Lorenza Indovina: “Me, Niccolò Ammaniti and Anna’s adventure, between instinct and emotion”

Three years after Miracle, which allowed it to be directed for the first time by Niccolò Ammaniti, Lorenza Guess returns to her husband’s side no longer on the stage, but behind the scenes, in a role of vital importance for the success of the project. In Anna, the new Sky Original series produced by Wildside, a company of the Fremantle group, in co-production with ARTE France, The New Life Company and Kwaï and available on Sky and NOW starting from 23 April, Lorenza is, in fact, acting coach, that is, the one who prepares the younger actors – in Anna the actors are almost all children and teenagers from 2.5 to 18 years old – so that they can get into their characters in the most natural way possible.

“More than a series, it was a journey of emotions in which I completely immersed myself” Lorenza tells on the phone from her home in Rome, explaining that she is “biased” but not for this reason unable to recognize the greatness of a project she has followed from the beginning.

He was with Ammaniti when, in 2015, he wrote the novel by Anna; was with Ammaniti when, in 2018, he started working on the script of the series with Francesca Manieri; and it was with Ammaniti when the long casting phase began which led to the choice of the (very good) actors who would join the cast. “I was one of the few who knew who and what he represented Anna for Niccolò, I was his perfect extension “ Indovina insists, pointing out the complicity with her husband on the set, the times she asked him to take another take because, having dealt with the boys for a long time, she knew when they could give more. “After the casting, which I supervised, we did a workshop with the guys to help them find the right way to touch certain strings on an emotional level. At the beginning they all had physical embarrassments, a thousand problems related to being in front of a camera for the first time: I proposed myself as an actress who had to play all the roles, trying to understand what was useful for them to tell the character ».

Who participated in the workshop?
«All the main actors: Anna, Astor, Angelica, the twins, Pietro and Nucci. We started in September 2019, about a month before filming began. Niccolò has built an excellent relationship with them, so much so that, little by little, I was leaving to let him manage everything. It was one of the best experiences of my life, what these kids gave me and taught me was crazy ».

With whom did you have more difficulty in relating between the actors?
«The little ones, when they are good, do not need anything. The older Astor, for example, had to be sent, while on the smaller Astor – which is the son of Maurilio Mangano, the casting director – we worked in a completely different way: we told him that the girl who acted with him did not her name was Viviana, but Anna. The little girl had incredible strength of gaze, we made her do the most absurd things and she didn’t have the slightest resistance. Like when we told her to go over to her mother’s skeleton and get him out of bed. ‘

That was one of the strongest scenes of the series: was the little girl aware of the emotional significance of what she was doing?
«Children are terrible because they don’t have those superstructures that adults have: for them it’s all a game, not like for us, who always seem to be having an open heart operation. Older actors, on the other hand, had a little more problems: Angelica was afraid of being bad even in real life, Anna had so many shame that we slowly tried to overcome ».

For example?
«One day I took her to a restaurant telling her to eat pasta with her hands and, after having looked at me very badly, we did it and she even enjoyed it. A simple gesture like putting your hand in front of your mouth when you cough can’t be done in the world of Anna: who taught them to the children? We have done a work of subtraction, taking away education, culture, but also the fear of the judgment of others ».

The biggest and, perhaps, paradoxical fear was that of shooting a series about a world where adults had been exterminated by a virus in the middle of an epidemic: at the end of the first lockdown, what were the kids like?
«The first lockdown came in a moment of general fatigue, and this allowed us to take a break that we all needed. We restarted filming last summer when the situation was calmer, and for the boys it was a joy to come back, by now we had become a family, even if we were terrified of the idea that they would grow up: Alessandro Pecorella, who plays Astor, often fell our teeth and every time we ran to the dentists to have them do the veneers ».

Is it true that the choral scenes were all shot before Covid?
«Yes, the things that remained pending were the sequences of Pietro and Anna at the reeds, that of the twins. We had to reinvent everything, so much so that we went from the eight scheduled episodes to the six we have made ».

The Blue tribe, which reminded me in some ways of the executioners of He saved 120 days of Sodom of Pasolini, has only one characteristic: to live without rules.
“There is no morality, there is no culture: only instinct and desire, a natural selection based on how strong you are compared to the weakest, a war without principles because no one has taught them. It should make us reflect on the importance of culture, memory and handing down ».

Can working with children be a nightmare as they often say in Hollywood?
“It can become a nightmare, but it always depends on who you are with. Giulia Dragotto, the protagonist, was also very good because I subjected her to very strenuous tests to see if she was able to withstand the rhythms of the set. I made her tired, I made her run, I tried to prepare her to make her more loose: if we had found a girl on the set who threatened to leave it would have been a tragedy. The key was to try to entertain her anyway: the selection was not only on the children, but also on the parents ».

You are welcome?
“Parents are often not easy to manage. Once they understand how it works it may be that they break up, they want to be there and have their say. Fortunately for us, we have had wonderful parents, and we are committed to treating their children as princes. “

A curiosity: was the elephant in the last episode real?
“Yup. He was a very old and very docile circus elephant. Before shooting we studied all the approaches, which had to be very slow, to ensure safety: it was beautiful, we all caressed it. In that scene, as well as those of Etna, there was a wonderful poetry and power ».

Anna is a series with children’s protagonists, but many scenes are not recommended for an audience of minors. Have you thought about it?
«Yes, even if, by submitting the vision of the series to several kids, we realized that they are really crazy. The boys are able to live the story with the right lightness that, unfortunately, we do not have. Certain scenes, like that of Astor who encounters the presence of his mother in the house, are pining for us, but they do not live them like this: paradoxically, it is the elderly who are more impressionable than the children, who see them. Anna as it really is, that is a fantasy, the story of two kids who are looking for freedom ».

Someone spoke of a black tale: does it share?
“It is a fairy tale in which there is a lot of light and a lot of hope. Among the stories of Niccolò, who took care of all the details – there is no color, from the walls to the objects, that was not chosen by him – I think it is the brightest one ».

Reassure us: will you work on other projects together?
«Niccolò has a lot of fun: he spent fifty years indoors writing his stories, something he continues to like and will continue to do, but now I believe that the director’s work has completely conquered him. There are so many ideas at the moment, surely his experience will continue: I can’t wait for him to do something else, but also for him to write a new novel ».

How do we work together?
«We have found the right way to be close to each other and to support us, we have found the right roles. In Anna I was a mediator between him and the kids and this was important for him because I was able to make his work easier. Now he wants everyone’s soul good, Giulia is now his little girl, and he is very jealous ».