Benedetta Porcaroli: «Hollywood can wait»

“LThe other day, while I was walking around Rome, I realized that my city no longer exudes perfumes, it has lost them. You can no longer smell the smell of someone cooking, let alone courgette flowers or artichokes. Now you only get the room fragrance sprayed in shops.” It will be because his next film, Aeneasdirected by Pietro Castellitto (out January 11, 2024), takes place in the capital, the fact is that with Benedetta Porcaroli we end up immediately talking about the city and the urban zeitgeist, the spirit of the time.

She mentions Palermo where she spent two months filming The Leopard for Netflix with Deva Cassel. «Everything is still real there, the market, the flowers, the bread, the meat. Perhaps we are just living in a moment of great collective neurosis in my Rome, which I will never leave».

Benedetta Porcaroli, Rome in the heart

Not even for Hollywood, just to mention the mecca of cinema?
«For work I could also move to Los Angeles, but then my heart remains anchored to where I grew up. I don’t have the Hollywood myth »she replies seriously.

The actress, 25, has a winter full of outings ahead of her. In the coming months it will also be in Gospel according to Mary by Paolo Zucca for Sky Original with Alessandro Gassmann and in ImmaculateAmerican horror film by Michael Mohan in which she plays a nun in a convent.

The debut took place in 2015 in the Rai fiction Anything could happen. She then landed on the big screen with Perfect strangers (2016) by Paolo Genovese. In 2018 she stood out with the Netflix TV series Baby, on the Parioli baby call girl scandal. For 18 Gifts (2020) by Francesco Amato won the 2021 David Giovani Award.

In 2021 it was Donatella Colasanti in the movie The Catholic schoolby Stefano Mordini, on the Circeo massacrethen, in 2022, he starred in The shadow of the day by Giuseppe Piccioni, The hummingbird by Francesca Archibugi and Amanda by Carolina Cavalli with which she was awarded “Shooting Star” at the Berlinale.

The Rome of Aeneas he moves in an environment full of people with dark sides. Brenno (Sergio Castellitto) is also a psychotherapist by day and then in the evening he destroys the furniture of a hotel to vent his anger. Tell us about him straight away, so coldly…
I feel a deep restlessness that I don’t know where it comes from, but which keeps me alive even if I constantly boycott myself. I’ve been biting my nails forever. Let me be clear, though: I seek light, not darkness, I don’t wallow in negative feelings. I feel the melancholy, it’s a spleen, and in fact there is also all my attempt at understanding there.

You speak just like a person who is familiar with the psychoanalyst’s couch: Jungian or Freudian?
Both, in fact: it’s a journey I’ve been tackling for some time. I’m not a fan of it. Let’s rather say that it is an hour that I dedicate to myself where I ask myself questions out loud and stay with my silences.

Is it true that you have red carpet anxiety?
Yes, but not the actual catwalk. The production of a film is long. After the set there is promotion and that moment is also the moment of truth: we actors are subjected to the judgment of others, we know our talent from those who watch us. Over time this agitation dilutes, but there will always be someone who will choose you.

In fact, you didn’t go to film school.
I wasn’t a model student in high school. I became an actress a bit by chance. My mother was friends with an agent. They called me back immediately (for Everything can happen, ed.). The first one was good. I was fifteen and on set I immediately realized that acting was something I could handle.

Benedetta Porcaroli’s method

How is it prepared?
Like in high school, not studying. I read the script a couple of times and then wait for the character to settle in me. I have a very good coach. My scripts are untouched. Just think, my mother resold school books because there wasn’t even an underlining.

It must be said that her roles concern women with deep wounds. Does he choose them like this on purpose?
I have precise ideas about the parts that interest me. Our work requires generosity, if you don’t do things you like, you die of frustration. I’m lucky: in Italy there are few roles. I feel comfortable in other women’s shoes, I fit in.

A difficult set?
Surely Baby. I suffered. After the action I holed up in my room, I had to put myself on the line a lot.

In Iceland there has just been a general strike by all women for equal pay: how do you see women in Italy?
We’re not doing badly, but very badly. I’m angry. Almost a woman dies a day from so-called feminicides. I wonder where the State is, the laws, why they don’t try to protect women more, what do they expect?

Have you seen the video report from the 22-year-old TikToker who recounts her experience of an attack in a street in Milan?
It doesn’t surprise me and that’s the point. We can’t be afraid to walk down the street. Is it possible that a path of mutual understanding cannot be found to stop these announced murders? That said, I don’t position myself as a feminist, but the situation is unacceptable.

In the Gospel according to Mary, from the novel by Barbara Alberti, it is the Virgin Mary who rebels against her destiny and wants to have a child with a man she loves, and not as an imposition of God.
Barbara Alberti is a true feminist, she is the first to say that men should be loved and not fought.

How are you in love?
I am a protective person, I try to understand the fragility of those I love. Then I too had my troubled relationships.

Indeed, the gossip saw her together with Riccardo Scamarcio, then with Pietro Castellitto, and now again with Scamarcio…
We love each other very much with Pietro now, the flirtation is over. And with Riccardo, what do you want him to answer?

You have to tell me: will you call each other?
Yes, well, we make very long phone calls.

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