Flavio Furno: “What you don’t know about me”

When we reach him by phone for the interview, Flavio Furno he is in the car and is traveling towards Rome, from there he will take a direct plane to Cannes. He is in fact one of the interpreters of The Sun of the Future, the film by Nanni Moretti in competition at the International Film Festival, and is ready for its first red carpet. «Of course this year there are many international stars: people will see me and Di Caprio next to me. I have to stay a little to the side otherwise they could make the comparison and my self-esteem will suffer!», He tells us smiling, between a joke and an anecdote about his career. Born in 1986, reserved and shy – but not pathologically, he is keen to specify – Furno has very important collaborations behind him and his debut in the theater even bears the signature of Luigi De Filippo, with whom he shares the Neapolitan origins of which he is extremely proud. His acting career, however, became clear after admission to the school of the Teatro Stabile di Genova and thanks to many television projects. He doesn’t like to say too much about his private life, but he admits that he has a partner next to him who, when he is away from the set, watches many films with him, accompanies him shopping or on trips that they love to take together. He defines himself as an actor who likes to lead a very normal life, punctuated by precise rhythms… perhaps even without too many social networks.

In the movie The Sun of the Future his role is that of an actor: one could say that he plays himself. Did he always know he wanted to do this job?
“I’ve changed the answer to this question too many times so maybe there isn’t one that’s completely true. I started very early – this year marks 17 years from the beginning – and it was by chance, taking a theater course in my city. Soon after I was taken for a few shows. However, I can say that I have never seriously done any other job except those that you do as a boy to start living away from home, acting instead was my first real job ».

When did you realize that this was your way?
«For the first few periods, everything seemed like a sort of toyland to me: I did something that amused me, it made me stay among people and I could travel around Italy. It even seemed incredible to me that someone would pay me for this. Real awareness came when I was taken to the Teatro Stabile school in Genoa. At the beginning I really trusted those people, authoritative and entitled to do so, who told me I had talent. It made me feel good to think that someone saw something in me that I couldn’t see yet. Today I can say that they were right, I admit it, and also that it makes me happy to have chosen to do this in life: I feel more powerful and beautiful when I am seen by those I respect as I play the role of my characters».

He has stated in the past that he is a bit anxious and shy.
«Zero, indeed, I would say that it was exactly the opposite. I think it accentuated an anxious aspect that I was already naturally predisposed to. I am a person who tends to want to be in control of the situation and instead I have chosen a job where control does not exist. Meanwhile, because it only works if you lose it and abandon yourself in what you do, but above all because you have no power and you are always in the hands of someone else’s choice. Things like this have made my anxieties more evident and, absurdly, have led me to be insecure even in everyday life things such as my physical appearance.

Doesn’t he have a good relationship with his image?
“No, it’s bad. I know I look nice and I’ve never had complex details in the past, but when I see myself at work I’m very sick. I hate my voice, my features, my profiles. Before it was worse but then with time – also thanks to analysis and therapy – it is getting better. Certainly the change in many aspects of my life has also had an influence, starting with the people I surround myself with who are among the most important things, because now I try not to care a little less. I like it when I have the opportunity to do things that are very far from me: in that case, when I see myself again, I feel authorized to appear in any way because that’s not Flavio, he’s something else».

On his personal social profiles he rarely shares private photos. Is it because of this conflictual relationship with his image that, despite being an actor of the new generation, he doesn’t have an excellent relationship with the web or is it just a matter of confidentiality?
«Surely it’s because I consider myself a reserved type, even if I’m not grumpy and pathological in privacy. I protect my private life, I don’t like sharing everything with everyone and I carefully select the people to do it with”.

Speaking of confidentiality: it is also in his private life. Is there anyone next to you at the moment?
«Yes, there is someone. My partner works in cinema but she is not an actress. I need to recharge my energy the moment I take off, because I invest a lot of it when I’m on the set where, inevitably, a mask is worn. My everyday life, on the other hand, is based on completely different rules, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the pace».

How is Flavio Furno away from the set?
«FI shop, cook, play guitar, watch tons of movies, go to the theater and hang out with friends. As I said, my partner also works in the cinema and we don’t see each other every day – maybe that’s the secret of our relationship! – so when we are together we also try to travel a bit. I’m not one of those who go to parties. Mine is a very normal life punctuated by daily rhythms, the same ones that are completely distorted when I work».

You were born in Naples and your first experiences in the theater were on texts by Eduardo De Filippo. How much did it cost you to have to leave home to pursue a dream and how much did you remain tied to your city?
«I was born and raised in the suburbs and there was a part of Naples, the true part of the Historic Center but also the bourgeois one, which I didn’t experience as a teenager. Maybe I took advantage of my passion for acting to run away, because my provincial reality was too tight for me. When I grew up, however, I realized that I was missing a piece and that there was a very strong call back home, even as an actor since I come from a city that has such a strong tradition. Today I recovered it. I hope to return to Naples soon and I believe it will happen soon”.

Among other things, Naples is now experiencing a great moment.
«It is wonderful to see this redemption, I am very proud of it. Having lived and still living outside – between Genoa and Rome – every time I return I have learned to experience the part of my city that I didn’t know as a kid: the real, intellectual, artistic one. And it is beautiful, Naples has become stupendous. The Times and the Guardian define it as the destination of 2023 and I understand why: it is pleasant even if chaotic, because tourists make themselves seen and heard».

During his career he has already worked with great artists: not only Nanni Moretti but also Laura Morante, Luca Ribuoli and many others. After the international experience of Cannes, is there also a dream of working abroad with any director in particular?
«I never imagined myself with a career in America and an Oscar in hand, but one of my dreams would be to be in a shortlist of European actors and work with some directors that I particularly love, some of them Italian too, such as Alice Rohrwacher, Saverio Costanzo or Peter Marcellus”.

Meaning what?
«In our country I have not been taken into consideration by some large productions to play the role of the racketeer and I had resigned myself to the idea that my face or my energy were incompatible with such a role. In the series in question, however, my character is really a villain. It was fun and it was a surprise even for me to realize that I could bring the evil of human beings to the stage. I like it when someone shows me things about myself that I don’t know».