We caught up with Italian leading man Niccolò Dallerba to chat working on Hollywood movies and life before Los Angeles. The Italian actor has been busy the whole summer delivering great performances with his passion and hard work in the film industry.
Hey Niccolò! Tell us a bit about yourself
Hello, first of all I want to say that I’m really grateful to be here chatting with you. It’s always a pleasure to share an important story that needs to be told and is never forgotten. I’ll try to be brief about my life so far before digging into it.
I’m originally from the stunning city of Florence Italy. I believe it’s one of the most beautiful cities in the world, with so many things that confirm my choices such as food, culture, people, and beautiful places. I’m really lucky to have a great family that always supports me with so much love. I don’t have siblings but so many cousins though, in fact I felt sometimes that I was never alone but surrounded by so many people.
I consider myself a funny curious human being, who loves to travel around the world and meet new people and different cultures. In 2019 more than one year in Australia which became one of the greatest experiences in my life, really changed my way of thinking and gave me a different perspective in so many ways to approach things.
I also think of myself as an artist first and a creative person who loves storytelling as an actor with moments of challenge or growth. I’m constantly looking for great adventures with giving all the passion that I have in this movie industry at the service of the audience. After coming to America with ups and downs, I received so many benefits and great opportunities setting my goals higher and higher.
A funny tale that comes to my mind sometimes is spending so much time of my youth in my room creating stuff/playing with Lego and my parents were afraid because I used to skip some dinners and always rushing to go in my room to play until I got bored.
You’re one of the lead actors in the movie ‘8:46PM. Harriet Arrives’, what is the movie about?
This is a movie that I’m super proud to be part of and it’s a story that everyone should see with people that you love, it also contains wonderful messages that the audience can take away. The narrative that our movie is telling with this story is one of the most important stories in the world.
The logline of this movie is:
Shaken by the social unrest in her community, a young girl witnesses a horrific crime outside her window and unwittingly beckons the spirit of Harriet Tubman to help her right some wrongs.
It’s indie filmmaking as is best, Aimiende Negbenebor Sela is a writer-director and producer of Nigerian descent, and her award-winning films have screened at numerous international festivals. Her screenplays have placed in several competitions including Screencraft, Hollyshorts, Austin Film Festival, Cinestory, the top 15% at the Academy Nicholl and the second round at the Sundance Writer’s Lab.
The producer of this movie, Ricky Rosario, has also spanned various commercials, films, and music videos. Ricky Rosario has worked with brands such as Harry’s, Wendy’s, Timex, and Disney. Ricky is a producer of many movies that streamed across HBO platforms and Netflix.
What character do you play?
My character in this movie is a police officer undercover, from LAPD Department. An undercover cop is usually a law enforcement officer who performs their duties while concealing their identity as an agent of the law. They are also called plainclothes police officers because the people they often typically perform their duties out of uniform. As we know, an undercover cop must have specialist skills like discretion, language, intuition, disguise, observation and of course crime scene management. Was a great and fun experience that gave me the conclusion where my job at the end of the day is about going into other people’s worlds, and really learning about them, respecting what they do, and hopefully stop judging what they do. Also, a very important thing is that as an actor we are pretending to do things, and sometimes in a scene or a project I need to remind myself where does the reality of the moment begins and where does it end?!?
Did you have to do your own stunts in the film?
Yes indeed, that was also a challenging and exciting experience to do in this project. As a police officer, my colleagues and I had to trained ourselves in the process of appearing more realistic and surer of what we were doing. Thanks to the stunts coordinator department which helped us to improve our skills and details by learning the knowledge of what it means to be a policeman. All the process during this movie was so meaningful and inspiring, I would love to do something like this in the future or even more challenging.
For this movie I had to understand better the nature of using a gun properly in a safe way looking real and able to do so, as well as know how to fall backwards without getting hurt.
What do you want people to take away from the film?
I believe there are so many messages that you can take away from this film. I resonated with this movie so deeply in so many ways and like I said earlier, it’s an important story to tell understanding the struggles of parents and younger generations in this time. The objective of our amazing Director is not to tidy up issues of discrimination and social injustice; but rather to consider the children terrified of those tasked to protect them. Consider them trying to wrap their heads around just how long eight minutes and forty-six seconds is.
The film’s tone is somber as dictated by its subject matter, but also by the familiar gospel hymns Harriet sings as she plucks each character out of their fatal situations. These songs, crucial because they open the audience up to a spiritual place within themselves, will allow them to feel safe, scared, and connected at the same time.
In the Director’s work, you’ll encounter fantasy, surrealism, some horror, comedy. Here, Aimiende Negbenebor Sela combining magical realism with animation to portray the wish the girl in this story has.
Her “one thing” that could change in the sequence of events to cause a different outcome.
The industry is currently on strike, SAG-AFTRA and WGA, how has that affected your workload?
Yes, my industry is currently striking. Being in Hollywood has been fantastic. I have completed so many projects and movies in the last couple of months but when the strike happened many of my future workload has been cancelled, and others in development or on hold until the strike is over. I’m more than happy and we must support this strike as long as necessary to do so, because we’re fighting for the survival of television and film writing as a sustainable career, period. This is a moment of history; this is a moment of truth that we need to solve and stand out.
How do you feel about the current strike situation?
I do feel that it’s an important topic and should be part of everyone’s conversation right now. We need to be respectful for what we do with fair contracts, and that’s why is a subject that really matters. We are talking about everyday working people who love their art and their craft who just can’t get ahead in this industry. Nobody on either side wants a strike to happen, but what must happen has to happen and writers/actors need to be compensated fairly, respected. It’s a basic idea that each work of art has value unto itself and it’s not just a piece of content, art over content I must say. And, if you’re thinking about what makes TV and film, and what has made it, and what will make it in the future, it’s the story, it’s narrative. That begins with the writers.
What’s up next for you?
More projects, more movies, more TV series! I have a lot coming up so I am hoping the situation will be resolved. I also have a few movies that will hit film festivals, so stay tuned!
How can people find and follow your journey?
