“I can't wait to be the bad guy.” Interview with Romana Maggiora Vergano
“Going back to work with Paolo? I didn't expect it. Not because I didn't want to, but because I had to face my terror of the genre once again, even if this time we're more on the side of psychological thriller than horror. But anyway, I'm a scoundrel.” Yet despite all the reticence, here is Romana Maggiora Vergano in her second work with Paolo Strippoli, who after The Valley of Smiles wanted it with her for The Stranger, a film that premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival and an Italian proposal as a candidate to represent the country in the Oscar race. “But knowing each other better, for the construction of the character and the film, I feel that we had a more fluid dialogue and a confidence that allowed me to propose solutions and discuss with him without ever losing the opportunity to have fun even on a very tense screenplay.”
The Stranger Challenge and the work on Alice's character
Actually, experiencing the mechanism of The Stranger does not have to be easy, much easier to observe it from the outside. At the center of the narrative is the encounter between a mother and daughter on a rainy day in Rome in which the parent will confess that the history of their family has been conditioned for the most part by an unknown and mephistophelic figure. “Paolo mentioned the film to me after the shooting of The Valley of Smiles. The day he sent me the screenplay, I read it twice in one night. The first because the game had deeply upset me and I wanted to fully understand its mechanisms, the other because I wanted to fully grasp the challenge of my character. Joining Medias Res and then having to act on memories that, however, as Romana, I had not lived and would not have played since the character of Alice has other actresses who play her when she is both a child and a teenager. I must say, I leaned a lot on Jasmine and I let myself be touched by her experience.”
The comparison with Jasmine Trinca and the acting between fragility and humanity
In fact, in the role of the mother of The Stranger there is Jasmine Trinca, who carries the burden of family secrecy on her shoulders. One of the various actresses with whom Romana Maggiora Vergano has intertwined her career, starting with the film that launched it as There's Still Tomorrow by Paola Cortellesi, with the next two collaborations coming with Tecla Insolia for Idda by Irene Dionisi and Iside by Maria Sole Tognazzi — in the latter again with Trinca. “The first time I saw Jasmine wearing makeup, I was amazed,” the actress recalls. “The thing that shocked me the most and I couldn't believe was that his eyes had changed. But looking at her better, it was clear that the trick had not worked there and it was she who had managed to return the dull and wet look of a woman who carried a burden with her. He has aged his eyes and the way he sees the world. She has managed to find a hole that makes the character human. I had the same feeling while shooting The Time It Takes: although you may be an angry daughter, when you realize the frailty of a parent you are more open to listening.”
The weight of appearances and the search for oneself: Romana Maggiora Vergano's answers
If there has been great listening and affection on the set of The Stranger, less goes by between his Alice and the mother of his colleague Trinca, a woman whose existence has been conditioned by choices made only by the need to keep up appearances. Something that everyone must come to terms with every day, let alone those who work in the entertainment world. “How do I live by appearances? The more I have been going into analysis for years, the more I have realized that trying to live with it forcibly with a smile takes me away from the real me”, explains Vergano. “When I feel like I'm about to disconnect from who I am, I try to do an exercise and go back to the little things: to what I like to do, eat, visit, meet. Unfortunately, for a time, appearances have affected my life a lot. Among the causes there is also this work. My family does anything but so I was unprepared for what it would entail. Over time, however, I have learned to recognize my value regardless of what people think, and this also applies when I apply to a director for a role.”
The relationship with the family and the choice to act
And speaking of family, who are we and who others would have wanted us to be, how did the parents experience the desire of Romana Maggiora Vergano to move away from the medical profession, to which the rest of her family dedicated herself, to become an actress? “They reacted better than I expected. It was a little easier with my mother because she saw that I wouldn't be happy as a doctor, but as soon as they both understood that it couldn't be my path, they went into medical mode and went about it. You want to act, okay, but what does that entail? Do you have to go to school? Which school? And then how does it work? They are very methodical so it was difficult to explain to them that the path would not be linear. Even moving away from home was a way to rekindle a more honest dialogue with my parents. A difference with the character of Alice in The Stranger: she wanted to go away and cut bridges, I realized that I needed them to be there.”
Destiny, the fear of loneliness and the desire to 'play bad'
Surely launching into acting was an adventure where every turn was unexpected and undiscovered. Not like the choices that must be made in The Stranger, which precisely determine the fate of the characters. Which makes one wonder what is the relationship that the actress has with fate and what in life seems, or not, predestined: “I believe in chance. I'm obsessed with what might happen in the future so yes, if someone told me they could tell me I would accept it right away. I never live in the present, so knowing what might happen would make me more comfortable. Obviously, this reliance on destiny makes me live in an uncomfortable position, but sometimes I'm happy to know that there's something written, even if I'd rather be able to read it.”
And while we see Romana Maggiora Vergano in The Stranger, in Idda and in Isis, as well as in the series ChiarOSCuro coming from November 11 on Netflix, the actress is also waiting for other roles that, a bit like working with Paolo Strippoli and the genre, will make her leave her comfort zone: “I can't wait to be a villain. I would like a character exasperated by anger, despicable, with whom to free myself from the appearances we were talking about and have fun. For some time, the fact of having an ordinary and reassuring presence, as I was told, seemed limiting. Some people told me that with my appearance I could only do television, as if it were something derogatory. For this reason I am and will always be grateful to Paolo because he has been able to look beyond appearances. And I think it can also be nice for a spectator who has an 'ordinary looking' to recognize herself in something that, then, undermines expectations.”
