Talent Filippo Scotti
Photography Ilaria Ieie
Art direction & Styling Eleonora Gaspari
Executive producer Cristina Mazza
Video director Jacopo Pergameno
Grooming Vanessa Forlini
Fashion assistants Alessandra Caponegro & Lorenzo Muscarà
Photography assistant Lorenzo Ferranti
Filippo’s Press office Gianni Galli
Editor-in-chief Valentina Ilardi
Location Villa Lais Di Sipicciano
We understand how much versatility the role of the actor requires. Playing multiple roles relating to real or fictional characters and creating a connection with the viewer, while navigating the world the director has imagined – is an alchemical process. What does becoming someone else entail?
Having a welcoming attitude towards what’s new and deviates from our everyday life. Changing pace or just recognizing that you have a specific one.
Looking at yourself more closely and observing more carefully. “Becoming another”, for me, means having a foundation, a baseline as a person, so that I can work on that ground – even if it does not actually exist – I just believe it does and then I build something new on it, just to “get lost” again.
Young Talent, winner of the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Emerging Actor at the 2021 Venice Film Festival and holder of a David di Donatello nomination. What led you to pursue this career and what would you recommend to an emerging actor?
I was just over eleven years old when I started doing theater, under my mother’s advice. The rest came then, by playing and following an enthusiasm that I have always tried to keep alive. Everyone fancies awards but it is the defeats that make one creative. My advice to a rising actor would be: always keep an up-and-coming mindset, never feel like you’ve made it, work alongside your limits in order to overcome them and discover that there are new ones. Quoting Chazelle’s movie “Whiplash”: “There are no two words in the English language more harmful than “good job”.
I read that you are passionate about photography. Do you have an analog or a digital take on it? Do you think AI is going to change the photographic content we will see and experience in the coming years?
I take all pictures with my IPhone but I prefer the taste and weave of analog photos. Digital is fast and for that reason very interesting, but analog allows you to take the time to visualize the photo properly before the shot, question the shot itself and thus come to terms with ourselves on a whole different level.
On AI I could not comment, I stay away from it more out of laziness than for any other possible reason. It is certainly already changing photographic content but I think on many fronts it is a flash in the pan. Or maybe I just hope so.
Working with one of the greatest international directors, Paolo Sorrentino, was certainly a source of great pride but also an exciting challenge.
What did he ask of you in the area of acting preparation, since you had to play the role of his alter ego?
I looked back and searched for the truth that inhabited me long ago. I say long ago because it is always changing. You grow up, you shift your perspective to something else, and inevitably your balance changes and you have to get used to that. This is to say that the biggest challenge has been accepting some personal things and bring them on set. With a master as a guide and such a solid team around it becomes much easier. Plus I was really lucky to work with incredible actors who taught me a lot and pampered me throughout the shooting.
In “Un’estate fa,” a new Sky series in which you star, you play the teenage side of Elio in this story that spans the 90’s. Which world among Millennials and Gen Z is most akin to your personality?
The series has made me realize that I am much more “analog” than I thought, so I could say I feel more like a Millennial, but I am probably wrong; I wish someone else who really knows me could answer that question.
The customs and traditions of our society have changed dramatically over the past few years. If you had the chance to be catapulted into a historical period of your choice, which one would you choose, and why?
Probably in the 70’s, as Anthony Manero, dancing in a club in Brooklyn. Or even early 1900’s in Lisbon, just for the chance to meet Pessoa.
