CArmine Rivano is not superstitious, and admits it with a warm and welcoming laugh. He does not bring red croissants to his pocket, nor does he relieve himself to superstitious rites. It does not even follow a small ritual before each debut on stage. “Of” my “Naples I love above all the sea” confides by sharing a piece of his heart.
Carmine Rivano will be Don Giuseppe Santoro
The Neapolitan actor, for the rest, recalls the characters he plays: pragmatic and balanced men. It is so in the role of “good” commander of the penitentiary police Massimo Esposito, in the series Sea outside (Rai2), where it stands out by firmness and humanity. And it is so in those of Don Giuseppe Santoro, visionary parish priest of We of the Rione Sanitàhis new role, where, on the other hand, he seems to wear the talare dress always, it appears so concentrated.
Rione Sanità is inspired by the story of Don Antonio Loffredo
The series, which will be broadcast on Raiuno from 22 September in three episodes, It is inspired by the enlightened life of Don Antonio Loffredo, the Neapolitan priest-entrepreneur who since 2001in a few years, he found millions of euros (with collections and donations of private individuals) for the recovery of the artistic goods of the Rione Sanità (including the catacombs) And organized a social cooperative, “La Paranza”, giving work to dozens of children in the neighborhood.
Carmine says: “The talare dress caused me a strange feeling”
His experience ended up in the book We of the Rione Sanità. The bet of a parish priest and his boys (Mondadori). «I wore all kinds of uniforms in my career: that of doctor, lawyer, policeman. Being a priest caused me, however, a different feeling.Initially I was afraid of it, perhaps because of the sense of responsibility it involved. Then I faced the fear and let myself go. Also because I know the history of the Sanità district very well: years ago a dear friend of mine was director in the theater laboratory »he explains.
Carmine play. Photo: Gianni Fiorito
An uphill career
Carmine live and Bianca Nappi. Photo: Gianni Fiorito
Carmine Rivano, 44, made his debut in 1999 in A new day by Aurelio Grimaldi. The following year he made his debut on the big screen with Terrarossa For the direction of Giorgio Molteni. In 2001 he was hired by Ferzan Özpetek in the cast de The ignorant fairiesand since then he has never stopped. The director also wanted it on the set of the films A perfect day, Mine Vaganti, Napoli Velata And The fortune fortunereleased in 2019. On TV he starred in various successful series: A place in the sun, suspect, the new team, the Camorristi clan, another life, the red door, Belcanto. We meet him in a break from the Cult series set Sea outside.
On the set all summer
Carmine Rivano, Bianca Nappi, Vincenzo Nemolato and Tony Laudadio. Photo: Gianni Fiorito
Do you know Don Antonio Loffredo?
I heard it just yesterday, we have known each other for twenty years. He is a man who taught us to resist, basically: even when things seem difficult, when they don’t go. Despite the difficulties, he decided to stay, not to abandon. His was a collective mission, if we want.
Did he go to the boy’s health district?
I often went to the theater lessons of my friend director. I started this job by chance, and every more notion I considered it important. There I met the guys who pulled on Don Antonio. They had thirteen, fourteen years old. Today I excite me to see them as guides when they bring tourists to visit the catacombs. One of them didn’t know how to read: I cried when I saw him again.
Carmine says: “I am looking for stories with a strong social impact”
In a sense, there is a red thread between its roles, in the relationship with the border boys looking for a way out. Do you feel responsibility for it?
I’ve always liked stories with a strong social impact. I love neorealist cinema. I recognize me first because they are of popular extraction. My father was a baker, he worked practically twenty -four hours a day. I don’t like the artifact, I feel a feeling of repulsive. The stories that belong to my city are those in which I find more resonance, necessarily.
She is loved by young people: what do they trust them and what write them on social media?
They ask me to be … adopted, they would like me as a father. For about this lack, through fiction, is something that gratifies me. But I’m just a character, an actor. As a father, as a parent, I ask myself other questions. We run everywhere, we work, but we never ask ourselves if we are well, if our children are happy. Most of the time we don’t even have the courage to answer us.
“The lack of a vision is frightened more”
Is the wait for a debut or life out of the set more scary?
In the theater you play everything in an hour and a half of show compared to a month and a half of rehearsals. So it’s a healthy fear you need. In life, the fears of all I live compared to the moment we live a little. To scare me more is the lack of a vision. The one who has always had Don Antonio Loffredo. He worked openly against bureaucracy, crime. He compacted the community of the Sanità district. His great strength has been to bring culture and beauty to the neighborhood.
He has been collaborating for over twenty years with the director Ferzan Özpetek: what did he teach them?
He has always repeated me: “Let me get emotions through your eyes. The unspoken, many times, is more important than many words”. Frezan contains my idea of cinema made of intense stories, of truths and emotions.
When he comes home he takes the characters behind?
I believe that every actor, in reality, always carry something with him with himself. And vice versa. Each of us enriches his role with his own experience.
Did success change it?
He only changed the perception that others have of me. I am always the same person, with a job that I love.
Out of the set, what does it do?
Free to believe it, but I am a simple and boring person. I have to fight first of all against laziness. Fortunately, my children think about keeping me active.