Saponangelo has a cheeky sincerity and a bewitching laugh. He avoids the obvious, and he says nothing of what actors usually repeat: instinct, luck, I would do everything I did again and blah blah blah. In his house in Prati district of Romewho has adopted her since university time, is studying for the operetta written by Valeria Parrella which will debut at the end of January at the San Ferdinando, the building in Naples, where Teresa grew up. «On the stage there are me and my friend – even before my colleague – Elisabetta Valgoi to think about the secret of talent (which is also the title of the show, ed), when it tarnishes and when it awakens».

Which is not easy to define, talent. Or not?
«It is inexplicable light, it is surprising energy, it is the ability to convince anyone of what one is saying».

Did Dora Fabbo have it?
“She also had an extreme dignity in suffering. It was a bas-relief presence: it was there without being too much. As her daughter, Rita Dalla Chiesa, told me, her mother’s love was immeasurable but discreet, her gestures sweet but restrained, like a flying caress in the afternoons on her books. It is a way of being that belongs to my grandmother’s generation: demeanor and elegance in expressing great emotions, including the fear of losing her husband».

What else did Rita Dalla Chiesa tell you?
«That Dora had a degree and could have chosen any job, but she sacrificed the rest to the role of wife and mother. I wouldn’t be able to put myself in the shade next to a companion with a strong personality. Instead, she did it for 33 years: she followed him from Palermo to Turin, in her house she said: “We must stand united”, while on the walls of the city they asked for his death ».

Sergio Castellitto plays the General.
«It’s always inviting to share the set with charismatic male colleagues, because they focus on being champions, on becoming better than the others. It happens, however, that women aim to become more beautiful than the others. And that disturbs me. I see actresses, even younger than me, whose intent is to seduce, always to seduce. But if you’re just seductive, you’re a minor actress and you don’t convince me».

How did you convince Paolo Sorrentino?
“We had already touched in the past. I had refused to take part in a very early film by him, but he didn’t even remember it, which is not important. Years later I attended the casting for The Young Pope and it went badly. I am convinced that if I had agreed to work with Paolo in his debut, he would not have chosen me as his mother in It was the hand of God. Instead, a circle has come full circle. Of course, there were auditions. He introduced himself to the second: “Oh well, I’m not going to give you an audition! But come on, let’s touch the scene a bit. I’m looking for someone who goes well with Servillo, because Toni has to be there and I need a credible couple”. He filmed me: “When you act you are older, you reveal an unexpected maturity. Would you like a make-up and costume test for a hypothetical aging? Look, I don’t decide right away, it takes me at least two weeks. What are you doing in the meantime?”. It was July, I would have gone to the beach. “At the sea? Eh, but don’t get a tan!”. He had already decided and he said to me: “Do you want to play my mother?”. I screamed with joy.”

Wish they were all like this, the auditions.
«Those who support them are very fragile beings who are exposing themselves, are really undressing themselves. And the worst situation is finding yourself in front of a presumptuous, opinionated person who mortifies. It happened to me a few times. I remember one in particular, for a role in which I had to speak Neapolitan and it didn’t come to me immediately, instinctively: “Why, how do you speak at home?”, was the director’s snooty reaction. No, I don’t speak Neapolitan at home.”

Do you also remember the first audition?
«For me then there was only the idea of ​​acting in the theatre. When my father died in an accident at work – he was a sailor – I was two years old. From Taranto, with my mother and my brother, we moved to Naples, with my grandmother, in a building along via Monte di Dio, next to the Politeama. I started going to shows from an early age. Cinema, on the other hand, I discovered late in high school: the Italian teacher took us to watch the films of Ken Loach and François Truffaut. In the same month I had my first audition for the theater and my first for the cinema. Destiny wants me to remind you of the latter. The singing teacher had informed me that Mario Martone was casting for his next work. I introduced myself and… I mistook Stefano Incerti for him. I was ignorant, out of tune with the cinema. Still, he called me back and I arrived already dressed like the character, a provocative little girl: I had a tight-fitting t-shirt and leggings. I got the ne part The verifier».

Her son, Luciano, with ex-husband David Emmer, is 16 years old. Do you want to follow in her footsteps?
“He says he’s going to be a director. He’s attending the linguistic high school and everything I do for him isn’t interesting, even if it’s not true, because he comes to see me at the theatre, I secretly look at him and he smiles, gets excited. I’m afraid he suffers a little from my need for control, my breathing down my neck, my desire for him to achieve great things ».

Was your mom like that?
«It was the opposite: very soft, confident despite being left alone. It will be that she had me at 21: after 30 there is more anxiety, more concern. It was precisely that softness of hers that left my brother and I free to find our way: he, for example, was not even of age when he embarked to work ».

Is she alone right now? Last summer, to a question about her sentimental state, she replied as follows: «We have to be content with the set, it seems. However, you never know: let the Spaniards know about it».
“I was about to shoot Pajarosprecisely in Spain”.

And did she find a boyfriend there?
“No. It brought me better luck playing at home (laughs, ed)”.

What do you wish for the new year, if love is already there?
“That we write a little less for men and a little more for women: we haven’t made great strides forward, except for small things, such as fiction The investigations of Lolita Lobosco and Imma Tataranni – Deputy Attorney. Whether we return to the cinema: the emotion and concentration of theaters is irreplaceable. And that in the disorder of the world one manages to indulge in certain joys to the fullest”.

Do you ever think where would you be if Sorrentino’s hand hadn’t arrived?
“Of course. Maybe the attention towards me wouldn’t have changed, maybe the offers wouldn’t have increased. I’d certainly be in my place.”

“It’s not easy to understand your own,” his daughter says at one point in the series Our General.
“I understood that when I started acting. There have been occasions in which I have asked myself if I had managed, not so much economically as psychologically, if I had had to do something else, such as teaching. But I’m finally here.”

Credits: dresses, Giorgio Armani. Jewels, Crivelli. Make-up Giovanni Pirri@SimoneBelliAgency. Hair Domenica Ricciardi. Location The Sanctuary_Rome.

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