Riccardo De Rinaldis Santorelli, written on the skin

This article is published in issue 14 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until April 5, 2023

Sometimes it doesn’t take much to understand that the path that comes your way is the right one. TO Riccardo De Rinaldis Santorelli that was enough a tattoo. It was on the armor of the character he was soon to play a triquetra, Celtic symbol of balance between past, present and future or between mind, body and soul. The same one he has had on his right arm since the age of 18. He emerges from the black t-shirt, which on the day of the interview he wears softly over a pair of dark jeans. That role had to belong to him, it was written on his skin. That role is Samuel, a gamer involved in a teen action survival game Headshots by Niko Maggi. A bit’ Hunger Games*__ __*and a little more Squid Gameis Riccardo’s baptism in the cinema, between one TV series and another, between Light of your eyes (soon on Canale 5 the second season) e Living is not child’s play (on Rai 1 by spring), and after an international experience in Klem – Dutch manners.
Born in 1999, born and raised in Pavia, moved to Rome a couple of years ago, and arrives early: «To while away the time, I called my mother», he says, smiling even with his eyes. His sweetness authorizes the freedom to ask, explore, discover.

Why did he get a triquetra tattoo?
“Has he ever seen Witches?”.

The late 90s – early 2000s series with Shannen Doherty?
“Just that.”

It’s not exactly Gen Z.
“Maybe I’m an exception. After all, I like Jackie Chan’s films, the debuts of Michelle Yeoh and Brendan Fraser, Mina’s songs».

Let’s go back to the triquetra.
«Here, in Witches it represents the most powerful magical force and I am drawn to the occult. To the original drawing I added some Celtic runes that the druids used to read the future».

Does he have any other tattoos?
“Yes, two more. here (lift left elbow, ed) I have the writing Merakiwhich means putting passion into what you do, and below (show wrist, ed) a stylized turtle: I’ve always thought that the shell was his home just as my mother is my shell and my home. She’s the reason I’m here.”

You explain.
«As a child he took me to Milan to shoot commercials. I was the child of Pongo and Kinder, the baby model of Oviesse. As a teenager one day they called me to audition for a part, I had never auditioned before: I hated having to memorize the lines, moreover they were in Spanish; but in the end I went there and my mother, who also talks to walls, became aware of the agencies that acted as a link with the world of Roman cinema. “Shall we try, Ricky?” she asked me. I was 15, I attended scientific high school, I played volleyball, I wanted
become an astronaut and I wanted nothing else. My unconvinced answer: “And let’s try”. I started the Pavia-Rome back and forth, the castings, many castings, maybe 25, all with holes because the right dedication was missing, the accent was too Northern. Until they got me in the miniseries Do not lie, with Greta Scarano and Alessandro Preziosi. So, on the first day of set I took the road of acting and I realized that I would never leave it. Before, I swear, I didn’t know. Luckily my mother does. Same thing with my older sister: she felt that she would become a singer ».

Riccardo, don’t you sing?
«In Pavia I had a vocal coach for about fifteen years, then I moved and stopped: I don’t like remote lessons. But I’m not giving up on music: right now the soundtrack of my life is the R&B of Jorja Smith and SZA. I also listen to pop, Lucio Dalla and the Italian songwriting of the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties».

Do you miss Pavia?
“The right. In Rome, however, I have not yet found my dimension and I suffered from loneliness. It’s in my nature to shut myself up like a hedgehog, but being too alone is my great fear. Now I’m making an effort: to go out, to seize the opportunities. It’s part of a journey.”

Which path?
«In the past I had a bad relationship with the mirror. During my adolescence I had severe problems with acne, stuff from taking isotretinoin pills (derivative of vitamin A used precisely to treat severe forms, ed). Then, at a certain point, I didn’t accept my physique: I was attempting a career in fashion and I lacked the required measurements. Today they call her body dysmorphia (the phobia that arises from the distorted view of one’s appearance, ed). With the pandemic, all of this has been working inside. I accepted the advice of those who love me: I started psychotherapy, to meditate more, to tell myself in the mirror that I am a loved one. It’s better today.”

He is in love?
“I’m single and happy.”

When he was with his colleague Jenny De Nucci he shared a lot of your story. Would you do it again?
«I’m maturing and I’ve come to the conclusion that my things are mine. If they come out then, peace. But I wouldn’t post them on social media anymore. I have also archived many posts to have a more professional and less personal profile: I believe that there must be some mystery around an actor”.

Is there a lot of competition?
“There was more in the beginning”

The platforms have multiplied the opportunities, yet, perhaps, it is more complicated to emerge. Or not?
«Too much content promoted too little. And this abundance has an impact on quality, sorry to say. If for the second season of Light in Your Eyes we shot six or seven scenes a day, for Headshots it happened that a scene took three days».

The film has been called lo Squid Game Italian.
«Filming began when the South Korean series was still only one of the titles buried in the endless Netflix catalog».

Coincidence of the triquetra aside, was it difficult to get the role?
“They had another person in mind. I convinced them at the second audition».

And he ended up with armor similar to that of the Power Rangers and Iron Man.
«In the summer, in the woods near Viterbo, we melted away. But it was worth it. Unlike the teen series, which focus on the problems of young people, here the focus is on adventure, a rarity in Italy. Even my character, who is a homosexual boy, breaks away from clichés: for example, he doesn’t yearn because he has to come out. He’s engaged and participates in the death match to win money and leave for a holiday with his partner ».

Who’s in *__Living is not child’s play __*by Rolando Ravello?
«Lele, almost eighteen, attends a bourgeois school even if she doesn’t belong to Bologna well. The focus, however, is not the class clash: the comrades accept it. He makes bad head choices about him: he deals, he drinks. His parents, Stefano Fresi and Nicole Grimaudo, no longer recognize him and try to understand, but he, unlike me – who tells everything to my family – does not open up. Playing him made me feel bad, I looked in the mirror and thought: that sucks. I got scared, I’ve never felt like this before. The director reassured me: “It’s normal, it’s always you”».

It could happen again.
“After all, I hope so.”

Photo: Martina Scorcucchi
Styling: Veronica Bergamini
Grooming and hair: Claudia Blengio for Simone Belli Makeup

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