Lodo Guenzi: «I live dissatisfied»

The moment we feel Lodo Guenzi he is in Carpi, forced to deal with a viral conjunctivitis which – he says – has transformed his face into a balloon. «Now I’m better and I can start losing face again», jokes Lodo, ​​engaged in the theater in a new version of Mousetrap, the show inspired by Agatha Christie’s thriller translated and adapted by Edoardo Erba. It is a choral story that sees a group of strangers stranded in a hotel while a snowstorm is raging outside and several murders are taking place inside until a policeman – Lodo Guenzi – manages to reach them, starting the investigation.

For Guenzi it is a demanding period, but very rich: on November 24 we will see him at the cinema in the film La California by Cinzia Bomoll with the great Piera Degli Esposti and Elenora Giovanardi, premiered at the Rome Cinema Fest, and on 1 December on Prime Video in the comedy Suddenly Christmas by Francesco Patierno, alongside Diego Abatantuono and Violante Placido. The fans, however, are also waiting for him in the new album of Lo Stato Sociale arriving at the beginning of 2023 on which Lodo Guenzi has his lips sewn but not too much, as you will discover in this interview.

Didn’t she get conjunctivitis from too much stress?
“I was born a victim of a certain vacuous horrors: as soon as I stop, I get anxious because I can’t do anything. I don’t know if I would have been healthier by working less.”

He’s a workaholic, then?
“I’m a workaholic like all the maladjusted children of capitalism: I’m a runaway who lets himself be bitten by hungry monsters to bring home some results even if, once obtained, I never really enjoy it”.

Solutions to get out?
«Beyond the 7 years of psychoanalysis that I have done, there aren’t many solutions. It’s a first-world problem.”

Do you consider yourself ambitious?
“On and off, yes. The partially bankruptcy broke out in the early years of the band, when our political action was to bring different music to a higher number of people than what the market was intercepting at the time. Then this race became more about the number than how you achieved it, and everything changed from there. Today there are more complicated ambitions: between theatre, cinema and music there is the idea of ​​showing myself capable of doing many things, and who knows if it’s worth it after all».

In Italy it’s a bit bad, given that those who master more than one art as she does are viewed with suspicion.
«Which is not far from those who said that Italy is a country that takes you seriously only if you take yourself seriously. There are openings, such as the operations attempted with Emma and Elodie that made sense to me. The problem is that, unlike them, I have never been able to sing».

He often says this, but did not deny him success.
“Because I’m a good actor. I’ve always been the one who comes in and tries to make things happen, trying to recover that unpredictability that you have in the arts that you can’t do».

Now he has returned to his first love: acting in the theatre. How is it going?
«It is a particular text: I say it like when Berlusconi said that to be magistrates you had to be mentally ill. Being my mother’s son, a true judge – not of X Factor, everyone’s good at that – I can tell you that the feeling you get when you watch the show is that we’re all people who went through some trauma or humiliation as a kid. To try to live, the only solution is to wear a mask, which is a way to hold court, to banish fear and anguish».

First time wearing a mask?
«At the academy, measuring myself against the Commedia dell’Arte, I remember that, being from Bologna and the son of a professor and a judge, I absolutely did not want to wear the mask of Balanzone. When I put it on, however, I felt that it is the mask that chooses you: it was a founding moment, the proof that in my path trying to be something different from who I am would not have taken me far».

On paper, he seemed destined for a completely different career, right?
«I grew up with a certain sense of conflict with the authorities: the scholastic and the legal ones. It seemed very natural to me not to go to university for this reason, including law, since my mother didn’t want me to do it.’

Wouldn’t he look good despite his gab?
“I would never have had the character to take responsibility or not for people’s freedom: I don’t have that strength there”.

And then he went to the academy.
«It was the only possible way to demonstrate to my parents that I was doing something. When I graduated, however, I realized that the stage was the place from which I had to escape as quickly as possible ».

Because?
“Nothing was happening. I was acting in front of a few people while I saw friends playing and talking to live people: so I went there. I think I saved my life that way: maybe, if I hadn’t, we wouldn’t be talking about this show today.”

He did the academy in Udine: do you think you escaped from Bologna?
“If I could, I would have stayed in the city. I wouldn’t have wanted to go to big cities like Milan and Rome: I invented something that didn’t exist and this ensured that I had enough interlocutors to try and say different things».

So Bologna has never represented a gilded cage for you?
«We Bolognese are mammons: Bologna is a very small big city and a very large small city, a unique place in the world. You have everything, but it’s a big spit, we all know each other. When you go to big cities, you miss it».

Does he still live there?
“When I’m not at the hotel, yes.”

How was he as a child?
«I filled the space with fantasy. I had an imaginary friend, a telephone that I called L’Amico Roma. At one point I remember wanting a brother, but I changed my mind when I was 11: I felt the need to be alone at different times of the day. Today, when I’m with others, by personality I tend to entertain, but being alone and not talking helps me a lot».

Isn’t it ever scary to confront your own thoughts?
«A bit yes, and that’s why I have my escape routes. I am very passionate about basketball: every day I watch NBA games and it helps me».

Play, too?
«On the pitch, but I’m scarce. Where you can’t excel, at best you can have fun».

Since he was so imaginative as a child, what did he want to be when he grew up?
“I realized pretty soon that I liked being on stage. I liked attending junior club shows on vacation, so I let that thing pick me. Going on stage and making something happen I think that’s what comes most naturally to me in the world.”

You often say you want to make things happen: if nothing happens, how do you feel about it?
«Basically it’s not possible that nothing will happen: I haven’t always managed to make shows capable of leaving a mark in people’s lives, but I know that if you embrace this thing here – standing in front of a thousand people in this gallows – you’ll make it happen some things. Forgetting words is too. One time, before I went on stage, I was pissing myself off, and it was a great concert. How to make love between people who love each other».

A very romantic answer.
«I think I’m romantic in a few moments of the day and week: those in which I write and say something».

As a child he painted: now what?
“Not anymore. And it’s a shame, because I was talented. However, being an only child and painting was perhaps too much. I was too lonely.”

Is art beautiful when it is shared?
«Being alone and then holding court in front of so many people is an electrocardiogram that makes me feel good».

We will see you at the cinema in November: do you ever see yourself again?
«Not so much, but I’m nostalgic: years later it’s easier to go and recover a video of a concert, of an old thing, watching it like a holiday film».

At what level is your self-esteem at this point in your life?
«I’m a big cagacazzo: on the one hand I’m a mythomaniac and I think I can do anything, on the other I can never be exalted by any result, even if it’s sensational. I’m perfect for living dissatisfied.”

Has therapy helped you overcome this dissatisfaction?
“I think it’s a very long job to really get out of it.”

Meanwhile, in 2023 the new album of the welfare state arrives: excited?
«The feeling is that we managed not to make a record for 6 years without getting eaten up by the times on the market and by having to say one thing at all costs, even missing a series of trains. It’s better to miss a train for a good reason than to get on it for a bad one. I believe that 2023 is the right year to gather strength and go out ».

A train you missed?
“The most important thing is that we are free: no one can tell us where and for whom to play, no one can set a price”.

Does independence have a price?
«Pasolini would say loneliness. The five of us are middle-class and this allowed us to say no even to those who offered a lot of money to control us for the next five years. Having financial security has allowed us to do things our own way.”

On a personal level, however, are you as free as you would like?
“No. I’m a slave to so many things I want to prove, fueled by the fact that I don’t know exactly who I am.”

What does he want to prove to himself?
«That also in other fields I can say relevant things for the public».

Anything you’ve learned from the past?
«I learned to play and a little bit to sing. You learn a little something, by banging your head on it».

A curiosity: has seen more X Factor after being a judge?
«I saw the edition after mine and I remember thinking that there were no good setters for Mara Maionchi, who is a formidable spiker. I haven’t seen him this year, even though Dargen is a very intelligent person and Ambra is a friend.’

In your career you have ticked a thousand boxes: what is left out?
«I’d like to do the technical commentary on the NBA commentary. Can it count as a petition?’

To receive the other cover of Vanity Fair (and much more), subscribe to Vanity Weekend.