A truck, a love podcast and an unexpected stay in the Sila mountains: these are the ingredients of «Cupid’s voice», a romantic comedy broadcast today in prime time on Rai Uno. The protagonists are Chiara Francini, in the role of the truck driver Paola, and Giorgio Marchesi, the persuasive voice of the podcaster Lucio. Directed by Ago Panini for the «Purché finisa bene» series, the film – shot entirely in Calabria with the collaboration of Calabria Film Commission and produced by Pepito Productions in collaboration with Rai Fiction – mixes irony and feelings in an on-the-road adventure that overturns stereotypes and looks to the heart. The cast also includes Michele Rosiello, Alessio Praticò, Roberto Scorza, Mattia Procopio. In this double interview, the two actors reveal how they built characters full of contrasts in breathtaking locations.
Paola is an unconventional character: a tough truck driver with impeccable nails and a sensitive heart. How did you work to unite these seemingly contrasting aspects?
«Paola does not hold two opposites together: she is that unity. We are the ones who need to pigeonhole it. The hardness in her is not a mask, it is a form of survival. The care of oneself, of the hands, of the body, is not affectation, but dignity, the right to bring beauty even into a tiring, dirty, masculine job. To build it I worked on a concrete, heavy physicality that knows what it means to load and unload, travel kilometers and get really tired, and at the same time on a tenderness that doesn’t apologize when it manifests itself. Paola doesn’t explain, she doesn’t justify: she loves, desires, suffers and drives a truck. The contrast is seen by the beholder; she simply lives.”
The “Armando” truck is described as Paola’s protective shell, the place where she can let her guard down, her refuge…
«Armando is not a prop: he is a character. It is the larger body that Paola enters to protect her own. Inside that truck she is alone and accompanied at the same time: she hears the noise of the engine and that of her own thoughts, which sometimes make more noise than the engine. It is his moving house, the opposite of the root: a walking shell. And like all real refuges, it is not romantic, it is full of smells, crumbs, tiredness. But that’s when Paola lowers her shoulders and stops being strong: not because she isn’t, but because there’s no need to prove it to anyone.”
Dropped into a traditionally male world, can Paola be seen as a symbol of emancipation and breaking of stereotypes?
«Yes, but not because he makes speeches about emancipation. It is because he doesn’t ask permission. He doesn’t make the revolution by declaring it: he makes it by working, loving, desiring, making uncomfortable decisions and paying the price for his own choices. She is a woman who does not dress up as a man to be in a man’s world: she remains a woman, with her lipstick smeared after an endless day and with untamed feelings. It’s not a poster, it’s a person. And I believe that today the real break is precisely this: to stop thinking that strength comes through the imitation of the masculine. Paola doesn’t break the stereotype: she empties it by simply living her life.”
From the cockpit to the recording studio: let’s now move on to the words of Giorgio Marchesi, or Lucio, the radio “voice” that makes the hearts of thousands of listeners beat.
Leader behind the microphone, Lucio suffers from aphonia and insecurities in his private life. Was it complex to prepare this double dimension of the character?
«It was complex work, but also very fun. His drama is never experienced in a dark way and the tone of the comedy helps to dilute this suffering. Lucio is an insecure man, even if on the outside he appears confident: this double dimension was the most interesting thing to build. There is a common fragility, that of having to respond to the expectations of others and of not always being able to show ourselves for who we really are.”
Your character is forced to fake a romantic relationship with Paola for image reasons…
«The tone of the comedy made everything very funny, even when working on set. I really liked playing a side of the character that is very far from me, the more cynical one, which for reasons of image and personal success comes to “use” a relationship. At first, Lucio seems to move from a position of advantage, almost of control, as if he is taking advantage of the situation. But then something different happens: it is Paola herself who offers him tools to get to know himself better, to question himself. So what begins as a constructed, calculated relationship turns into an unexpected path, in which the roles are reversed and a more authentic truth emerges, especially for him.”
Romantic comedy and genre cinema atmospheres. How did you go about getting the right tone with director Ago Panini?
«Ago Panini immediately won me over with his enthusiasm, his energy and his great spirit of collaboration. He had a very clear idea of the film he wanted to make, but at the same time he listened to the actors’ proposals. Ago brought a very strong imagery: we were in Calabria, but at certain moments it seemed like we were in the USA. This visual dimension was fundamental, as was the work on photography. Added to this is the wonderful Calabria, with incredible, beautiful, cinematic locations. A very close-knit group has been created among us actors. We were also “isolated” in a hotel in the heart of Sila, in December, almost like in The Shining: these are those conditions that, if the group is right, unite us even more. And that’s exactly what happened.”
