In this new episode of Pop Corner we had the honor of hosting Luca Zingarettia giant of Italian cinema. Born in Rome in 1961, we all know him as the face of Inspector Montalbano, but Luca is much more: he is an actor, director, screenwriter and producer. We had a 360-degree chat to understand what happens behind the scenes of cinema, discovering how a “paranoid” actor prepares and why artificial intelligence is the next big topic to talk about.
Many think that the manufacturer is just the one who “chases money”. Luca explained to us that this is not the case: the producer first and foremost does editorial work, choosing which story to tell. And what are you focusing on now? He purchased the rights to a book about iartificial intelligence and self-driving cars. His interest is not so much technological as philosophical:
While technological development proceeds with supersonic speed (…) philosophy or politics proceeds with exasperating slowness.
The goal is to reflect on how we will live in a world where AI will be increasingly present, while laws and ethics struggle to keep up.
Zingaretti, in his important career, played the same character, Inspector Montalbano, for twenty years; a real challenge. Luca says that for him it was like finding an “imaginary friend” every two years. Behind this success is the figure of Andrea Camilleriwho for Luca was a teacher of life before writing. There are two fundamental lessons from this experience: responsibility el’humilityCamilleri considered success like the weather, something that changes and passes, and that has little to do with who you really are.
How does an actor of his caliber prepare? Luca defines himself as a “reckless lunatic” and “paranoid” about memory. He must know the part by heart, like a Hail Mary, to be free not to think about the lines while acting. He always goes around with a notebook to write down ideas and builds a “map” of the character to visualize his emotional journey, what he calls the “red thread”.
Luca recently made his directorial debut with the film The house of glances. He confessed that being a director is infinitely more difficult and “lonely” than being an actor, because you have to make twenty important decisions a day and carry the burden alone. Yet, the part that seems to excite him the most is the writing (he is the screenwriter of the series Lolita Loboscoplayed by his wife Luisa Ranieri). For him, writing means creating a world that wasn’t there before, inventing places and emotions from nothing: a pure creative process that totally fascinates him.
