T.ratta since book namesake of Tembi Lockewho co-wrote the script with his sister Attica, From scratch – The strength of a love is an 8-part Netflix series about love that overcomes every barrier and every difficulty. That of Amy and Linotwo guys ready to challenge differences, prejudices and even the inevitable.
From scratch: the authors Attica and Tembi Locke speak
The story, autobiographical, has as protagonists Eugenio Mastrandrea and Zoe Saldana; in the cast there are also other Italian actors. In translating it for Netflix, Tembi and Attica they took care of everything: from writing to shooting: “We’ve been on set for seven months.” For them From scratch it is not just a series, but a piece of life. Linen is the alter ego of Rosario Gullothe writer’s husband; Zora (Danielle Deadwyler) is Attica, his most trusted supporter. Connecting from Los Angeles, two elements are striking: awareness and smile. On their faces and in their words there are no traces of bitterness or sadness, but the certainty that life however it remains an extraordinary journey to be savored at any time.
Reese Witherspoon among the producers
Tembi, what prompted you to tell your story?
I wanted to write the book for myself, to crystallize my experience and make sense of a great love and a great loss. Writing was the right thing to do, for my daughter and me, so that when she grows up she can read and relive her father, mother and grandmother.
Was it easier to go from the book to the series?
Yes, because it is my story. When we started working on it, I knew we had to adapt it. They are two different mediums that require different narrative choices, but the most authentic version is and will always be the one contained in the book.
Among the producers also appears Reese Witherspoon with his Hello Sunshine. How did it go?
Attica: We had already worked together in Little fires everywhere. We were in his office to choose new projects to develop. I suggested my sister’s book, she fell in love with it and we proposed it to Netflix.
Attica Locke, Reese Witherspoon and Tembi Locke. (Netflix)
The audition of Eugenio Mastrandrea
Were you involved in the cast selection?
Attica: From the very beginning. When I saw Eugenio’s audition, I jumped out of my chair. There was something about him that immediately reminded me of my brother-in-law. He didn’t have a Sicilian accent, but I knew he was the right person. I said to Tembi: “It is better if you sit down, because some memories will come back to the surface”.
Tembi: I knew that Lino was supposed to be endearing, handsome, kind, nice, but also funny and stubborn. So many qualities that represent a human being in all forms of him, but also an Italian masculinity that is not often seen in America. Eugenio had them all.
Claudia Gerini, on the other hand, is Amy’s art teacher.
Tembi: Claudia was a great gift. I’ve always watched all of her films. She was perfect for opening the series. She is the one who tells Amy: One day you will look back and understand. A beautiful moment.
Amy and Lino, a love beyond differences and prejudices
The respective families are initially not happy with the relationship, but at some point the differences diminish.
Tembi: I think it all depends on love, which unites rather than divides. On the plate there is a child, a disease and not knowing what to do. Is it better to desist or be present as much as possible? Love is also about choosing. And they do.
Speaking of love, Zora remembers that we can all fall in love, as long as we open our hearts. Do we sometimes forget it?
Tembi: We don’t think about it often, but life and our experiences always lead us to choose. If we do, the world expands. My world expanded when I chose love, not once, but twice, and then again and in different forms. And so did my family.
Eugenio Mastrandrea (Lino) and Zoe Saldana (Amy). (Netflix)
The women of the series, strong and independent
The women represented are very strong.
Tembi: We wanted to show various types of women and maternity, biological and otherwise, and the paths they take to be mothers, sometimes improvising. My mother-in-law was calm but stoic. She was a woman of few words, whom she also commanded without saying anything. Our mother, on the other hand, is a woman who talks a lot, but they were both instructive.
When working together is being sisters a limitation or an advantage?
Attica: At the base there is a respect that goes beyond any contrast. I know what it means to write a book, so I also know what it means to respect history. We are able to take a step back and send the other one forward.
Paride Benassai and Lucia Sardo as Giacomo and Filomena Ortolano. (Netflix)
Tembi Locke: “If we choose love, life becomes extraordinary”
The soundtrack is all Italian. Is it a tribute?
Tembi: I felt very responsible towards my husband, towards Sicily and towards my daughter. Everything had to mirror my experience. We wanted to take the best of Italy and give it back visually and soundly. Do you think that some of the objects that you see in the series, such as the clock and the sheets, are my mother-in-law’s own.
What should we learn from From scratch?
Attica: My hope is that people will draw examples from my brother-in-law and sister. May they seize every moment to fill it with love, with the affection of family and with wonder. Even in the hospital my sister and my brother-in-law lit a candle and listened to Lucio Dalla. There was life despite the suffering.
Tembi: I hope people understand that we are bigger and stronger than any language and cultural barrier. That if we choose to love with all our hearts, our life can become more extraordinary and more beautiful than we could ever imagine.
Tembi, what prompted you to come to Italy?
I came to study art history. It all started exactly as seen on screen. Lino and I collided in an alley and from then on he never left. It was love. I just had to have the courage to let him into my life.
From scratch – The strength of a loveplot and review
Amahle “Amy” Wheeler (Zoe Saldana) is an American student who comes to Florence to study art history. He falls in love with Lino Ortolano (Eugenio Mastrandrea), Sicilian chef, and the two leave for Los Angeles. She dreams of becoming an artist, he dreams of opening a restaurant. In a city that has no center and the risk of getting lost is around the corner, they hold hands tightly. One is the center of the otherbut fate is mocking and interrupts their race to happiness. Disease enters their life and into that city alienating and dispersive, they learn to give themselves strength, to ask for help and to understand that love and life can and must win over everything.
From scratch moves deep chords and embraces multiple themes. You speak of courage, of relationships, of life, but also of death. She faces the cycle of existence in a dramatic and romantic key at the same time. It does so with truth and delicacy. And it spares nothing.
Zoe Saldana and Eugenio Mastrandrea. (Netflix)
Also in the cast Giacomo Gianniotti
Zoe Saldana is intense. A melting pot of facets, which emerge through multiple changes of register. For the Italian public, the flagship is the good and credible Eugenio Mastrandrea. Together, they are an explosion of emotions, understanding and looks that add pathos. As for the rest of the cast, Lucia Sardo and Paride Benassai are extraordinaryrespectively in the roles of Filomena and Giacomo Ortolano, Lino’s parents.
Two difficult characters, sometimes unbearable. To them, they are added Claudia Gerini, Roberta Rigano (Biagia) and the star of Grey’s Anatomy Giacomo Gianniottiwhich he interprets Giancarlo, the boy Amy meets in Florence at the beginning of her stay. There is no shortage of stereotypes that could suggest the usual gooey product. Pizza, mozzarella and mandolin are contrasted with a Texan hat, stars and stripes patriotism and an Afro-American community as closed as the Italian one represented.
Continuing with the vision, however, emerges the exact opposite. That is to say the encounter between two different cultureswho with love and honesty knock down any prejudice. It is Tembi who explains its meaning. “It’s my story. I experienced everything that happens in the series on my own skin. There is a precise reason why they are called stereotypes: because they happen ».
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