Chiara Conti from Un posto al sole: “Don’t call me the new Marina”

Unlike Lara Martinelli, the character she plays in A Place in the Sun, Chiara Conti is neither a femme fatale nor a mantis who plans whatever she does. “She is the opposite of how I am, I enjoy her because she is a woman who struggles to get what she wants, but she is not immune from feelings,” says Chiara on the phone with the traffic of Rome in the background. Although she is Florentine and in her life she lived for two months in Tunisia and for six years in Paris, Chiara found her headquarters in the capital, preserving a special feeling towards the city that welcomes her every week in A Place in the Sun and that drew her to him a year earlier for filming the fiction Commissioner Ricciardi which we will see on Raiuno from 25 January: Naples. “Even before working on it, every time I felt depressed in Rome I took the train, arrived in Naples and found the energy I needed” says Conti who, before taking part in several successful fiction such as Police District and movies like Nothing is as it seems by Franco Battiato, also has a past as a girl of It is not Rai and a record that has never been achieved by any colleague: being the only one who left before the expiration of the contract. He will explain why in this interview.

It is clear that Lara Martinelli is a very strong character.
“She pursues the goals she wants to achieve at all costs but, after all, she is also a woman who has feelings. I really enjoy playing it ».

Tell the truth, A Place in the Sun looked at him before joining the cast?
“My mother looked at him for a while. I, perhaps, when I was younger. In general I don’t watch much, not even myself. I don’t have a good relationship with my image ».

Because?
“I do not like. When I was little, actors used to meet again, but I always avoided. I considered him crazy. “

Yet she receives many compliments from the public, especially for being beautiful: do you like them there?
«It depends on the days, as for everyone. It’s a swing. In shooting I always like myself a little, but as a woman I can also do well ».

Someone says that Lara could be the new Navy who, in the meantime, has momentarily left the games.
«They are totally different: Lara does not replace anyone because she enters another situation. Of course, she also has to do with Roberto Ferri, but Marina is another role. Perhaps they are similar because they are two combative women willing to do anything but, beyond this, the characters are added and they are not there to replace anyone ».

A Place in the Sun it’s your first soap: does the prospect of not seeing the end scare you?
“In some ways it’s funny. I love to see the character grow and change with you until you are surprised. It’s a very nice thing, also because I’m always curious to understand how it will end ».

Meanwhile in Naples he also shot Commissioner Ricciardi with Lino Guanciale, which we will see on Raiuno on January 25th.
“I play his mother, a woman who sees ghosts and who, when she realizes that her son is suffering from the same curse, goes mad and dies. However, he comes back to see him in a dream to talk to him in the form of a ghost ».

What were the ghosts that haunted her in her life?
«The fear of depth and the terror of going blind, a nightmare I have had since I was a child, so much so that I always keep a little light on during the night. In the past I did the analysis and I also enjoyed discovering my dark side, only it scares me to see that of others ».

Did she have more lights or shadows as a child?
“I was a confident and combative child. I went to foreign schools, German in kindergarten and elementary school and English in middle school and high school, and I must say that they did me good, especially because that kind of rigidity teaches you to be responsible for your choices ».

Did you perceive this sense of responsibility in your family?
“And how. I am the daughter of two pharmacists – an Italian father and a French mother – who have always left me very free to choose: in their hearts they hoped that one of my brother and I would study to take the pharmacy, but there was no way. When I told them I wanted to be an actress, even if I didn’t jump for joy, they advised me to do it with all of myself and in the best way. “

Where does the idea of ​​becoming an actress start from?
“From the fact that as a child I did not speak: at home we spoke French and Italian, at school German, I had a great confusion in my head. My mother didn’t understand, so, she took me to a psychologist who said I was just shy and that, with a little theater, I would be unlocked. When the teacher told me that on stage I could do whatever I wanted, I realized that I was in a place where I could feel good: acting started out as a therapy and then it became my life ».

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At 20 he made his debut in a very popular show, It is not Rai. Not quite in line with shyness.
“I was in Milan, I was auditioning for fashion things to earn some money until they took me for a campaign for Onix, the brand that dressed girls of It is not Rai. I went to the studio to do some sponsorship, Boncompagni saw me and asked me to stay. I began to make excuses: “I don’t have a house in Milan” and he said to me “we’ll pay you the hotel”. “I don’t have a moped” and he said to me “we’ll bring you the car”. In the end I accepted, even though I was very ashamed: it was a fantastic experience that taught me how to manage the camera, but then I stopped ».

Because?
“One afternoon I went back to Florence, I was in a disco with my friends and the deejay said that there was” Chiara di It is not Rai“: I turned purple and the other guys started throwing coins at me. I left crying and decided to tear the contract. Years later I met the program’s press office in Rome who told me that Boncompagni was always talking about me because I was the only one who had left ».

A few years later he won the competition for Gorgeous: even here shyness is now a memory.
“I was doing all this just to defeat this side of me. My best friend at the time told me one day that I was as cute as she was silly, a comment that hurt me a lot. I was so upset that I said to myself “ok, if you think that about me, then I will become this”. I went to the competition like this, more for a rematch than for anything else. Some time later I went to do an advertisement in Tunisia and everything changed ».

What happened?
«When I arrived in the village, I saw a boy and I said: ‘he is the man of my life’. I spent the whole afternoon looking for him until I met him in the evening and told him about it: I left my boyfriend at the time by phone and stayed in Tunisia with him for two months until we moved to Paris. He wanted to be a singer and I wanted to be an actress ».

How long is she left in Paris?
«6 years, but I was not happy. I worked in a bar and we didn’t see him. So I decided to write him a letter, to take the night train and go back to Rome to decide what to do with my life. As soon as I arrived I went to Piazza di Spagna where an advertisement was being shot. There was Japino who asked me to participate even though I still had the suitcase in my hand: from there Rome became my city. 2 years later, however, I was always thinking about that boy I had left so badly, so I decided to go back to Paris to find him. I took a small hotel in an arrondissement very far from where we lived, but as soon as I got out of the taxi I found it in front of me ».

It was destiny. How did it go?
“Very badly, he gave me a slap in the face. Then we hugged and cried for hours. Now he is married, in France he has become quite a famous singer ».

In short, she likes resourcefulness.
«I am like that, I make decisions from my stomach, following my heart. That’s why I could never be like Lara, who plans everything. I love to throw myself in and take bites of life ».

Is this choice of belly also valid at work?
«Absolutely yes, that’s how I choose the projects. Many times I gave up on roles because they didn’t tell me anything: my agent told me “who do you think you are?”, But the truth is that I couldn’t accept a job that didn’t make me feel anything ».

Projects to be implemented?
«A film about Camille Claudel, this limping woman who ran to Rodin for love, forgetting her pain. Another great dream is to have a child, who unfortunately has not yet arrived ».

(Opening photo by Fabrizio de Blasio / Massmedia communication)