barbara Chichiarelli is very Roman but, thanks to her blond hair and two liquid and ironic blue eyes, in person she has the allure of a Berlin diva. After all the Berlinale is in his karma: in 2020 accompanied in competition Tales by the D’Innocenzo brothers, in 2022 Kick ass by Chiara Bellosi in the Panorama section, and this year the only Italian series in the competition, The Good Motherswhich even won the top prize in its category (the Berlinale Series Award) and which will debut April 5 on the Disney+ platform.
Barbara Chichiarelli, from school shows to the Berlinale
«Berlin has a particular selection compared to other festivals» says Chichiarelli, «made up of works that have an ambiguity, ask questions, retain something out of tune and irritating: I like it for this very reason». Barbara he also starred in a handful of arthouse filmsincluding The goddess of luck by Ferzan Özpetek, and series such as The company of the swan, 1994, Suburra, Bang Bang Baby And Free body.
She recently appeared in comedy Three too many by Fabio De Luigi and is now in Cinecittà, on the very secret set of M. The son of the centurythe Sky Original series based on the novel by Antonio Scurati and directed by Joe Wright, where she has the role of Margherita Sarfatti.
Barbara Chichiarelli, 38 years old in May, after a lot of theater made her debut on TV in 2017 with Suburra-The series and at the cinema in 2019 with An adventure and La dea fortuna.
Theater is first love
Before, during, and probably even after, a lot of theater, his first love. How did the desire to be an actress come about?
«I’ve always acted, I did my first little show when I was two years old! Then, in elementary and middle school, I attended all the afternoon theater workshops. Having light colors, my recurring role was the Madonna: at the age of eight I proposed the monologue Donna de Paradiso by Jacopone da Todi to the teacher, and she was delighted. It is my story and I was lucky enough to follow many masters, who took me to worlds different from mine».
Did he come from a family of artists?
«No, my mother worked at the ASL, my father in the company, but they both have a propensity for art: mum has always taken us to all kinds of exhibitions and dad, who knows how to do everything with his hands, created for me and my younger sisters lots of games. He’s also something of an archivist of Super 8 footage, and I’ve spent years helping him sort out the family’s old reels. So cinema is a bit in the blood… Romantically, I want to think so (laughs). I also discovered that my paternal grandparents wanted to be actors. The grandfather even enrolled in the Experimental Center of Cinematography, but the war broke out, he began to work for the Red Cross and his dream faded away ».
Actress or insurer: an easy choice
What studies did you follow?
«After classical high school I enrolled in the Faculty of Performing Arts and Sciences, thinking of becoming a theater or film critic: it was a world that was part of me, but I didn’t think I could be an actress. However, since I missed acting, during university I enrolled in an evening course in the Region. I did theater in the evening, I went to class during the day, and I also worked as an insurance agent».
Insurer?
«After yet another accident with the moped, the insurer told me: “You’re breaking us down, come and work with us”. But then I realized that such a job wasn’t really for me. With the students of the evening course we staged a very demanding show, and it was an epiphany: “Guys, I guess I have to do this”. I froze my university studies just a few exams before graduating and I enrolled in two academies: the second was Silvio D’Amico».
Do what you want, but seriously
How did her parents take it?
«They indulged me, but told me: “Whatever you want to do, do it seriously, like a professional”. I defined myself as an actress only after two years of acting in Suburra, when I managed to make a living from my job, and even during the filming of the series I continued to work in clubs as a bartender».
Do you feel like you’ve made it today?
«No, because I keep questioning myself: maybe I’m not that good, maybe I can’t do everything».
Mother with broken dreams in Calcinculo by Chiara Bellosi, previewed at the German festival in 2022.
That fear of not being good enough
But if it has enormous ductility!
«But I don’t see it, and I always have the anxiety of not being up to it. Luckily it’s been balancing over the years, because our work must go hand in hand with personal growth, and today I feel calmer not because I think I’m better, but because somehow I accept myself for who I am. And I continue to study: after all, I attended two academies, and then two training schools after the academies. We women try to be hyper-prepared before taking the plunge, while men throw themselves at fish. I don’t know if it comes from a form of respect or, simply, from patriarchy. But it’s true, we must feel legitimized before raising our hand and saying: “Can I?”».
What is her role in The Good Mothers?
«I am a prosecutor who helps women who rebel against the ‘Ndrangheta and who, with great courage, become witnesses of justice. Someone who gives up everything: she lives in barracks, has no private life, has an escort, and interfaces with a world that is not only violent but purely male, with a patriarchal type of hierarchy, both that of organized crime and that of her colleagues and of the boss. Interpreting it, I realized the state of things: we are still in the Middle Ages! The public prosecutor makes work the center of life».
A scene from the film Three too many by Fabio De Luigi
«My dream is not to win the Oscar, it’s to be happy»
And she?
«No, because my goal is to be happy, not to win an Oscar. Above all, I believe that my work is about much more: it is important to cultivate human relationships, study, reading. The actors are investigators, anthropologists, sociologists, our faces must tell something they have experienced, our eyes reflect what they have seen».
In M he plays alongside Luca Marinelli.
“We’ve been friends since high school, he had to support me during the dialogue to enter the Silvio D’Amico Academy, of which he was already a part, and we found ourselves working together after almost twenty years”.
From Borghi to Germano, the cumbersome colleagues
In Tales you also worked with Alessandro Borghi and Elio Germano, whom many describe as cumbersome personalities: was that a problem?
«No, maybe because I’m bulky too! (laughs). Alessandro, Elio and even Luca have characteristics similar to mine: the will to work as a team and a propensity for jokes combined with extreme professionalism. In the gaze of all three I felt trust in me, and I trusted them».
Is courage a recognized quality?
Yes, but courage is premised on fear, otherwise it is madness. I’m always scared, but I face it saying: “Okay, let’s go”».
Is there a role you would refuse?
“One for which I could lose my dignity, as a woman and as a human being”.
No harassment at work
Have you ever received advances or harassment at work?
«No, perhaps because I present myself as neutral, neither man nor woman: a human being, in fact. And this has a strange effect, in my opinion, on men and women».
Inspires respect. Grignani sings: “Everyone judges himself”. Do you judge yourself?
«Less, but I’ve massacred myself for years, always for the first speech for which I never feel accomplished, never good. Now I’m making peace with who I am. And when a person is centered in work it is because he is also centered in life. It will sound like a phrase from Baci Perugina, but I think everyone fights his battle, and this helps me to listen to people rather than judge them ».
I just want the essentials
What would you like for your future?
«Listening even more, because this is the only way you understand the world. Getting to the essentials, removing everything that isn’t. I would also like to get involved in a little politics, which I did as a girl, through my profession, perhaps through writing or directing. I work with the ineffable, with a material that doesn’t exist: I build it, take it apart, reassemble it, and it’s a considerable privilege. Doing the job you like comes closest to the idea of happiness.”
In two years he will be 40. How do you see them?
«I don’t feel them, in the meantime. With our old friends we say to each other: it’s not possible! But life reminds you of your age, even if you don’t feel it: I don’t have children, but as an aunt I see my nephews get older every year. I imagine a progression of awareness, emancipation from so many dynamics and so many parasitic thoughts, in a process in which, as Alda Merini said, “My skin is in ever more contact with the skin of the world”: which is good and a bad thing, everything touches me very closely».
What is the balance sheet of its first 38 years?
«Positive, I have no great regrets: I have canceled the dark periods of my life, I see this Hegelian vector that goes forward like an arrow (laughs). There have been a thousand roller coasters, but I don’t remember them. And the milestones, like in those drawings where you have to connect the dots, have been reached».
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