Born of English and Italian parents, in Italy, raised in Australia, and having lived in many countries, Greta Scacchi is multi-national and multi-lingual. It is her command of languages which, along with her outstanding talent, adds to her demand as a truly international actor.
In Australia this week as ambassador for the Lavazza Italian Film Festival , she took some time out to chat to Glam.
We asked her about making films in varied languages, and whether she sensed a different feel, depending on whether she is acting in English, French or Italian.
She pondered this question for a while before answering.
The language you identify with the character you’re creating. It always feels different to be interpreting a different character. I don’t feel there is any more significant difference than that.
Although Scacchi is known as multi-lingual she actually rejects this label.
English is my first language, she asserts. I speak Italian well but I’m not bi-lingual. I still make a lot of mistakes in Italian; grammatical mistakes. And I sound a little bit strange. I still need to work with a dialogue coach, so that requires a bit of extra concentration. So I can’t say that I can be completely free or natural in Italian or French. I’m much more spontaneous in English.
Scacchi is now in her 50s and finding very different roles. And like many actors in the European tradition, it is the director who attracts her to a particular role.
I like Italian cinema very much because it’s still very much auteur cinema. I like that feeling that the director has something to say, and everybody working on the film is interpreting the director’s vision. I like films like that. And Italian films are very connected with the Italian mentality: their sense of humour, their sense of histrionics. And also their sense of a search for an identity at a time when things have changed rapidly with a lot of unemployment and economic struggle. The selection for this year’s festival shows a recurring theme of poverty and disorientation. Many of the films are from poor regions of Italy.
One of the films showing at this year’s festival is La Tenerezza in which Scacchi herself appears, playing very much against type. She speaks with passion about working with director Gianni Amelio.
I was so thrilled to do this film, because Amelio has been on the top of my list of living Italian directors for many years. I was invited to a festival in southern Sicily, and I saw that he was going to be there, so I accepted. And then he planted himself next to me at the dinner table and said “I came to this festival because I wanted to meet you”. It was very thrilling. The part that I play in La Tenerezza is not very big, but it is an intense monologue, from an unpleasant character. Amelio didn’t search me out because he thought I was unpleasant, but rather the opposite. He thought I would bring some human warmth to a character who otherwise might come across as two-dimensional.
It would be difficult to imagine this intelligent, articulate, passionate and hard-working actor, ever coming across as two-dimensional.
The Lavazza Italian Film Festival opened in Adelaide on Thursday 14th September and runs until October 1st with a special, closing night screening of Life is Beautiful.
La Tenerezza screens initially on Monday 18th September.
Check out the festival program here.
Learn more about Greta Scacchi
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