DBecoming something else is never easy. For Ninni Bruschetta, that gives face to Matteo Messina Money in the TV series The Invisible, aired on Rai1 on 3 and 4 February, managing the role of the boss was both a professional and human challenge.
Ninni Bruschetta is Matteo Messina Denaro ne The invisible: “absolute evil”
«As an actor I know that characters are not judged, but this time it was a little different. Absolute evil puts you in front of many questions,” he said Ninni Bruschetta to The Republic talking about the series signed by Pietro Valsecchi. «As actors we reserve the suspension of judgment, it allows us to play disgusting. I am Sicilian, as a citizen and as an actor I am committed against the mafia. It weighed on me. But it was a chance, on the contrary, to restore the horror. You see him from the inside and show who he is.”
Ninni Bruschetta is Matteo Messina Denaro in L’Invisibile (IPA).
The arrest of the boss
What struck the actor, from Messina, the most was the malice of the boss. «Messina Denaro was a a boy of impossible wickednessRiina’s coconut”, he recalled during the interview, “The coldness of the mafiosi’s violence is unattainable. It makes me think of the scene of Schindler’s list in which the Nazi shoots people in the street.” Among the most intense scenes of the mini series is the dialogue with the Carabinieri colonel Lucio Gambera, played by Linen Pillow, who arrests the super fugitive: «Sorry, you are not a general, I am offended», the words of the boss. And again: «Is it greater? Colonel? Did they betray me? I don’t want to know the name. All it takes is a yes or no.” A scene that evokes another for Ninni Bruschetta: «I filmed, in the role of an investigator, The Last Godfatheron the arrest of Provenzano. Another real fact, when he was captured he shook hands and complimented the investigators. The banality of evil.”
Ninni Bruschetta and the mafiosi: «Who knows how much of the state they have manipulated»
An evil that sometimes becomes one with society, so much so that it is not even seen. «Messina Money he made fun of the country: he went around, he stayed near his house”the actor’s reflection a The Republic. Same thing for Totò Riina: «He stayed in a villa in Bagheria, calm. The moment he is arrested it is clear that he cannot believe it. Who knows how many parts of the state they maneuvered». Matteo Messina Denaro was arrested on January 16, 2023, after being on the run for thirty years. Suffering from cancer, he died in September of that same year, in L’Aquila prison.
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