Valentina Romani: “I learned to manage emotional tsunamis”

“VAlentina Romani senza filters”: we are faced with a volcano of words and emotions, counterbalanced by a desire to bring order to the flow of thoughts and emotions. «Do you know the Chinese morra? I am both the stone and the paper that surrounds it.».

Valentina Romani, queen of television series

Valentina Romani achieved fame thanks to the role of Roma Naditza in the Rai series out seabut he already had many characters behind him, from María in Pity a vanessa in the red door. The French miniseries will soon arrive in Italy bardot where is peggy – double the legendary BB – e At the end of November you will receive the Anec awards in Professional cinema days in Sorrento as an emerging talent in Mare Fuori and in Nanni Moretti’s Il Sol dell’Avvenire, where she played the role of his daughter.

Both the first season of out sea is the red door were led by Carmine Elia, who wanted her on the set of We are legendbroadcast from November 15 on Rai2 and RaiPlay and, starting the next day, on Prime Video: “A brave series that addresses the topic of adolescence, which is always important to talk about because it is a very delicate transition phase,” says Romani. «My character is called Lara, a girl who seeks the truth.along with five boys who discover that they have powers that are not always saving, because they can add more difficulties to an already complicated part of life.

Valentina only puts filters when her private life is mentionedwhich he defends with gentle firmness: for this reason he neither confirms nor denies the rumors that affirm this. paired with Nicolas Maupas, the “chiattillo” of the series Out to seaalso present in We are legend.

But in everything else he is as transparent as the teenagers he has been able to continue playing despite being 27 years old, thanks to his small frame and his character: «I have always been a spicy and curious person, even during my adolescence. It was constantly evolving. But I started working at age 18, catapulted into the world of adults and responsibilities.. “My parents taught me to distinguish between good and bad, leaving the choice up to me, which meant that for me the biggest transgression was telling a few lies about when I would return home at night.”

an italian family

Who is your family made up of?
There are four of us, my father is self-employed and my mother is a primary school teacher: I would like to be able to say that I inherited her patience, but that’s not the case (laughs). But in recent years I have been cultivating the rationality that characterizes her: she has taught me to be careful with what you say and how you behave with others. I think I inherited Dad’s character from her: we are impulsive, “in our guts.” It’s also very funny, when in high school I invited my friends to study at my house, they were happy to know that my father was there because he had court. My brother, who is three years older than me, became a personal trainer after his two careers and opened a gym where he also trained.

When did you know you wanted to be an actress?
At five years old! We have a family house by the sea where we gather every summer and, when my cousins ​​and I were little, I enjoyed improvising shows in the garden, making up stories and assigning roles. One of the reasons I chose to do this job is to be able to tell stories, and I have never stopped writing, it helps me put order in my thoughts. I also write poems, mostly addressed to my grandparents who are no longer with us: I am romantic and nostalgic, I create music made of unpretentious words. And rereading my feelings in this music goes through the deepest chambers of my feelings.

However, he once said that from time to time he feels like “a salami.” What did he mean?
I think I’m a good person: I’m not naive, but I want to have faith in humanity, and sometimes someone has taken advantage of that.

Have you ever had a #MeToo case?
No, but I consider myself lucky, because there are more people who have had this happen to them than are lucky like me. I think the movement served to act as a magnifying glass on an important issue, not only in my environment. On the sets there is a new figure, the intimacy coordinator, who protects us actors both in the most sensitive scenes and against any inappropriate attitude.

Do you see a change in the roles that are offered to you?
I’m glad to see that things are changing: lately I’ve been subjected to strong female roles, brave protagonists who don’t need to be saved. And I have chosen to join the Una senza centomila Foundation, which is responsible for listening to, welcoming and defending women victims of gender violence. I am happy to be able to act as a bridge with the new generations following the visibility that has been given to me in projects that embrace the youth environment.

Valentina Romani and the tsunami by out sea

I don’t think anyone expected the enormous success of out sea. How did you handle it?
It was an emotional but beautiful tsunami precisely because it was unexpected, and all of us, cast and crew, felt a responsibility to have exposed a young audience to important topics. I think I handled this tsunami well because I made sure my life didn’t change completely. Sure, if it used to take me ten minutes to go buy milk, now it takes me 25, but I could never escape the public that made me who I am.

went with out sea who said to herself: did I do it?
I don’t think we’ll ever get to say that in my profession. Maybe I’ll say it when I manage to graduate: after the linguistic baccalaureate I enrolled in Communication Sciences, I’m advancing little by little but I’m not going to give up, it doesn’t matter if it takes me ten years. or five, and if when I take an exam I feel vulnerable, while I am on set I am “covered” by my characters. University is a choice that I made both to not give up a study method that is also important in the approach of a script or a character, and to preserve a dose of reality that is essential for me.

What memories do you have of The sun of the future And Moretti?
It was an extraordinary experience, not only because of the participation in the Cannes Festival and because of the life that this film had in theaters, but also artistically, because I have always respected Moretti. I immediately got on well with him, he welcomed me into his “Moretti family” with open arms, and I, with my impulsiveness, threw myself into it, trusting him and his way of directing a set.

Now he will be part of the cast of the second season of the Netflix series Everything asks for salvation..
Which I can’t say anything about except that I’m very happy, I loved the first season!

He also prefers not to say anything about his private life, but we ask him two questions: what do you expect from a partner?
Respect and sincerity, characteristics that I look for in every relationship. Respect is the basis of everything, from there trust and bonds are built, and it includes common sense, knowing how to listen, and acceptance of what is different. Respect and sincerity contain mutual esteem and encouragement: love and friendship do not allow envy.

What catches your attention in men?
Kindness, an increasingly rare gift.

And in himself?
The way I preserve and nourish my roots. And recognize myself in what I do.

What relationship does it have with your body?
I would say positive, although in the past I have been attacked for my thinness, which is absolutely constitutional.

Did they think I had an eating disorder?
They thought I had a problem that I had no reason to hide, and here we enter an important area: on social networks it seems that it is allowed to judge others. In reality this is not the case, and being exposed for the work you do does not mean that you are made of rubber, on the contrary. Social networks have broken down many barriers, both positive and negative, and living constantly under observation leads us to be not so much interconnected but a little more alone. Furthermore, the hunger to chase everything that happens around us slows down our inner growth: we see every news item at this speed (he scrolls with his finger on his cell phone, ed ), we listen to voice messages on WhatsApp at accelerated speed. It’s disturbing! Especially since the “saved” time is not used to think, but to open another platform.

After having played so many, what advice would you give to a current teenager?
As a “big sister” I would say: never stop, but rather slowly reflect and give the appropriate weight to things, to people, to the words you say, to what you say about yourself and others. Many contemporary malaises are related to the difficulty of “reading” our emotions: we try to pursue life, when it would be enough to pause from time to time and remain suspended and watching. Sometimes reflecting for ten more seconds – the equivalent of reading an Instagram post twice – allows you to make your own evaluation without conditions, choosing what you like not because it is accepted by others, but because you really like it. We are contaminated by the stimuli that surround us and we must be careful not to get confused, to remain intact. This can only be done if we listen to ourselves: our truest personality lies in listening to ourselves.

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