Giulia Elettra Gorietti: “Being rebellious was my salvation”

What you are about to read is the last interview that Giulia Elettra Gorietti releases from astigmatics. Our phone call, in fact, lasts as long as the journey that takes her from her home in Rome to the studio where she will be operated with the laser to eliminate the defect: “Being a hypochondriac, I read a bit of everything online, even the negative reviews that they say that after the surgery the astigmatism got worse, but my doctor is very good, my mother’s husband also operated on it »explains Giulia, exorcising the worry with a laugh and pulling out all the determination she has.

He has been acting since he was 14, taking the first steps in a career that, since Paolo Virzì, led it to be a status symbol thanks to Three meters above the sky to then continue in auteur cinema and television series with increasingly popular results. His latest work, She still talks to me, directed by Pupi Avati, should have been released in the hall only to then fall back, due to the pandemic, directly on the small screen, more precisely on Sky. For Gorietti it is a very special period of her life, not only because she has never been so attached to the baby Violante, the daughter she had with her husband Pietro Iemmello who, not surprisingly, throws a tantrum every time her mother has to leave the house, but also because in the last year she has embraced a type of philosophy, the Buddhist one, capable of making her reconnect with the world looking at the little things with a benevolent eye, absolutely optimistic.

What was it like facing this last year as a hypochondriac?
“I did a great job on myself and I improved a lot in many ways: I became much more positive and I owe this to Louise Hay’s books and to Buddhism. I found a peace that I have never had before, to the point of wondering what the old Giulia would have done in the face of this emergency situation ».

When did the need to rediscover this inner peace arise?
«Last year, when I moved to Las Palmas because my husband was playing in Gran Canaria. It was a rather special period, with the first closures after the summer and the work stopped: despite the fact that we lived in a beautiful house, I always felt subdued, not at all serene. So, in addition to spending time with Violi, I started waking up every morning at 8.30, doing stretching, having breakfast and then devoting myself to books, taking notes, questioning myself ».

After all, she, who made her debut at 14, perhaps never had a moment to stop. How much awareness did you have when you started this work?
“Zero. I came from rhythmic gymnastics, a very beautiful but also very demanding sport. I stopped due to an injury and because I felt too much pressure: I think I never really enjoyed the lightheartedness of those years. Cinema, in this sense, gave me the air I needed. If I went on it was because of my being rebellious, which was my strength: I was very unaware, but fascinated by what I could be. With acting, then, I had the imprinting on the first scene shot with Virzì. At that moment I realized my happiness, telling myself that I wanted to do that forever, even if my parents weren’t too convinced at the beginning ».

What did they want him to do?
«My mother was softer, in fact she married an actor, but my father was harder, he wanted me to graduate: I did Law, but I never finished it. In this time of pandemic, I also thought about resuming, but then I started working again: I do not exclude doing it, however, in the future. My dream was to become a marriage lawyer ».

Why own marriage lawyer?
«To defend women. In my life I have always lived this machismo, this discrimination just for the fact of being a woman, and it is something that has always pissed me off. Despite being a rebel, I suffered a lot: often the men I loved did not accept that I was an independent actress at that age. Since then, I have developed a great sensitivity on the subject ».

On Instagram, about Barbara Palombelli’s monologue in Sanremo, he wrote about it: “It is really hard to make mistakes being under the eyes of someone who necessarily wants to find something bad.”
“I may be unpopular, but that monologue thrilled me. When I see unfair criticism, I feel the need to have my say and that’s what I did. I didn’t see the malice in his words, he used his personal experience to say “girls, don’t be discouraged, I did it” ».

Does it have something to do with the fact that in your career you have played many free women, even from a sexual point of view?
“Certainly. Especially when I think that the greatest discrimination as an actress I experienced when I did Suburra and I have received many attacks from women. But I wanted to do that character precisely because I liked the idea of ​​transgressing. I also think of the controversy over Chiara Ferragni who supported Fedez in Sanremo, massacred because she is a woman who simply wanted to do something for her husband. Women who build themselves must be taken as an example, not denigrated ».

Isn’t there enough solidarity?
“More could be done. It is not just a female issue, but a cultural one: we live in a patriarchal society, and female solidarity is something we have innate, only we have forgotten it because those in charge have always been afraid that women would go further. . If they had allowed us to advance, they would have lost their strength. ‘

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It is love that keeps everything alive, as Avati recounts in She still talks to me.
“We have to keep dreaming. Before, it was necessary to keep the marriage together but today, even if things go wrong, you don’t have to hide them. The hope that a marriage will not break up is an important message that tells us to think positively, an example of beauty ».

She, for example, has built a beautiful family.
«Yet many times they stop me and say: when are you going to have a second child? When do you give your husband a boy? It is very bad to hear that. I would like to explain to all those people the effort I went through to get back on my feet and go back to work after the first pregnancy. I love Violante, it’s the best thing in my life, but for now I’m fine. If one day I want to, will I also be able to do it at 40, or will it be forbidden? These are my cabbages, and I’m really tired of chasing these macho clichés ».

It is everyone’s hope. Do you hope this for the future, to be free?
“I hope to play a significant role that embodies these principles and to build a more concrete path for the social: I want to commit myself more and more to women and their well-being”.

(Opening photo by Giorgio Pirrone. Jewels: Crivelli)

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