While the ‘Walk of Fame’ committee was deciding on his nomination, Giancarlo Giannini made his own star. “I carved it on the driveway home. I thought: come what may, no one will take this away from me,” he smiles.
Every year about 30 artists around the world are chosen to dedicate a new tile on Hollywood’s most famous sidewalk. The Italian actor and voice actor was patient, he waited three years for his name to be approved and then two more for the ceremony to be set, which was postponed because of the pandemic.
“Finally here we are,” he says excitedly at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, “for me it’s a great honor and I owe it all to Lina Wertmüller: I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have her to enhance me. We used to come here with movie pizzas under my arm to show them to a local producer. She was a genius, unfortunately under-appreciated in Italy.”
The red granite star dedicated to the interpreter of Pasqualino in the Oscar winning Seven Beauties, or the more recent Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace from the 007 saga is almost ready. It will be laid on March 6 at 11:30 a.m. (8:30 p.m. Italian time) a few steps from the legendary intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street, where the first Studios opened in the early 1900s.
It will be close to Gina Lollobrigida’s: “Not having worked with her is one of my regrets. Many, many years ago, she proposed that we do a Broadway play together, but then nothing came of it.”
Giannini had commented on the honor by saying, “In Hollywood they give me the star, in Venice they didn’t even give me a black cat.” He laughs it off, but confirms, “I’ve been nominated for an Oscar, won at Cannes, many Donatellos and Silver Ribbons but never a Lion. Generally, they say, ‘they give awards to dogs and pigs’..evidently that’s not the case!”
Giannini meanwhile picked up the Lifetime Achievement Award from Filming Italy Los Angeles, the festival created by producer Tiziana Rocca to promote Italian works and artists abroad, made with the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles.
Giannini teaches acting at Centro Sperimentale, the most important acting school based in Rome and is a member of its Board of Directors.
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