Vinicio Marchioni, certain nights

Vinicio Marchioni is good at keeping his secret. Which is a storm nestled in the stillness,
private pages that he writes in solitude and few have so far been able, or known, to read. For the
rest, he lives on a firm and elegant posture, on a controlled voice that only rarely gets stuck
in the stutter he carries with him as a child, a screeching of “esses” and “t”s largely healed
for merit in acting. Then there’s the gaze of a devoted husband and attentive father, lid
existential of a long and drumming career of successes: 40 films and twenty-five years of
active theater, just consecrated with the nomination for best actor at the UBU Awards for his Chi
is afraid of Virginia Woolf?, to be presented on December 12th at the Arena del Sole theater in Bologna.

In the orange scent of his Roman home (he and his wife, the actress Milena Mancini, have
freshly squeezed a few ounces of citrus fruit to relieve the flu for one of the two children) talks about himself while smoking
one electronic cigarette after another, with no desire to like or dislike, all present
to himself as if today and yesterday were two three-dimensional vases placed in the center of the table
both, without value hierarchies. These days he is on the Sicilian set of the Lions of Sicily, stretch
from the novel by Stefania Auci, a colossal project for Disney+. You just finished shooting Django,
the international Sky Original series directed by Francesca Comencini. And from December 1st it will be at
cinema with the comedy «aphrodisiac» Neighbors with Vittoria Puccini, Claudio Bisio e
Valentina Lodoviniwhere he plays the him of a couple who, between temptations of swinging and allusions
sexy, it will rekindle the eroticism of two sensually tarnished spouses. “Luckily we are
you live intimately and it has never happened to us to imagine it», he says, while his wife surrounds him in a
I hug, before going to the gym, «but the idea of ​​remaining open to the possibility excites me:
if I love my woman, and we both feel pleasure, why not.’

This domestic silence, this perfume in the air, are so much for an artist or
Am I always too little?
«A lot: because the little things, the moments of happiness, fill my soul. The rite of
breakfast for example, which if I can’t do it properly then I’ll be nervous all day.
Especially since I shot Ice and started being followed by a nutritionist and
personal trainer, former super-middleweight boxing champion Giovanni De Carolis. I put in
home the sack, the pear and the French ball, the one that is printed on your muzzle as soon as you miss a
blow. Because boxing is the closest thing to an actor’s life and profession: if you don’t slap them
you take, then you don’t acquire the strength to get up again».

Have you taken any real beatings, at home or on the street?
«From my mother many, growing up in times when parents broke the wooden spoon on your
legs, which fortunately is not used to do anymore. On the street, however, no, because they are never
was a lion heart. I grew up in the suburbs, in the Roman neighborhood of Fidene, and I liked it
to be in the midst of those who did butchery, people who dealt drugs and stole mopeds. But
rather than give it, I acted like a strategist. I became friends with the bulliest and coolest guy in the world
company and planned the punitive expeditions against the boys of the nearby villages, those of the
Tufello or Val Melania. But then, out of pure survival instinct, I pulled back when
fists flew. Even today, violence hurts and paralyzes me. And I have a terrible memory of my father and my grandfather fighting, a scene that marked me so much and I still recall
today in memory if I have to face violent roles. My boxing teacher says mine isn’t
fear of punches, rather fear of really hurting someone. And she’s right: they are
one who when his vein closes, he really can’t see anymore”.

Is this anger old or is it new?
“Very ancient. And I think in the end sport saved me. Then a literature teacher
enlightened that showed me that there was beauty out there too. And finally being an actor, which has me
given an identity, he gave me my place in this life.

His status on whatsapp is intriguing: «cyclothymic».
«I’m a humoral and I have no middle ground, it’s true. An enthusiast of life who uses optimism
to keep the monsters at bay: but when the down comes, everything is really black black. I lock myself in one
room and I become destructive towards myself, I begin to reason that we live thanks to a
star that sooner or later will go out, that we believe we are right about everything when we are only one
dot among billions of galaxies, and that the human being is a beast capable of committing the
worst atrocities. When I enter the maelstrom of these reasonings, I invoke extinction».

What comforts her?
«A poem by Ungaretti: Leave me as a thing placed in a corner and forgotten/Sto
with the four somersaults of smoke from the hearth. I do the same: in front of the fireplace, I look at the
flames, I get drunk on my own, and fuck the whole thing.”

Wine?
«If they are at the first stage of pessimism yes, a bottle or two. In more advanced stages rum and a
whiskey. Or vodka, which is the last step, that of true obnubilation».

And where does all this happen?
‘At home, in no danger to myself or anyone else. I close without bothering
no one, just asking that no one annoy me, under my understanding gaze
wife who, as an artist, is aware of the flights our souls need from time to time
Do. Nothing pathological eh, mind you. It happens on average every five to six months. And in a couple of
nights, everything goes away».

Among the symptoms of cyclothymia is cited the «poor judgment that can lead to
risky behavior or imprudent choices”. Does it happen to you?
“Not now, but it used to happen as a kid. At twenty I drank a lot and I’m almost in alcoholism
fell. And I have the memory of myself in front of an open window, on the seventh floor, with certain thoughts
ugly ones who ate me. Then maturity, children, love, erased everything».

In December and January the city of Ascoli dedicates a retrospective to her. In what sense such a
does honor leave you confused?
«It blows me away because I’m one who still wonders when someone calls him to do
this profession. A sort of imposter syndrome that makes me think that sooner or later yes
they will realize that I’m no good, and that everyone has been wrong in trusting me for twenty years. In the
monitor on the set I never see myself again, because I annoy myself. At public screenings I
I introduce myself, greet the spectators and then hide somewhere until the film is over: the times I’ve seen each other again I’ve been terrible. It’s something that devastates my soul.”

When everything goes well, like now, do you feel like destroying everything or protecting everything?
“I used to destroy, now I’ve learned to safeguard, and let fortune keep watching
on my side. But always with the fear that it will all end, with the knowledge that this
profession is a bit like writing in sand. I believe that to be an actor you need three things:
have self-horror, the sense of death and the shame of presence. Be pleased
of talent or one’s beauty is an insult to this trade. An effortless actor, for how
I see it, he’s always an asshole.’

I return to the room

Vinicio Marchioni, 47 years old. From December 1st it will be in cinemas with Neighborswith Claudio Bisio,
Vittoria Puccini and Valentina Lodovini.

The game of couples – Vinicio Marchioni with the cast of Neighbors. Valentina Lodovini, 44, the director Paolo Costella, 58, Vittoria Puccini, 41 and Claudio Bisio, 65. Marchioni is Salvatore, husband of Laura (Lodovini): the couple will make the neighbors downstairs rediscover their passion. The film is distributed by Medusa.

Cashmere shirt, Bonsai. Grooming Elija Gutierrez. Production & image consulting Romina Piperno.