Peppe Zarbo and Riccardo Polizzy Carbonelli make it clear right away: “It will be a complimentary interview.” In the twenty-five years that A Place in the Sun will soon celebrate, their characters, the sex symbol Franco Boschi and the perfidious entrepreneur Roberto Ferri, they crossed paths a couple of times at most, as if the writers knew their worlds couldn’t meet if they wanted to. Starting from March 1st, however, things change, because Franco and Ferri will finally begin to collaborate more closely: after having helped him to save Filippo from an attempted kidnapping that risked ending badly (a Upas kidnappings are more or less on the agenda together with the comatose states of the protagonists who stay in the hospital of Dr. Bruni), Franco will turn to Roberto to ask him for a hand with Nunzio, the putative son got into trouble because of gambling.
Not only that: shortly afterwards, Ferri himself will ask Boschi for advice to help him understand what is happening at the Cantieri Flegrei, the subject of strange incidents that immediately make Roberto suspicious, leading him to investigate further to understand what lies behind.
Waiting to see them in action on Raitre, Vanity Fair he decided to reunite Zarbo and Polizzy Carbonelli asking them the impossible: to spend 24 hours in the shoes of the other. The result is in the shots that you can find a preview above, with Franco in a jacket, tie, waistcoat and shirt, and Ferri with jeans, a dark shirt and a leather jacket. “Impersonating the other was a lot of fun, even if Peppe was better than me. Like Franco, I was more uncomfortable, I looked like the bad copy of Fonzie “ Riccardo jokes on the phone before Peppe intervenes: “It’s not true, Riccardo’s Franco is much younger than me, he’s like the Franco from seven years ago, when he had a tuft and not today’s white and grizzled hair” answers Zarbo , who with Polizzy Carbonelli maintains a friendship lasting twenty years but cultivated far from the cameras. “Everything starts from the proximity of our dressing rooms, which are adjacent: we could open a small door and make it into a double-roomed one “continues Peppe before Riccardo completes the sentence as only the most experienced couples can do: we hear on the phone from the offices of the Rai Production Center in Naples and the enthusiasm for having posed together for these shots at Borgo Marinari, stepping into the shoes of the other but also dressing very elegantly, with a tuxedo and a flute of prosecco, flows through the veins making our heroes to the limit of euphoria.
Twenty years you’ve known each other and the audience of A Place in the Sun he has hardly ever seen you perform together.
Riccardo Polizzy Carbonelli: “We’ve been discussing our characters and complimenting each other for years, but working together will have happened maybe three times. This is also why we had the idea of posing for this shoot: we liked being able to tell our different way of working and approaching each other ».
Peppe Zarbo: «We both attend our preparations: Ferri is a precise man and all in one piece, while Franco is impulsive, another world. Since the writers have chosen to approach them, we are getting to know each other even better ».
And for us you have also exchanged the “uniforms”: how did it go?
P.Z.: «I found that becoming Ferri takes a lot of time, between the hairstyle, the cuff and the rest. Franco Boschi is more low cost ».
R.P.C.: “For him, jeans, a T-shirt, a leather jacket are enough and he’s fine, the joy of the costume designers.”
On the other hand, have you learned anything about the other person’s way of working?
R.P.C: “I realized that Peppe has a mathematical memorization: he counts his lines, studies the words that are most difficult to say, always looks for the fire of the scene to understand their meaning so, if he forgets a line, he knows how Franco would react”.
P.Z.: “Riccardo, on the other hand, memorizes all the treatments: he must know what is happening at the Poggi home at the same time”.
Franco and Ferri are not, however, so different: they are two hard bones.
P.Z.: “So far and so close, both united by a very strong parental feeling that brings them closer. Let’s not forget, then, that Riccardo is of Sicilian origin like me ».
R.P.C.: “On the part of” matre “(he says it imitating the Sicilian cadence, ed). We are two men from the South and it will be for this reason that we find ourselves so well in Naples that it has become our home. It helps, of course, that we love each other very much. “
P.Z: “We are very respectful of each other’s spaces. We are able to make speeches of 4 hours and then not run away for days. Joking aside, I really appreciate Riccardo’s acting work: it’s not easy to do what he does. Ferri is a very demanding character because you have to maintain the seal over time by shooting 10 to 15 scenes every day. For this I do not envy him, but I recognize a great professionalism that he shows from when he sets foot in Rai to when he goes off in the evening ».
R.P.C.: “Those who think of the newspaper believe that it is stuff compared to the drama genre, instead the naturalness that you have to achieve in a continuous work is much more difficult to center and to maintain, especially when events like those that happen to Peppe Zarbo happen”.
Crucial in this is the sense of proportion.
P.Z.: «Franco is a person of great feelings who never backs down: he defends the weak, he has known the underworld, he is a hothead: over time he has matured, but not enough to mind his own business. Measurement is everything: if you go too far it’s wrong, if you do it less it’s not enough ».
R.P.C.: «I call him Gian Maria Volonté. The nice thing is that we are younger than our age, we are two playful ones ».
Maintaining enthusiasm after 20 years in the same role doesn’t have to be easy, in fact.
P.Z.: “We still have fun, it’s crazy.”
R.P.C.: “… Even though you once told me it bothered you that he had all the beautiful women.”
P.Z.: “Well, a little bit yes. It will be the power, the money, the boats, but Ferri has had many stories with beautiful girls. All the actresses who have passed by Upas they ended up in his net ».
R.P.C: «And to think that I got engaged as soon as I started taking over the character of Ferri».
P.Z.: «Can we say, however, that in these elegantly dressed photos we are beautiful? Two fifties who continue to give emotions ».
R.P.C.: «Two adult puppies who have recently abandoned their soft toys to play with real dolls».
P.Z.: «Not to mention that we had a great desire to hug each other. A hug full of energy, wanted, felt: I hope that all this will reach those who follow us, also for everything that happens ».
R.P.C: “It’s as if we hugged for everyone who can’t do it right now. Of course we were buffered and the rest, but seeing two so different worlds interacting gave us some ideas ».
Let’s put some pepper: do you have a defect?
R.P.C.: «Franco frames everything from a sentimental point of view, he doesn’t have a long-term project. Ferri, on the other hand, is more far-sighted, he is a fighter. It makes me think of the Colossus of Clay, which falls and then rises again ».
P.Z.: “Riccardo is right about this: Franco is a man who lives day to day and always says what he thinks, something that I also do in everyday life”.
R.P.C.: «I envy this quality of Peppe very much. I am much more diplomatic, a heroic coward ».
P.Z.: «Riccardo is too good, he can’t say no to anyone, he’s afraid of saying the wrong word. This is why I say that he is a man of other times and that he reminds me of Sicily. Love the job so crazy. Me too, huh, but it’s important for me to turn off the switch every now and then. He, on the other hand, must do it slowly ».
It is clear that you love each other. Have you ever made any gifts?
R.P.C.: “The health shirt that allows him to save someone when it’s needed.”
P.Z.: “I, on the other hand, gave Riccardo a jersey and thermal tights from London”.
R.P.C.: “In the end we pamper ourselves. Also because Peppe gives us a boost in the morning by letting us listen to good music ».
Kind?
P.Z.: “Now a little jazz, I like the whole music. For this service, based on Riccardo’s idea, we put on the song by Beware of those two: in a moment we started dancing, doing shit. I also want to say that we are very lucky because we do a job that we like: we play two characters that are very transversal and much loved by the public. Those who love Franco may very well also love Ferri, and this is a gift ».
R.P.C.: «I agree. The fact of being able to act, to keep the instrument trained in these times when many actors are still, is a great privilege. We have things to say, and you will soon hear them in A Place in the Sun».
P.Z.: “To use a term dear to Franco, it will be an explosive spring, expect everything.”
(Opening photo by Giuseppe D’Anna / Fremantle)
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