Aleteia interviews "Cabrini" actress Cristiana Dell'Anna

Aleteia EN

Aleteia reporter John Burger speaks with Cristiana Dell'Anna who protrays Mother Cabrini in the new film "Cabrini"

Transcript

00:00 (dramatic music)

00:02 - The Jesuits dug here and on the south side,

00:05 so we will start from the north.

00:07 They dug every 15 meters.

00:09 We will have to dig every 10 meters.

00:12 Habilia, establish two shifts and work your way south.

00:17 The other children can also help

00:18 when they're free from class.

00:20 In the meantime, we will make the river work for us.

00:27 (dramatic music)

00:29 Understanding her psychology and letting that kind of

00:48 flourish on its own by adding pieces of information,

00:56 it was very much part of the process

00:59 and to create a soil for the tree to then grow.

01:04 So I had to wait a little.

01:08 It was a long process, but eventually it worked out, I hope.

01:12 (laughing)

01:15 - Christiana, you're from Naples.

01:17 Do you have any family stories of immigrants

01:20 to the United States, particularly New York?

01:22 Any possible connections with Mother Cabrini?

01:26 - We as Neapolitans, we are all immigrants.

01:29 We do say that.

01:32 In Neapolitan, (speaking in foreign language)

01:35 There's one song in the movie,

01:38 sang by Liam Kampora.

01:40 He's one of the actors.

01:41 He plays Enzo.

01:42 And that's in Neapolitan.

01:48 And I've known that song for my entire life.

01:51 We grow up knowing that we are people, immigrants,

01:55 that we've always been.

01:58 And yes, there is, as in probably every Neapolitan family,

02:03 there is a story of immigration.

02:06 In my case, not particularly to New York, but to Brazil.

02:11 They went south to South America.

02:13 It was very popular at the time.

02:14 And in fact, probably the biggest part,

02:17 the biggest percentage of people who emigrated from Naples

02:20 and south of Italy actually went to Latin America

02:25 rather than the States.

02:26 But yes, there is.

02:29 And I still have family in Brazil.

02:32 Some of them are in Brazil.

02:33 Some of them have moved between Spain and Portugal.

02:37 But yes, there is a lot of that too in my family.

02:42 So I know what it feels like and what it means.

02:48 - So what kind of challenges were there

02:50 for you doing this role?

02:52 Can you speak about challenges that you encountered

02:56 in preparing for it or during the filming or anything?

03:00 - With this particular project,

03:01 I really wanted to make sure that I was there,

03:05 ready every single take we did.

03:10 And I think I was, and that was, it was exhausting,

03:15 but also very rewarding

03:17 because at the end of the day,

03:18 I could just fall asleep peacefully because there isn't,

03:23 yes, of course I have favorite takes and favorite moments

03:28 that might not have ended up in the final edit,

03:30 but I was sure that my work,

03:32 I wanted my work to always be,

03:37 if not perfect, near perfect,

03:41 because I felt the responsibility of the whole story

03:46 and of the character.

03:48 I wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing.

03:51 So that was a bit of a challenge, really.

03:54 - I think that comes through, actually.

03:58 But I wanted to ask you,

03:59 what were some of the most satisfying moments for you

04:01 in working on this film?

04:03 - It was this, it was exactly this.

04:06 The fact that I always felt I was her.

04:08 There wasn't one moment when I just thought,

04:12 oh, okay, I was a little bit,

04:14 there was a higher percentage of Christiana in that scene.

04:19 No, it was never me.

04:23 There was a very, there was a bit of me somewhere.

04:26 There's always a bit of me, but it was mainly her.

04:29 And I just think probably the Senate scene

04:34 is the one scene I feel mostly proud of

04:38 because even in that speech,

04:40 there's a few lines I wanted to add.

04:43 I wanted it to be very meaningful

04:45 because a woman who comes, who bursts into Parliament,

04:49 no, in the Senate, not Parliament,

04:51 and speaks to all these senators, men,

04:54 in such a powerful way,

04:57 it isn't something that happens,

04:59 that happened at the time every day.

05:02 In fact, it never happened.

05:04 It's a historical, very important piece.

05:07 It's a very important piece of history right there.

05:10 And it's very true, apparently.

05:12 It's something that has happened for real in real life.

05:15 So I was very proud of it.

05:18 And it was satisfying at the end of the day to,

05:21 I had to repeat that speech over and over again,

05:26 over and over again.

05:28 And it was always a long shot.

05:29 It was never cut.

05:30 You see some cuts,

05:31 but it was always done in a way

05:33 that I had to go through the whole thing.

05:35 So it was very much a theater piece for me

05:38 than anything else, which I loved.

05:40 I love and I was trained for.

05:43 So yes, that was very satisfying.

05:45 At the end of that day, I was,

05:47 I just felt, oh, everything else is gonna be so easy to do.

05:51 We shot that scene halfway through.

05:54 So the rest of the shoot was like,

05:56 it was much, much easier.

05:59 And I could,

06:01 I could invite more people over at my place for dinner

06:07 and more enjoyable time outside of set

06:10 to discuss the day and enjoy what we did.

06:13 Before that, it was, I needed to,

06:15 I'd just be with my husband and relax.

06:18 But after that speech, it was very easy.

06:23 (silence)

06:25 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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