“I was a baseball player. Ferreri in his latest film wanted to hit me on the set»- Corriere.it

Unor else in his place would he have never recovered. Taken bad words by Marco Ferreri, one of his idols, on one of his first sets. Ma Fabio De Luigi he didn’t let himself be discouraged. «I have a very vague memory, I must have repressed it a bit. She was shooting her latest film in Rimini,

Silver nitrate

. At the time I was quite well known in the area, I did my shows, and the casting director contacted me to offer me a couple of poses. We shot a scene inside the famous Fulgor cinema, where it was projected

The Big Binge

. I played one of the audience. In one of the takes I made a mistake, I don’t know what anymore. And I yelled: Stop! He wanted to hit me. He came out of his post and yelled after me. Me: Excuse me. I’ve never seen it again. The advantage, let’s say, is that from there everything went downhill».

De Luigi is not the type to panic. Fifty-five years old last October, a lot of profession declined between cabaret, television, cinemaperhaps learned from baseball – a sport he played as a professional – the art of waiting for the right moment. Even for rematches. How was your second time as a director,
Three too many
, where he starred alongside Virginia Raffaele, which, released on 1 January, exceeded 4,700,000 euros in collections. A real luxury these days.

Is the second good?

«I was left with the desire to measure myself with directing, after the first experience, with tiramisu of 2016. There were things I didn’t like, mistakes, naivety, things I could have handled better in the double role of director and actor. It’s a family comedy on a theme that amused me but not only, a couple film where I could work with an actress I respect like Virginia, I immediately thought of her».

Isn’t being an actor enough for you anymore?

«It seems important to me to tell from my point of view, I have the sacred desire to do so. I have always closely followed, collaborated with the directors. With my first work,
tiramisu
, I’m severe, I’m my worst critic. I try, often while making large or popular comedies, to put attention and love into them».

This time it tells of a couple who don’t want children but literally find them in the house three and get into a crisis. Why this theme?

«The breaking of the balance is generally desired, one chooses to become parents, knowing that the balance at home will change. In this case the two protagonists find themselves drawn into an unexpected reality from one moment to the next».

She acts, directs, and dances. We already knew about Virginia Raffaele’s talents, she also dances with Roberto Bolle. Instead we had left her at the ballets of Never say goals. Studied?

«The passion of the two for dancing was a way to tell a couple’s affinity that works. On the set we hired a good choreographer, I cut out a few hours for exercise. I move in time, I think. But I don’t have the basics. Let’s say I worked in editing».

Best moment on set as a director?

«The end of production dinner. Like all work commitments, I face them in the same spirit: I hope to bypass them».

Among the stages of his biography we also come across baseball. He was serious.

“I was a good player, an honest player.”

Why didn’t he choose football like everyone else?

“I’m from Santarcangelo, when I was a kid there were four or five neighborhood baseball teams, like there can be in a US town or in Cuba. It was the early 80s, there was the legend of the game of baseball” .

Which has very complicated rules to understand, for some impossible.

«In hindsight, it makes me think that perhaps I approached it precisely because I didn’t understand the rules, out of curiosity. We played on the old repurposed soccer field. There are bubbles of this game in Italy: Neptune, Milan, born often around NATO bases».

Do you still play a few games?

“I can’t play anymore, it’s too complex. It’s not like kicking a ball twice.”

Do you remember what you wanted to do as a child?

«I wanted to do what I do, I’ve always wanted to do this job. But I hadn’t confessed it to anyone but myself. It seemed impossible to me, just a child’s imagination. So I was thinking of alternative ways, such as graphic advertising, which was then an expanding world. There was a school in Urbino with limited enrollment, I tried that path, then the Academy of Fine Arts. But it was a way to waste time. Then I did the Zanzara d’oro competition in Bologna, the selection was wild, a thousand people at the Teatro Duse. They caught me.”

How did they react at home?

«With a fair amount of embarrassment, I told my parents, minimizing it».

But then he never stopped and went to Milan.

«There was the Zelig, the restaurant, which gave me the opportunity to find what I was looking for. It was like the comedians’ trade fair. If you conquered a week there many saw you and called you everywhere. I was starting to work a lot in my part, even in small Italian-style theaters like the one that is a real wedding favor in San Giovanni in Marignano. I wrote down my shows, they started calling me, thanks to word of mouth».

He could have moved to Milan like many of his colleagues, or to Rome, but he never left Santarcangelo where he continues to live. Why?

«Because I did this job, it’s a pleasant place to stay, precisely because I move a lot. I don’t know if it was a considered choice. Like there’s a rubber band that brings me back here. In Rome, Milan, I go to work. I find true balance in autogrills»

You are the granddaughter of Tonino Guerra. What relationship did she have with him, did she give her advice?

“I have wonderful memories. We actually dated after I started in this profession. Someone must have told him I did. My grandmother’s brother, I knew him like uncle Tonino who wrote films and lived in Rome. I used to visit him every now and then. A poet, a storyteller, what had I to do with it?”

Was it an important bond?

“As one has with people to whom affection and a sense of belonging bind you”.

In the years in which he made himself known on TV, there were schools and groups. She has always seemed like a maverick. I err?

“I went my own way. Yes, I’ve been quite a maverick. It’s not that I tied myself to any particular group, if I liked something, I went».

The characters created for “Mai dire gol” remain very popular, everyone asks her for them but she doesn’t like to recall them.

«It’s just that even there with Gialappa’s, my desire was always to change. Even in the case of the most loved ones, I tried to give them up so as not to sit down, not get bored. Every year I tried to invent something else. To say, I was happy with Marco Mengoni’s invitation to his Lido di Sanremo for the podcast Coffee with lemon. It’s a new idea.”

He is always very self-critical.

«Mistakes are made a lot, they are more perhaps the positive things that I have to look for. But I need everything, I use everything, especially mistakes».

In «Three too many» shows a range of parents. He had told Chiara Maffioletti about himself: «I am a great champion of the past in diaper changing.
Now the children are grown up, I’ve hung up the talc on my nail. I was also a decent rocker and a great inventor of bedtime stories. I wonder how many things they will hold against me when they grow up». The time is approaching.

“They’re teenagers now. Constant updating with children is necessary. The big mistakes I hope to avoid. I dedicate myself a lot to the role, very tiring. It was a choice, we consciously decided to reproduce. The regret is, if anything, having had them too late ».

What do they tell you about your job?

«I have never pushed to let him know my things. I think they informed themselves, as for sex. I tried to protect them, to normalize everything in my life.

What makes her laugh?

“I’m afraid I haven’t refined my taste. Belly laughs, to tears, come for basic things. Or masters like Peter Sellers. I can see it a hundred times ne
The Pink Panther
, and I always enjoy it. The suspensions. Embarrassment, things one does in good faith. And people’s arrogance makes me laugh, but it also makes me angry».

When did he realize he had arrived, that he had made it?

«It was I believe at a Sanremo with Gialappa’s, I passed dressed as a character and they recognized me. But not everyone took me seriously. After the first episode of Never say goals, I met an old friend. I saw you on tv he tells me, he really sucks, he was much better before. There had been a revolution in the cast, after Aldo Giovanni and Giacomo, Albanese, an almost new group had arrived. I flaunted calm and said: thank you. But I was a little hurt.”

Hobby?

«No stamps or model making. I really like walking, with or without a dog and cycling. A bit old-fashioned stuff. And then drawing relaxes me a lot».

Amici?

“The historical ones, there aren’t many.”

First the former minister Toninelli, recently the bridge over the strait relaunched by Salvini. There is no peace for Engineer Cane, they won’t let him retire.

«Engineer Cane, let’s face it, is the one who threw the first brick. The bridge over the Strait goes with everything, like the little black dress. Everyone drops the ace. It’s a bit of a spell that gives you the idea of ​​never getting old. He keeps us young.”