Toni Servillo: Master of His Craft

Named by Vogue Italy as the most versatile performer in the history of Italian cinema, Toni Servillo has earned a reputation as a masterful character actor who hauntingly transforms himself into dark, troubled protagonists indifferent to the dubious methods they employ to get what they want.

Born in 1958 in Afragola, a town in the province of Naples, Servillo began his acting career on stage during the 1970s, founding Teatro Studio in Caserta and participating in a number of productions in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Influenced by Eduardo De Filippo, he interpreted several of the legendary actor and playwright’s roles and writings.

 

Servillo made his feature film debut in Mario Martone’s 1992 “Morte di un matematico napoletano” (Death of a Neapolitan Mathematician) and appeared in Martone’s follow-up projects: the 1993 “Rasoi,” the 1997 “I vesuviani” (The Vesuvians) and the 1998 “Teatro di guerra” (Rehearsals for War).

 

He was tapped by Paolo Sorrentino to play a starring role in the director’s 2001 debut film “L’uomo in più” (One Man Up). The film made its North American debut at the first edition of the Tribeca Film Festival and went on to enjoy huge success. Set in the 1980s, it tracks the parallel lives of two men with the same name, Antonio Pisapia. One is a top soccer player, portrayed by Andrea Renzi, and the other a successful pop singer, played by Servillo. Both men experience the heights of success and the depths of failure. 

 

That collaboration between Servillo and Sorrentino was the first of many, yielding some of the most impactful films of contemporary Italian cinema.

 

The pair joined forces in Sorrentino’s next film, the romantic psychological thriller “Le conseguenze dell’amore” (The Consequences of Love). Starring alongside Olivia Magnani, the granddaughter of Anna Magnani, Servillo plays a former mafia accountant living in solitude. His performance earned him his first David di Donatello Award.

In a 2005 interview with Fra Noi, Sorrentino talked briefly about the qualities that set Servillo apart from the rest. “He is a very powerful actor. He is different from other Italian actors,” Sorrentino explained. “He’s very expressive. Usually, Italian actors are minimalists. He is more extreme.”

 

Servillo’s international breakout year came in 2008 with roles in two films that were highly successful outside of Italy. In Matteo Garrone’s “Gomorra,” he played the vicious mob boss Franco, and in Sorrentino’s “Il Divo,” he portrayed former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. Andreotti was known for his round-shouldered, slow gate and inner strength. Servillo perfectly captured those traits in an award-winning performance. 

 

After another intensely dramatic portrayal in Marco Bellocchio’s 2012 “Bella addormentata” (Dormant Beauty), Servillo switched gears for Roberto Andò’s 2013 political comedy “Viva la libertà” (Long Live Freedom). When a politician disappears after polls show him behind in an upcoming election, his aide, played by Valerio Mastandrea, replaces him with his bipolar twin brother. Servillo deftly portrays both brothers, showing a real talent for comic timing.

Further displaying his diversity as an actor, he does an iconic turn as Jep Gambardella, an aging journalist questioning his choices and the meaning of life, in Sorrentino’s Academy Award-winning 2013 film “La grande bellezza” (The Great Beauty). Servillo was deeply expressive in his thought-provoking portrayal of a writer fed up with the shallow people in his circle and the void he feels in his life. In the course of the film, he looks inward, recalling a lost love and what might have been.

Andò once again cast Servillo in his 2016 political thriller “Le confessioni” (The Confessions), which weaves money, power, and politics into a scathing indictment of how capitalism corrupts, allowing the powerful few to worsen the lives of the vulnerable for their own gain. At the heart of the story is a mysterious monk, played by Servillo, who sheds light on the corruption behind a suspicious death.

 

In an interview with Fra Noi, Andò talked about why he and Servillo work so well together. “We are the same age. We come from theater, so I can relate well to him. He is always the first actor I think of for a story,” he explained. “He always brings something new to cinema. Toni is particular, in particular for this kind of story. In my movies that are concerning secrets and identity, double identity, he's perfect to tell this kind of story. He has this face in which you can also read something that is unsaid.”

A lesser-known project is Claudio Poli’s compelling 2018 documentary “Hitler Versus Picasso and the Others.” As the narrator, Servillo reads passages from books while helping to tie together the strands of the so-called “Nazi obsession with art,” which led to wide-scale looting and the eventual recovery of hundreds of thousands of works.

 

In Francesco Amato’s 2017 “Lasciate andare” (Let Yourself Go), Servillo stars as Elia, a penny-pinching psychoanalyst who lives on the same floor as his ex-wife, Giovanna, with whom he is still in love. The film gave Servillo another opportunity to flex his comic muscles. After a brief illness, Elia is urged by his doctor to take up a physical activity to shed a few pounds. Enter Claudia, an energetic personal trainer who ropes Elia into becoming a part of her life. Servillo’s comic timing is a joy to watch as he wrestles with the new drama that has disrupted his dull routine.

 

In 2020, Servillo starred alongside Dustin Hoffman in Donato Carrisi’s horror movie “L’uomo del labirinto” (Into the Labyrinth). In it, Servillo plays the demonic Bruno Genko, who relentlessly terrorizes a young woman, with Hoffman playing the doctor dedicated to defeating him. Servillo delivers another spectacular performance, this time as a cool, calculating bad guy who operates without a shred of remorse.

 

Paolo Sorrentino looked back on his own life in the Oscar-nominated 2021 film “The Hand of God” (È stata la mano di Dio), delving into the joys and heartbreaks that shaped the man and filmmaker he is today. Servillo is outstanding as the director’s fun-loving but damaged father. When confronted with a long-term affair he’s been having with another woman, Servillo effortlessly shifts gears from jokester to tormented soul, revealing the inner demons that caused his character to lead a secret life.

In his latest international release, "Qui rido io” (The King of Laughter), Servillo reunites with Martone in a film dedicated to one of their artistic influences, Neapolitan theater actor and playwright Eduardo Scarpetta. In an interview with France24 during the Cannes Film Festival, where the film premiered, Servillo described it as “the story of a particular era in which Naples was a capital of culture, not only Italy but Europe, and Scarpetta was a hero of this city.”

Most of the aforementioned films are available online. Click on the titles for links to stream them. 

-Written by Jeannine Guilyard for the February 2023 issue of Fra Noi Magazine. Click here to subscribe.