TORONTO – Not long after Michele Morrone appeared on “Belve”, where he expressed his grievances about the Italian Film Industry, the 365 Actor was cast in the new movie The Sicilian. The film is set to begin shooting in Sicily and Canada this September, with Swedish filmmaker Amir Chamdin directing. During his interview with Belve’s Francesca Fagnani, Morrone griped about being left out of Italian Cinema due to [what he believes is] a combination of politics and snobbery. Specifically, that he didn’t attend prestigious acting schools and that his political views don’t lean left.
The charge is speculative of course. But what is clear is that Morrone’s career has included taking roles that some Italian and Italian-American Actors have avoided. Namely, mobster roles. In his breakout role Morrone played Don Massimo Torricelli, the mob boss of a Sicilian Crime Family (365). In The Sicilian he will play a family man with a “shadowy past”, who clashes with the first female boss of the Cosa Nostra in Corleone, Sicily.
It doesn’t appear that Morrone has any reservations about satisfying the Italian/mafia stereotype. Nor is he obliged to. Most actors, if they’re honest, would agree that a good job is a paying job. However, Morrone has also expressed that there’s only one actor “better” than him, and that level of assuredness – if it’s sincere – should welcome challenges. That is, testing his acting range beyond portraying good looking criminals.
He would likely disagree, noting as he did in a 2020 interview with Elle Magazine, that “it wasn’t easy to act like a Mafia guy. You know I am not a Mafia sex addict, right?”. Contrast that however, with what actors like Pierfrancesco Favino and Stanley Tucci have expressed about playing mafia stereotypes.
Favino, an ardent advocate for cultural authenticity in films with and about Italians, has stated, “there was a time when I was often being offered roles [in American films] with a very stereotypical Italian-ness that I didn’t feel like representing. I would like to be able to debunk this cliché that Italy is all about pizza, mandolins and the mafia”. For his efforts, he was cast in films directed and produced by Oscar winners like Ron Howard, Spike Lee and Brad Pitt.
In Stanley Tucci’s early days, he played a mobster in several productions like Miami Vice, It Could Happen To You, Kiss of Death and The Public Eye. “There was this huge prejudice against Italian Americans as there has been against so many ethnic groups in Hollywood…I went through a period where I refused to play anybody connected to the mafia. I didn’t do it for like ten years”. Tucci’s efforts eventually landed him an Oscar nomination for his performance in The Lovely Bones (2010).
Morrone may have a while to go before reaching such targets, as The Sicilian filmmakers are happy to further exploit Corleone’s infamous mob history. Conversely, the town of Corleone is fortunately promoting anti-Mafia initiatives and educating the public about the fight against organized crime.
(Credit for Morrone photo, Edward Berthelot/GC Images – Credit for “Godfather” photo, courtesy of Paramount Pictures)
Massimo Volpe is a filmmaker and freelance writer from Toronto: he writes reviews of Italian films/content on Netflix