Who is Matilda De Angelis: from "The Undoing" to Sanremo

The Italian girl who has bewitched Hollywood has big blue cat eyes, is determined and has wings on her feet. Matilda De Angelis goes "fast as the wind", like the original title of her first movie. Born in Bologna in 1995, she is the daughter of an advertising graphic designer, a former punk, and a "hippie witch" and grew up following her passions. In love with David Bowie, Björk, Tori Amos and Radiohead, at the age of 16 she became the singer of Rumba de Bodas. A week after joining the band she was opening for Vinicio Capossela, a month later she was touring Europe in a '98 Iveco Daily van.

But destiny had other plans. And Matilda, without even the time to fully experience life on the road, became Italian cinema's next best thing. All it takes is one audition to get the leading role, alongside Stefano Accorsi, in Italian Race by Matteo Rovere. She doesn't even have a driver's license (she'll get it for the project), but she promptly turned into the Italian GT championship driver Giulia de Martino, winning a David di Donatello nomination and many other awards, including representing Italy at the 2018 Berlin Film Festival for the Shooting Star section.  Since then, De Angelis has been collecting one movie after another, changing face like a chameleon: she is Ambra, the aspiring singer in the three seasons of the Rai fiction Tutto può succedere; in Berardo Carboni's Youtopia she is Madilde, an 18-year-old camgirl who decides to auction off her virginity to save her parents from bankruptcy; in Marco Ponti's comedy, Una vita spericolata, she is the teen star Soledad Agramante taken hostage by two bank robbers; but she is also the girl who dances and sings using a hairdryer as a microphone in the video for Felicità Puttana by Thegiornalisti.

The Undoing

The Undoing

The Undoing

The Undoing

L'incredibile storia dell'Isola delle Rose

L'incredibile storia dell'Isola delle Rose

Una vita spericolata

Una vita spericolata

Una vita spericolata

The big other

I ragazzi dello Zecchino d’Oro

I ragazzi dello Zecchino d’Oro

Youtopia

Veloce come il vento

Veloce come il vento

Veloce come il vento

2020 was the year of TV series and international fame. First with Netflix's Isle of Roses, then with The Undoing. Her performance in the HBO show (broadcast in Italy by Sky Atlantic) almost steals the scene from two stars like Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant and projects her among the young actors to keep an eye on. From The Sunday Times to Interview, from the New York Post to W magazine, everyone is enchanted by this 25-year-old who, in the role of Elena Alves, shakes up the lives of the protagonists of the series and with only a few scenes, in which she is mostly undressed, captures all the viewers' attention. 

Matilda is tough, determined, knows what she wants and has no fear. Not even when she is acting fully nude with Nicole Kidman's eyes at her hip. 

Actually, kissing Nicole was the least of the things I was intimidated by. I know I'm a good kisser, so I don't care about that. Meanwhile, the idea of acting in the nude was liberating. Whether it’s my eyes, or my mouth, or my boobs or my vagina, my body is just another tool to express myself. It’s still me. - She told in an interview - As long as the goal is to communicate something complex, then nakedness can be a powerful way to express and persuade.

As a teenager she suffered from eating disorders and, now that that dark period is far away, she has not only learned to use her body as a tool for acting, but also to show herself with all her good and bad points. In her Instagram profile, in fact, she proudly posts shots of her face "eaten by acne" or while doing a mask for blackheads, inviting self-acceptance.

Matilda De Angelis is talented, beautiful, perfectly imperfect and charismatic. She is a rising star. Right now she's on the set of Across the river and into the trees and then we'll see her in Atlas, Tourists and in the series Leonardo. It comes as no surprise that even the longest-running Italian TV show wants her as a protagonist. The actress, in fact, has been chosen by Amadeus to co-host an episode of the 2021 Sanremo Festival (the first night will feature Naomi Campbell). Matilda seems enthusiastic about taking the stage at the Ariston and many are expecting the best from her performance and her looks. So far for her red carpet appearances, she has worn Rouge d'Armani Matte No.402 on her lips and has often been in Prada, Gucci and Fendi, daring with different outfits, but always with a rock'n roll twist.  Will she remain faithful to her "rough elegance", full of personality, even at Sanremo?