Michela Giraud: “After being in Nepal, I changed my perspective”

From Rome to Kathmandu, and back. What effect does it have? We asked Michela Giraudcelebrity endorsement Action Aid from 2021, in his second video with the non-profit organization: “It has been an intense and beautiful journey”. In the first video “Marriage is a thing for adults”, The theme was that of early and forced marriage in African and Middle Eastern countries. This time the field is wider and involves Michela Giraud in what one of Action Aid’s fundamental missions in 40 years: “Adopt a child remotely ”.

The interview also becomes an opportunity to broaden the field and talk about his professional commitments in the round, between new and traditional media: the new podcast “Gioconde”, Available on Spotify and YouTube, in which he talks about art history with the expert Maria Honorsthe film to be released on 7 November on Sky and NOW “The mammone“, his insane passion for “A Place in the Sun“.

Michela, tell us about “your” Nepal.

It has been an intense and beautiful journey. I needed it and I think Nepal has done me more good than them. What I got in return by making this video with Action Aid is a lot. In Kathmandu I really understood a lot of things. Confronting myself with this scenario led me to an elsewhere that was able to enrich me also from a spiritual point of view.

In the video the teachers and the children act in Italian. Was it fun?

It was amazing. I liked seeing the commitment of the teachers, so strong and so determined. I was impressed to see the extreme care with which the children had all studied their script. The fact that they all spoke in Italian, that they had learned the words so well, shocked me. They all were ‘a ball of fire, there. Then they organized an incredible welcome for me and to think that in that village there had been a flood just the week before, to think that these people, without running water and in conditions of poverty, took their time to welcome us, has very moved.

Michela Giraud in Nepal with the children of the Action Aid school

What does this experience leave you?

What you breathe between people, between communities. There is an inexplicable serenity for the difficulties in which they live. Perhaps because they have a very strong spirituality, a steady mental balance and they, in those conditions, are able to cope with everything. They manage to keep great care of their mind. Yes, this thing has changed me profoundly even if now at home they tell me: “But who do you think of them, Mother Teresa?”.

From 7 November, on Sky and NOW, “Il mammone” is released, freely inspired by the French comedy “Tanguy”. What film is it?

It’s a film I like, not just because I’m a co-star. It is a film that makes me happy because I say to myself: “Here is Michela, you really deserved that film”.

Because?

Because I remember having a good audition. And then there is Diego Abatantuono, who makes you laugh a lot. I tell you not to watch the film for me, but to watch it because he is there who is truly incredible.

“Il mammone”, from 7 November on Sky.

But you, how much are mammon?

No, I’m a daddy. I have immense good for dad. My mother, however, is my muse, and yet I had a wicked relationship with her like all girls of my age. There is this dualism that is always very strong, you depend on it a little and you suffer a little. My mother has a cynicism and a cruelty, in her own way, which is unsettling but also very funny. She downsizes me a lot, which is something that hurts but she also saved me a little.

Guy?

Maybe someone speaks well of me: “Ah, your daughter, how beautiful!”, She: “Well, beautiful, she is a type”. Or she comes close to me: “You are nothing special, but when you put on your make-up…”.

How much fun are you having with “Gioconde”?

Very, very much. I had this desire to make comedy one with my studies as a graduate of art history. And I must tell you, as with Action Aid, I married this brand for life (Person by Marina Rinaldi who produces the content, ed) who trusted my idea a lot. We had already done a lot of things with them, but the momentum after the traditional videos had run out a little. So when I proposed this idea, it was received with enthusiasm. I took my best friend, Maria Onori, and we started this adventure.

Michela Giraud with Maria Onori in “Gioconde”

About Maria Onori: was a star born?

I have always known that she was very good and it was great to let her discover it. We write the episodes together, in a scientific way, the most precise notional part is contracted to her, also because otherwise I would have had to study again. Then there are guests that we invite following the criterion linked not so much to fame, but to the care of the content and of what we are talking about, people who live on art and people who live talking about art. We will have Jago, Ema Stokholma but we also had Francesca Cappelletti, director of the Galleria Borghese in Rome.

You’re a big fan of A Place in the Sun: How Did You Take Susanna’s Death?

Very bad. They deceived me because I hoped he could be saved and they were also killing Roberto Ferri. I could not have endured two traumas in a single season, I would have made the pickets outside the Rai in Naples. To me, they are gods and people who don’t look at them don’t realize it. Even at the writing level, they are doing great things right now.

What do you prefer to do between generalist TV and platform?

I don’t make much distinction between the two media, but it is clear that the language is constantly changing. Which then, now, is a distinction that must also be made in the same platform because there is a big difference between my special Netflix or Lol on Prime Video, for example.

How do you work there?

I believe that respect for the public is fundamental. If I go in prime time on the generalist, for example, I can’t go straight but I have to somehow listen to who is watching me. In prime time, unlike platforms, I enter people’s homes without anyone asking me. Sure, I can let things go through and very often I do, but I certainly can’t break through. To break through on certain topics, I have my live shows. All these registers, all these possibilities, also stimulate creativity a lot. The lowest common denominator of everything, in the end, is always me.