Tedua “My first time as an actor for Caravaggio”

(ANSA) – ROME, OCTOBER 23 – “The costumes of the 1600s? Strangely, I was so at ease that I could go around even today”. The long hair, the earring of colored stones and the glasses with blue lenses, to speak is Tedua, born Mario Molinari, born in 1994, or the Mowgli of Italian rap (as someone calls him paraphrasing the title of one of his albums) , author of successes such as Wasabi 2.0 and Elisir but also of collaborations with Ghali, Fedez, Sfera Ebbasta, Rkomi. And from today also an actor.
It is he, in fact, who lends the face to Cecco, model, assistant, friend and lover of Michelangelo Merisi, making his debut in the new film that Michele Placido has dedicated to the master of light: “L’ombra di Caravaggio”, in theaters from 3 November with 01 Distribution.

“How did it go? It looks really good to me”, he enthusiastically tells ANSA, after one of the very first screenings at the Rome Film Fest. “As soon as I learned that there was the possibility of participating in the casting – he says – I immediately went down to Rome. I brought a monologue, but in reality I say that I improvised because it was my first ever audition for a film. I trusted more to instinct than to reasoning”.

A character who really existed in life as well as in Placido’s film, Cecco is the only one Caravaggio (played by Riccardo Scamarcio) can trust, the only one he can always count on.
“I had studied something about Caravaggio at school – continues Tedua – As Placido says, he is truly a rock star, an artist that I have rediscovered and who is always an inspiration. He took the models of his paintings from the street. Maybe today he would have been a war reporter Or maybe, why not, even the rapper. After all, rap starts very much from the ‘bottom’, just like the protagonists of his canvases. And then he went beyond the veto of the politically correct. He never drowned his passions, a mistake that sometimes it is committed out of fear of being oneself. Well, this is also what Caravaggio teaches today’s kids”.

Collected hair, wide-sleeved shirts and a very sweet gaze, “her” Cecco, on the other hand, “is almost the most maternal, most feminine part of me. I tried to capture the elegance of the women who raised me. He was a pupil, a adventure companion, a lover, a friend… I wanted to give it sensuality.

He is certainly a self-confident boy who knew how to love and stand next to a genius like Michelangelo”.
In a whirlwind of talent and curses, brushes and the Gospel, art duels and duels in arms, the one with Cecco was one of the many relationships established by Caravaggio, who today in the cinema almost seems to anticipate the theme of gender fluid by four centuries . “It’s true – comments Tedua – And I think this is the best way to do politics, touching people’s unconscious through an expressive work of art like a film”.

But in a roster of singers increasingly courted or enraptured by the cinema, from Emma Marrone actress to Tommaso Paradiso director, will this debut remain an exception for Tedua or has a second trend opened up in your career? “You have to strike while the iron is hot – he smiles – I hope to be able to continue. I say this without presumption, because I have great respect for this art”. Meanwhile we are working on the new album. “The most important of my career – he anticipates – It will be released in March, after Sanremo. No – he specifies – I won’t go to the Festival: maybe tomorrow. Today, rather, I would be more interested in shooting another film. Sanremo is an excellent catwalk, but it’s not the time for me to go there. It’s also a question of respect”. (HANDLE).

Tedua “My first time as an actor for Caravaggio” – Culture & Shows