He grew up among Gigi Proietti, Antonello Falqui and the Garinei-Giovannini couple, observing as a child that world of stages that would mark his entire life. Filippo Laganà, born in 1994, son of the actor Rodolfo, carries within himself that same passion for variety shows, which he now pours into the new series “Minimarket”, released on 26 December on RaiPlay. Here he plays Manlio, a boy who works in a supermarket opposite Rai but dreams of bringing his own show to TV. “Manlio goes through a thousand vicissitudes, but he doesn’t let himself be discouraged: he is the daily hero that we all have inside,” says Laganà, creator as well as protagonist of the series.
Actor and author, Laganà is also equally determined. At 31, he manages projects ranging from acting to production, up to the family tavern in the center of Rome, gaining tenacity even in personal trials: the illness he faced at a very young age, due to Wilson’s disease, and that of his father, who has been living with multiple sclerosis for ten years. “After what I’ve experienced, nothing scares me anymore. I can’t stand those who say: ‘it can’t be done'”, he explains. It is no coincidence that alongside him in the series is Kevin Spacey, a two-time Oscar winner.
Manlio has no intention of giving up his dream. What challenges do you face?
“Manlio comes from a rich family: his father is an accountant who keeps telling him ‘but why are you wasting time?’
Is being an actor a difficult job?
“It’s a strange job. You love it when you’re not doing it and you hate it when you’re in it. From the outside it seems easy: you learn a few lines and off you go, but it’s full of difficulties. Let’s be clear, it’s definitely the most fun job in the world: one day a doctor, another an inspector. But it’s complicated because you end up working every day for two years and then staying still for months. Sometimes you try alternatives – like cooking in my case – but then you come back here. It’s impossible to do without it.”
Kevin Spacey? It was a dream I had. One night I woke up and sent him an email. The next morning he replied: ‘Let’s talk about it’
At your side is Kevin Spacey. What’s it like to see him star in a series that you created?
“A gigantic pride. He, in the role of himself, plays the role of imaginary friend and “mentor” which encourages Manlio to never stop believing in it. I will thank him for the rest of my life. Not so much for having accepted this project, but for the lesson they gave us in doing it: he was available, he helped me modify some parts, change scenes, improve details. Seeing him so human made me forget that I had an Oscar winner next to me: he seemed like a friend from elementary school to play with.”
How did you get to him?
“It was a dream I had. One night I woke up and sent him an email. The next morning he replied: ‘Let’s talk about it’.”
The first meeting?
“We were in Rimini. We left with a crew on the fly and shot an advert together. It was fantastic, there I realized that he was really there.”
In the second episode, Spacey – demonstrating self-irony – makes a joke about his “divorce” from Netflix. A clear reference to the legal events that involved him in recent years and from which he was later acquitted.
“Kevin Spacey is an extremely respectful person, exactly the opposite of what we have read about him. He has always been available to everyone, from the driver to the boy who brought the coffee. He could afford to ask for a restaurant, but he didn’t: he started eating a basket with us, on the sofas, playing at stealing the cheese from the one next to him. When, for example, he needed a suitcase, he went around Rome alone to look for a…”
At three years old I went behind the scenes with dad, together with the stagehands. Gigi Proietti, a friend, joined us for dinner. I fell asleep with his guitar.
It’s also there in the series your father, Rodolfo Laganà. As an actor and expert of the craft, did it discourage or encourage you?
“He always pushed me to do it. And I, obviously, always refused. Then, at a certain point, I enrolled in an acting school in secret: I took a year of courses without telling him anything. When, suddenly, they called me to record a series, I confessed it to them. He found out about Kevin Spacey, for example, at the time of the Rai launch of the schedules…”
For good luck?
“Because I want to be autonomous in things: I wouldn’t know how to stay in a place because someone put me there. I want to get there alone, even to the mistakes.”
Not everyone claims their “art” parents. Many think it can create prejudices or expectations. How was it for you?
“My family is crazy, in a positive sense. Dad and mum have built friendships with characters similar to them. I grew up with Gigi Proietti and Antonello Falqui, with Garinei who took me by the hand to the tables of the Sistina Theater to feed the goat on stage. These are experiences that have always been inside me, perhaps for this reason I don’t recognize myself in the show of my generation: I am linked to the classic variety show, to its quality. In the series there are Massimo Wertmüller or Paola Tiziana Crucians, artists who really did that type of theater, not my peers.”
What are your fondest childhood memories?
“At three years old, when dad worked in the theatre, he certainly didn’t leave me at home: I was behind the scenes, together with the stagehands. Then we went to dinner in a famous Roman restaurant. There the restaurateur improvised a cot with two chairs for me and I fell asleep listening to Gigi Proietti play the guitar. There were Giampiero Ingrassia, Alessandro Haber: they played, they sang. They played with me as if I were their age. Indeed, as if they had the mine.”
A family heritage.
“These are things that stay with you. How do you explain them? I did things with Spacey that he appreciated and that I had absorbed in life: a movement, a gesture, tricks that you steal with your eyes in a home context, which are not taught. My school was my home.”
“The illness changed my life. I suddenly grew up. Today nothing scares me anymore. Did a scene turn out badly? We cut it. They say ‘yeah but we don’t have any money’. Well, we’ll do it somehow. The problems are different”
For ten years your dad Rodolfo lives with multiple sclerosis. How are you today?
“Good. He does the same things as before, except now he has the excuse. Before he asked me to go buy cigarettes, now he does it with the excuse ‘eh, I can’t move’. He does exactly what he did before, only more comfortable: because he’s sitting down. After all, I’ve never seen him play soccer in his life…”
Playing down is one of your great strengths.
“He taught me that.”
The last few years haven’t been easy for you either. In 2019 the liver transplant arrived as an emergency, after the diagnosis of Wilson’s disease. Then many post-operative interventions.
“Out of spite. He’s not the only one who gets sick…” (laughs, ed).
Was that period just painful or did it leave you with a lesson?
“It changed my life, totally. I grew up suddenly. I found myself alone facing situations: not because I didn’t have help, but because I was forced by circumstances. This on the one hand created awareness in me, on the other it made me extremely practical and sincere: if I have to tell you that something is wrong for me, I no longer have problems. Sometimes, I realize, it can seem presumption. Certainly nothing scares me anymore today. Did a scene turn out badly? We cut it. They say ‘eh but we don’t have one. Well, we’ll do it somehow. The problems are different. It also introduced me to the world of transplants.”
What world is it?
“Fascinating, particular, adrenaline-filled. Unfortunately there is little information available, but at the moment there are 8 thousand people waiting.”
In short, a fantastic family, the work continues. And love?
“Let’s leave a mystery about private life. Everything is fine. She still tolerates me.”
Do you still participate in the family tavern?
“Every now and then I have to go and fix something. I go into the kitchen, it’s a great passion of mine. Basically I can’t sit still, it bores me. Now I’m in the editing room and we’re finishing the tenth episode. I already have an idea of what I’ll do next, but I can’t say it.”
With Roody Studios you deal with television productions. It takes resourcefulness.
“You have to be crazy. But if I wasn’t, I wasn’t doing all this.”
Today many young actors, your peers, experiment with comedy on social media. Have you ever thought about it?
“Social media sucks for me. I tried but they belong to me. Unfortunately, I’m a young old. I’m used to going to the theater. The preparation that theater gives you certainly doesn’t come from a mobile phone: when you’re in front of an audience and you’re waiting for a laugh that doesn’t come, well, that’s where you learn to improve yourself. I like working in a team, with the crew, listening to the memories of those who acted with Fellini, hearing the stagehand say: Okay, action”.
