Interview: Catching up with Maria Grazia Cucinotta

With an impressive list of film and television titles, Maria Grazia Cucinotta proves that her talent matches her Sicilian bombshell looks.

Born in Messina in 1968, Cucinotta got into modeling when she was just a teenager. Shortly thereafter, she headed north to Milan where she ended up leaving the modeling industry altogether for a career in television and film. Although she has paid her dues with hard work and dedication, success came almost instantly. She was taking acting lessons while working on her first job as an actress, a television show called, "Indietro tutta." It wasn't long after her TV debut that she was spotted by the late actor and director, Massimo Troisi. It was Troisi's 1994 Oscar nominated film, "Il Postino" that catapulted Cucinotta into the international spotlight, and it has been non-stop ever since. She has appeared in dozens of movies and television shows in Italy and the United States. She was even a Bond girl in the 1997 film, "The World Is Not Enough." But it's her coveted Role as Beatrice Russo in Massimo Troisi's "Il Postino" that will always hold a special place in her heart.

I recently caught up with Cucinotta. We talked about that breakout role in "Il Postino," what she thinks of Italian-American culture and how her Sicilian heritage has influenced her work as an actress.

Tell me about the early days of your career and your beginnings as an actress.

I started very young as a model, when I was 16 years old. I moved to Milan, but immediately I was fascinated by the world of television entertainment. My first role was in the TV show "Indietro tutta" by Renzo Arbore. In the meantime I was going to acting class and I was attending lessons in diction. I started in the 1990s as an actress. The fascination of this work is that I can live my life and a thousand other lives, and I can charm the people through the role that I play. They can identify with me, is a form of interaction, someone recognizes himself in the things that I do and say.   

You've worked on both sides of the Atlantic, on both the big and small screen.. What are the differences for you in working with Italian cinema and American cinema?

Italians who live abroad are fantastic, they always give the best of themselves. A lot of Italians who live outside Italy succeed beautifully in what they do, they have a little something extra! In our country all this is lost, as they sit down and don’t fight anymore. Another thing I noticed is that outside of Italy it's much easier to work in teams, to create synergies, it is normal to put together different realities in order to achieve a higher result. But in Italy there are often envies and resentments that undermine the final outcome.

Tell me about your experience working with Massimo Troisi on "Il Postino."

In 1994, Massimo Troisi chose me as his partner in "Il Postino." That was the turning point in my life. That film, so beautifully poetic, was a huge hit abroad. It was an experience of life as well as work. Massimo is a person who will live forever in people's minds, there will be no others like him, and I had the good fortune and privilege of knowing him. The legacy that he left me is to believe in beginners: he chose me for the role of Beatrice, and I was an actress at the beginning of my career, not very famous. I try to carry this message, like him, and I try to help more young talented newcomers. Young people will allow me, thanks to their enthusiasm and their creative ideas, to be part of their dreams!

How has your Sicilian culture influenced your work as an actress, and also just in life?

It influenced my life a lot. I grew up in a place where nothing was given, everything was a conquest, day after day. All this has made me strong and gave me the strength to go on and achieve my dreams. What I have today undoubtedly is the result of my being Sicilian.

What is your impression of the Italian American culture in the United States? Italian Americans are very proud of their origins and we feel a connection with Italy and like Italians, we have strong family values. Do you sense this when you are in America?

Each of the two peoples, Italians and Americans, have enriched each other, mixing culture, civilization and humanity. To be proud of their origins is a fundamental value, people become more proud when they live abroad for so long, because they notice the differences and qualities of our country. When I’m in America, I’m so proud of my origins!

Comments

The Anthology Film Archives Presents: The Italian Connection: Poliziotteschi and Other Italo-Crime Films of the 1960s and '70's

June 19 – June 29 Influenced both by 1960s political cinema and Italian crime novels, as well as by French noir and American cop movies like "Dirty Harry" and "The French Connection," many Italian filmmakers in the late-60s and early-70s gradually moved away from the spaghetti western genre, trading lone cowboys for ‘bad’ cops and the rough frontier of the American west for the mean streets of modern Italy. Just as they had with their westerns, they reinvented the borrowed genre with their inimitable eye for style and filled their stories with the kidnappings, heists, vigilante justice, and brutal violence that suffused this turbulent moment in post-boom 1970s Italy. The undercurrent of fatalism and cynicism in these uncompromising movies is eerily reminiscent of the state of discontent in Italy today. ‘The Italian Connection’ showcases the diversity and innovation found in the genre, from the gangster noir of Fernando Di Leo’s "Caliber 9" ...

Ornella Muti: Five decades of Acting and Still Going Strong

Ornella Muti was born Francesca Romana Rivelli in Rome in 1955 to a Neapolitan father and an Estonian mother. She began her career as a model during her teenage years and made her film debut in 1970 with “La Moglie più bella” (The Most Beautiful Wife). Her follow-up role was in the 1971 film, “Sole nella pelle” (Sun on the Skin), in which she played the daughter of wealthy parents who runs off with a hippie they don’t approve of. The film offers a telling journey through Italian society in the seventies, with its political climate, breathtaking seaside, and the styles and cars of that time. Much of the film is set amid the sunny Italian seaside and captures the innocence and beauty of first love. Muti made her American film debut in 1980 with "Flash Gordon." She played the role of Princess Aura. She’s appeared in two other American films, including “Oscar,” directed by John Landis and starring Don Ameche, Chazz Palminteri, and Sylvester Stallone. In 1992, she w...

Alessandro Gassmann: Born to Act

Alessandro Gassmannin his directorial debut "Razzabastarda" Alessandro Gassmann is the son of the iconic Italian actor/director Vittorio Gassman and French actress Juliette Mayniel. He was born in 1965 and grew up around cinema royalty. He made his cinema debut in 1982 at the age of 17 in his father's autobiographical film, "Di padre in figlio." He went on to study his craft under his father's direction at the Theatre Workshop of Florence. Vittorio Gassman was very active in theater and seemed just as comfortable on stage as he did in front of the camera. Known for his powerful interpretations of Dante's "Inferno" and "Paradiso," it is no surprise that he nurtured his son's acting aspirations on stage before he launched his career in television and film. One of Gassmann's strong qualities, which he undoubtedly inherited from his father is his incredible range and ease in going from genre to genre. He can play ...

Federico Fellini: A Look into the Life and Career of an Icon

A Fellini family portrait “The term became a common word to describe something on the surface you can say is bizarre or strange, but actually is really like a painter working on a film,” said Martin Scorsese when asked to define “Felliniesque,” an adjective inspired by one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. The oldest of three children, Federico Fellini was born in the seaside town of Rimini in 1920. His father was a traveling salesman, so his mother was left to do the bulk of raising the children. One can argue that Fellini was born for his destiny. “You could tell that even as a child, he was different and unique. He was very intelligent, well above average. He was always the one to organize things, direct the others, make up games. He could control the other kids with just a look, said Fellini’s sister, Maddalena, in an interview with journalist Gideon Bachmann. Not only was Fellini directing the children, but he was also putting on shows and charging ...

The Timeless Vision of Pier Paolo Pasolini

Pondering his films and poetry, I wonder if the uniqueness of Pier Paolo Pasolini's films was rooted in his unconventional childhood. Born in Bologna in 1922, Pasolini's father was a lieutenant in the army, and his family was always moving. He grew up in various small towns in Northern Italy. After his parents separated, he spent most of his time in his mother's hometown of Casarsa, in the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. There, he grew to respect the area's peasant culture and began to write poetry in the region's dialect. He studied literature and art history at the University of Bologna and was drafted into the army during World War II. The war proved to be especially tragic for his family as his younger brother was executed by Communist partisans. Following the war, he returned to Casarsa where he worked as a teacher and ironically became a leading member of the Communist party there. Pasolini was later expelled from the party due to allegations of homo...

Italian Cinema Today

Search This Blog