Simona Tabasco Beyond 'The White Lotus'

Photo: Fabio Lovino/HBO

She became an international overnight sensation for her role in the HBO hit series “The White Lotus,” but she’s no stranger to Italian moviegoers.

Born in Naples in 1994, Simona Tabasco started acting when she was just 8 years old. Her craft is second nature to her now, but acting didn’t always come easily. In an interview with Forbes, she explained, “The spark that started my acting career didn’t happen right away when I started acting, but it broke out during the last 10 years.”

Her first feature film role came around that time in Edoardo De Angelis’ 2014 crime drama “Perez,” for which she received the Nastri d’Argento Premio Biraghi, an award designated for young artists. In it, Tabasco portrays Tea Perez, the daughter of a famous Neapolitan criminal lawyer, played by Luca Zingaretti. When she falls in love with the son of a Camorra boss, her father must walk a fine line between his professional ethics and his love for his daughter. Tabasco brought depth and authenticity to her character through a forceful, dramatic performance.

Her next high-profile role was as Alex Di Nardo, an undercover police officer in the first two seasons of the Italian television series “I Bastardi di Pizzofalcone.” Set in Naples, the series follows a crew of law enforcement agents fighting crime and solving cases in the local Pizzofalcone police station. Alex Di Nardo is a woman at odds with her overbearing family. Tabasco gives Alex the perfect balance of toughness when confronting the grim nature of her job and affability when interacting with her colleagues. She is a layered character who deals with the demands of work and the disappointments of family members by compartmentalizing her life and living in the moment.

"Luna Park" Netflix

In 2021, Tabasco had a starring role in the Netflix original “Luna Park,” a delightful, cleverly written series with a tangled storyline that’s fueled by enough comic relief to keep you laughing throughout. Tabasco is Nora, a vivacious young woman who grew up in her family’s circus in Rome during the 1960s. Working as a tarot card reader at her father’s carnival park, she reads the cards for a young woman on a quest to find her twin sister, who has been missing since she was a baby. Nora puts the pieces of the puzzle together and realizes that she is the woman’s sister. Tommaso Ragno gives a heartfelt performance in the role of her free-spirited father, who is on a lifelong mission to design the perfect ride for his carnival. The two actors from different generations have strong chemistry, making for some compelling, heart-tugging scenes.

When auditioning for a role, Tabasco believes it is important to study the character closely to give a sincere performance. That’s exactly what she did for her next character, Lucia Grecco, a young Sicilian prostitute in Season 2 of HBO’s “The White Lotus,” which proved to be a life-changing role.

The White Lotus is a fictional hotel chain in the HBO series created by Mike White. At the story's center are various guests and employees, each dealing with their own drama. Lucia and her partner in crime, Mia, played by Beatrice Grannò, flit about the Sicilian hotel hustling tourists like they own the place, much to the chagrin of Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore), the hotel’s no-nonsense manager. Lucia becomes involved with serial adulterer Dominic Di Grasso (Michael Imperioli). Later, she inadvertently strikes up a friendship with Dominic’s son, and they develop strong feelings for each other.

Tabasco received a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role, and she and Grannò received an MTV Movie + TV Award nomination for Best Duo. The part opened doors for Tabasco. She recently starred in a campaign for Kim Kardashian’s clothing line and is set to co-star with Sydney Sweeney, a fellow “White Lotus” cast member, in the forthcoming horror film “Immaculate.”

“Many projects are coming,” said Tabasco. “While before ‘White Lotus,’ I was used to dealing with Italy, now my prospects have broadened a bit, and so I will spend a little more time in the U.S.”

Keep up with Tabasco on Instagram at @simonatabasco. All of the aforementioned films and series are available online. Click on the titles for direct links.

Comments

The Sweetness and Genius of Giulietta Masina

Fellini and Masina on the set of "La Strada" As open-hearted and sunny as Federico Fellini was dark and complex, they were perfect counterpoints during a half-century of marriage and professional collaboration. Nicknamed a “female Chaplin” and described by Chaplin himself as the actress who moved him most, Giulietta Masina confronted the tragedy of her characters with an eternal innocence and enthusiasm that gave Italians hope in the most challenging of times. Born in 1921 in San Giorgio di Piano, a commune north of Bologna, Masina was the oldest of four children born to a father who was a music professor and violinist and a mother who was a grade-school teacher. Her parents sent her as a child to live in Rome with her widowed aunt while she attended school there. As Masina took an early interest in gymnastics, her aunt saw in her a passion for performing and encouraged her to pursue acting. So after high school, Masina attended Rome’s La...

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 ...

A Conversation with Documentary Filmmaker Luigi Di Gianni

His documentary films have given voice to a people who would have otherwise been forgotten while preserving rituals and traditions no longer practiced. Visually stunning and emotionally moving, they reflect an Italy we’re not used to seeing in cinema. Born in Naples in 1926, Luigi Di Gianni captured a dimension of Italy that people outside the South didn’t even know existed. He began his career working in the region of Basilicata, which back then was referred to as Lucania. He first visited the region with his parents when he was a boy. His father, being from the Lucanian village of Pescopagano, wanted to show his son his homeland. That trip made an impression on the 9-year-old and created a deep affection that would one day inspire him to return. “I always remained very emotional about returning to this part of my homeland of Lucania,” he says. “It seemed like a different planet compared to Rome, where I lived. The tiring journey, the unpaved roads, the difficulti...

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