In Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia, Italian President Mariano De Santis (Toni Servillo) is nearing the end of his term and contends with a sense of purposelessness as he confronts executing his final acts in power: deciding whether or not to pardon two imprisoned individuals who have sent in petitions to his office.
Awards Buzz spoke with Servillo about reteaming with Sorrentino for the seventh time following past collaborations like the Oscar-winning film The Great Beauty:
“As you may imagine, this is a question that has been asked of me many times, and it’s a question that I accept with great pleasure, because obviously a couple as we are that is so prolific in the world of cinema is something quite rare. I might be able to summarize the reason that we have such a happy relationship. I think that it’s a challenge, because both of us like to face challenges, but they have to be challenges that are stimulating and interesting, and I would say that this last film is a very open and clear example of the way we tackle these challenges, and we also like the fact that we were tackling a politician. This person was a politician. We had done this twice before in the past, and this was a very stimulating challenge for us.”
He also reflected on how this is a rare instance of a politician who isn’t deeply flawed and unlikeable:
“This politician in this case, really does bring up in us a sense of liking. We do like him due to the fact that, as opposed to the politicians that you listen to on television or that you read about in newspapers, he refuses to be on a stage. He’s not going to make a spectacle of himself. He’s not acting. He has that determination, that fragility, that comes from his sense of sacrifice and service.”
Watch the video above to hear what roles he might like to play next and what he’s admiring from current Italian cinema.
La Grazia opens in theaters on Friday, December 5th.
