GIOVANNI LOMBARDO RADICE
Skuespiller, født 1954 - Roma, Italia.
Michele Soavi, Ruggero Deodato, Antonio Marghereti og Lamberto Bava fikk han også jobbet sammen med under sin glanstid i Italia på 80-og tidlig 90-tallet.
Radice har smått begynt å invadere USA og dukker blant annet opp i Martin Scorceses GANGS OF NEW YORK og nyinnspilling av THE OMEN, riktig nok i små roller. Akkurat for øyeblikket befinner Radice seg i Turino, hvor han spiller teater, og på grunn av mye fritid på dagen, slår han gjerne av en prat med PIKNIKK MED DØDEN, dog uten kaffe.
PIKNIKK MED DØDEN: Okay, could you tell us a little about what kind of work you’re currently involved in?
GIOVANNI: I’m currently acting in a theatre play, ROAD TO MECCA, by South African play writer Athol Fugard, the one who wrote TSOTSI, the movie that won Academy Award for best foreign movie a couple of years ago. I am a very traditionalist Anglican priest involved in the story (a real one) of Helen Martins, an old lady creating strange and quite frightening sculptures in her garden and thus being rejected by the local community.
Last summer I have been in the last Pupi Avati movie, THE HIDEOUT, entirely shot in English and located in
PIKNIKK MED DØDEN: On stage or on camera; what do you prefer?
GIOVANNI: No, I don’t really have preferences. I love both, and can’t stay long without one or the other. On stage I like the fluency of it and the long rehearsals you don’t get in movies, but I’m not too fond of repeating the same stuff sometimes for months if not years, and I’m a bit tired of touring around, which is what we mostly do in Italy, going from town to town, up and down like gipsy troopers.
As for movies, I like the intensity the camera gives to your feelings and the atmosphere on set, everything’s so busy and alive. And I always get along very well with the crew, making jokes and so on. And with movies I travelled a lot abroad, which I love, but wouldn’t have done otherwise because I don’t like being a tourist. I want to work in places I go, and be part of a real context, even if briefly.
PIKNIKK MED DØDEN: You’ve worked with quite an array of Italian directors. Could you comment on the different styles of instructions you where given?
GIOVANNO: Look, honestly I have to say that Italian movie directors tend not to direct actors, which is something they aren’t prepared for, not being actors themselves (as many theatre directors are). To the point that, when shooting in English, almost ever it’s to say, some of them don’t have a clue to what you’re saying.
As for [Lucio] Fulci and Michele [Soavi], they were very different. Fulci, at least with me, was letting me absolutely free as for acting and only instructed me carefully in the zombie scene, describing zombies walk and zombies behaviour as if he had actually seen one….But he was very respectful and reliable. One always had the idea he knew perfectly what he was doing and the visual atmosphere he created around you was very inspiring.
Michele had been an actor, and a pretty good one I have to say, so he tended to direct you more precisely, always with this terrific strength and passion he has. I loved working with him, but it has to be said that we’re close friends.
PIKNIKK MED DØDEN: Lucio Fulci and Ruggero Deodato are pretty infamous of being harsh on the actors, in particular females in Fulci’s case. Did you experience any?
GIOVANNI: Ruggero was like the dog in the popular saying, he barked and didn’t bite, and was very funny at times, especially when insulting the crew (more them than actors in my memory). Lucio was an angel to me, so I can’t agree, but I did witnessed a furious yell at the young actress playing the girl in the car with me, sharing a joint, with the known drilling consequence. But he was perfectly right. The young thing was playing star and couldn’t afford to. I think he respected professionals and was quite irritated by “dropped in God knows from where”. But if we talk about production people…..Oh boy, he made them cry for good, I tell you!
PIKNIKK MED DØDEN: Looking back at your career in Italy at the time, what shoot was the best experience?
GIOVANNO: The most unpleasant was CANNIBAL FEROX for sure, Lenzi and the jungle at the same time is more than any human being can take at the same time.
Other movies were all quite pleasant. Maybe I remember with warmer affection GATES OF HELL (aka CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD), because we were a bunch of kids getting along very well and having a lot of fun. Michele, Antonella Interlenghi (God bless her eternal beauty), a young production assistant called Ian, myself….. Youth……
PIKNIKK MED DØDEN: Is there any directors you’d like to work with, but never had the chance?
GIOVANNI: How many pages do you have for this interview?...... ‘Cause it’s a long list, you know…..
Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Scorsese (can’t consider what I did in GANGS OF NEW YORK work), Spielberg….I could go on forever. As for Italy, but you probably don’t know them, there’s Nanni Moretti and Gianni Amelio and a lot of promising young ones who came out recently. But I do not have many chances because I don’t look Italian (and aren’t in great part). So…. I have greater hopes in USA or Germany. I would like a lot to work in France too ‘cause I speak perfect French. But they are very protective of their actors.
PIKNIKK MED DØDEN: What’s your proudest moment captured on celluloid?
GIOVANNI: The all role of King Herod Agrippa I did in 2000 for the Bible episode of Saint Paul. As for the horrors….Maybe some moments of Bukowski in CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE. When he gets out of hospital to go to the movies. He has something nasty in mind but wants to look quite okay with the guardian inspecting him. [Antonio] Margheriti said I played that moment in a Marlon Brando way. But he was such a sweet. Not bad anyway.
PIKNIKK MED DØDEN: Any other favorites from the Italian years?
GIOVANNI: GATES OF HELL because we were a bunch of young kids and had a lot of fun in Georgias swimming pools.
PIKNIKK MED DØDEN: Ignoring Lenzi’s CANNIBAL FEROX, is there any movie you regret being a part of?
GIOVANNI: No, not really. I just would like people stop saying I was in Joe D’Amato ELEVEN DAYS AND ELEVEN NIGHTS, not because I have something against porno, soft or hard, (I just don’t have…ehm… the artistic instruments required), but simply because I didn’t do it and can’t understand why people think I did. I guess there’s John Morghen in the credits, but in that case is some other guy with the same stage name (or his real one as far as I know).
PIKNIKK MED DØDEN: Based on your experience, what's the difference in the Italian and American way of making movies?
GIOVANNI: Organisation and money. The Italians are poorer but much more inventive, with terrific crews, people who can create a special effect out of a straw and a chewing gum. Americans organise everything in detail and in advance, and everything is very smooth. And they take much more care of actors in terms of comforts on set and so on. Which is very pleasant even if I don’t like to be exceedingly fussed around. I don’t like to be “attended” beyond a point and like doing things by myself. No star attitude you see….Antonella Interlenghi always scolded me on this subject. But she could have whipped me viciously, she was so pretty.
PIKNIKK MED DØDEN: What is the difference of movie-making today and 30 years ago?
GIOVANNI: Well, in Italy 30 years ago they were doing movies in a much larger number. I used to make three or four a year, but now it's just TV and maybe one movie a year. Money makes the world go round, you know.....and Italy is a poor country, even if pretending otherwise in the eyes of the world.
Don't get me into politics.....it's better. I would say that's just the problem.
PIKNIKK MED DØDEN: Do you enjoy being involved with the DVD-format, attending interviews, recording commentary and such?
GIOVANNI: I get paid for commentaries so I feel pretty well......And I don't care much to see my old movies, it’s not Vivien Leigh watching GONE WTH THE WIND over and over.
PIKNIKK MED DØDEN: How did you get the part in 2006’s THE OMEN?
GIOVANNI: I got the part very simply through two auditions in Rome with the casting lady, the second one with some director’s tips coming from Prague where John Moore already was. When they contacted me I think they didn’t linked me with my past, but I’m sure they did after the first audition and on set John Moore treated me almost like royalty. One of the kindest men I ever met.
As for the remake I confess I never saw the original, not being fond of the genre so I really don’t know. In general remakes of classics are hard task, but I can’t make comparisons.
PIKNIKK MED DØDEN: How was the make-up process during THE OMEN compared to, say, GATES OF HELL?
GIOVANNI: The preparation before shooting (which was done in London) was much easier, even if not my idea on how to spend a day, the actual shooting a nightmare. Six hours on the make up chair and the all day without even the space to put a cigarette in my mouth (and I smoke like hell).
PIKNIKK MED DØDEN: And last, any plans on visiting Norway?
GIOVANNI: God no....even if I would like to. But I never travel as a tourist so
I should get some work there. I'm quite a fan of your king you know and think you people maybe the best looking in the world.
Jøsses! Da sier PIKNIKK MED DØDEN adjø til Italias piskegutt for denne gang, og vi ønsker ham lykke til videre!
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