In the Spotlight: Alessandro Calza
I saw CIAO (2008) some weeks ago and was really impressed both by the movie than the actors. Ciao is basically a movie based on its characters and their acting, and so I was very glad to see an Italian actor in one of the main role... even if I was a bit perplexed. Living in Italy and being quite a movie fan, I have never heard before of Alessandro Calza. How was that? Alessandro Calza is, other than a very handome man (and at 38 years old he is a man, not a pretty boy), and a good actor, also the screenwriter. So I decided to browse the net, found out that he lives in Genoa, and that he is Italian from Italy, so the real deal ;-) I obviously grab the chance to for once speak in Italian with someone else and then asked him for a little interview (this time in English); Alessandro is a very nice man and I think we, him and me, have many things in common, but above all I think that many of my online friends will love to know him better. So, my friends, I'm glad to introduce you, Alessandro Calza.
1) Acting is not your main career, am I wrong? How did you end being an actor and also screenwriter in CIAO?
Yes, I am actually a graphic designer. Acting and screenwriting is one of the things I always wanted to do. Ever since I was a kid. But of course it takes some work to turn a fantasy like that (hard, especially for somebody italian that wants to work in the US) into reality.
Practically director Yen Tan asked me to collaborate on the screenwriting and audition for the part.
2) Between being an actor / screenwriter and a webdesigner, what do you prefer?
I have been designing/drawing since I was a kid and later on I have been designing in different fields, from architecture to web to lighting systems and so on. I guess that's in my DNA and will ever be something I do on a daily basis.
But I always disliked the idea of being forced to stand on just one side of the fence.
The industry is full packed of 'gay creativity' that works behind the stage to make the world more appealing in different areas like fashion, cinema, music, design.
Modeling and acting is the way for me to keep the balance.
3) Do you have any other projects on in the movie industry?
There's a couple of things in the air but you know, it's the kind of stuff you can't talk about...we're all superstitious when it comes down with these sort of things.
4) I browsed your website, and found a lot of pictures, ranging from almost personal to professional shot... but I didn't understand if you are proposing yourself as a model, or if it's only for your pleasure ;-) Could you tell me something more about those shots?
What I am doing is self portrait. Photography is about a style (the photographers') applied to different subjects. Self portrait is about different styles applied to the same subject.
Using the same subject stimulates you to evaluate different ways of seeing the subject cause you easily exhaust your palette after you start.
It has a huge load of interesting implication.
Call it... visual twittering
5) I know that you are from Genoa and that you lived there when you were filming CIAO. And now? Do you still live there? If yes, how is it to live in a provincial Italian city while moving online in an international circle of friends? (I'm curious to listen to your answer to compare with my situation, I live in Padua, that, more or less, I believe is quite similar to Genoa)
I still live here. It is good and bad. Being in a very understimulating environment push you toward studying and self improvement. That's why basically monks live the way they do.
I think I unconsciously never made the choice to move somewhere bigger, more crowded and busy because I knew if I got caught in the stream of the big city, I would have never had the focus to do the things I like to do.
The internet is a good support. Today you can do things in a different way. It would have been impossible 20 years ago.
6) Want to tell us something personal about you? How old are you, what do you like, who do you like (this last is probably the question my friends want to know most of all ;-) )
I'm 38, born in Genova... I like a lot of stuff, in a way I can tell you through the years, there's almost nothing I didn't like sooner or later. Music, as 95% of the people, stay in the top 5 I guess.
Who I like...you mean men? Let's stay within cinema so it is easier. I like Colin Farrel in Tigerland, James Gandolfini in the Mexican, Mel Gibson in Mad Max 1, Jeremy Piven in Entourage... a broad range. I had a thing for Takeshi Kitano, but now he's too old :)
Colin Farrel in Tigerland
James Gandolfini in the Mexican
Mel Gibson in Mad Max 1
Jeremy Piven in Entourage
Takeshi Kitano
7) This year the Gay Pride parade in Italy was in Genoa. Did you attend?
It was the first time of the gay pride in Genova, it has been an important event. The parade has been fun and definitely sober, which is not surprising since Genova is the capital of understatement. Unfortunately I had to hear Lella Costa mixing up the spirit of the day with her personal views about the 2001 G8 events.
I hope this gay pride will be the starting point for the creation of a gay party which is neither left or right wing oriented but is just focused on the things we need as a communtiy.
---
Alessandro Calza is a webdesigner and has his own site www.ahunter.org and he says he is a nerd "I love Windows, I hate Mac. I love the two triads, ie Adobe: Photoshop / Illustrator / Indesign and Macromedia: Fireworks / Flash / Dreamweaver”.
The things he likes are, in order: "muscle, martini / campari, Leigh Bowery, grass, men, Levis 501, Ducati Monster 650, Microsoft, light & sound machine, I have already said men?, working between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m.". In 2005 he co-wrote and played a gay independent movie, CIAO, that is having a good audience at film festivals (gay or not) all around the world.
CIAO beautifully explores the difficult path to accepting loss amidst the hope of new beginnings. This somber and touching modern love story focuses on the incidental friendship between two strangers living in two different parts of the world. Their connection is sparked by the unexpected loss of a mutual friend, Mark. When Jeff (Adam Neal Smith) is left in charge of handling Mark’s possessions and tying up loose ends he stumbles upon one of Mark’s email conversations with Mark’s online Italian romance, Andrea (Alessandro Calza) and must tell him the bad news. With a trip already booked, Andrea decides to come and learn more about his recently departed friend. What begins as a tragedy that links two strangers from different ends of the world becomes a deeply realized friendship that may change their lives forever.
Gay Romance Movie: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/715953.html
Amazon: Ciao [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Australia ]
1) Acting is not your main career, am I wrong? How did you end being an actor and also screenwriter in CIAO?
Yes, I am actually a graphic designer. Acting and screenwriting is one of the things I always wanted to do. Ever since I was a kid. But of course it takes some work to turn a fantasy like that (hard, especially for somebody italian that wants to work in the US) into reality.
Practically director Yen Tan asked me to collaborate on the screenwriting and audition for the part.
2) Between being an actor / screenwriter and a webdesigner, what do you prefer?
I have been designing/drawing since I was a kid and later on I have been designing in different fields, from architecture to web to lighting systems and so on. I guess that's in my DNA and will ever be something I do on a daily basis.
But I always disliked the idea of being forced to stand on just one side of the fence.
The industry is full packed of 'gay creativity' that works behind the stage to make the world more appealing in different areas like fashion, cinema, music, design.
Modeling and acting is the way for me to keep the balance.
3) Do you have any other projects on in the movie industry?
There's a couple of things in the air but you know, it's the kind of stuff you can't talk about...we're all superstitious when it comes down with these sort of things.
4) I browsed your website, and found a lot of pictures, ranging from almost personal to professional shot... but I didn't understand if you are proposing yourself as a model, or if it's only for your pleasure ;-) Could you tell me something more about those shots?
What I am doing is self portrait. Photography is about a style (the photographers') applied to different subjects. Self portrait is about different styles applied to the same subject.
Using the same subject stimulates you to evaluate different ways of seeing the subject cause you easily exhaust your palette after you start.
It has a huge load of interesting implication.
Call it... visual twittering
5) I know that you are from Genoa and that you lived there when you were filming CIAO. And now? Do you still live there? If yes, how is it to live in a provincial Italian city while moving online in an international circle of friends? (I'm curious to listen to your answer to compare with my situation, I live in Padua, that, more or less, I believe is quite similar to Genoa)
I still live here. It is good and bad. Being in a very understimulating environment push you toward studying and self improvement. That's why basically monks live the way they do.
I think I unconsciously never made the choice to move somewhere bigger, more crowded and busy because I knew if I got caught in the stream of the big city, I would have never had the focus to do the things I like to do.
The internet is a good support. Today you can do things in a different way. It would have been impossible 20 years ago.
6) Want to tell us something personal about you? How old are you, what do you like, who do you like (this last is probably the question my friends want to know most of all ;-) )
I'm 38, born in Genova... I like a lot of stuff, in a way I can tell you through the years, there's almost nothing I didn't like sooner or later. Music, as 95% of the people, stay in the top 5 I guess.
Who I like...you mean men? Let's stay within cinema so it is easier. I like Colin Farrel in Tigerland, James Gandolfini in the Mexican, Mel Gibson in Mad Max 1, Jeremy Piven in Entourage... a broad range. I had a thing for Takeshi Kitano, but now he's too old :)
Colin Farrel in Tigerland
James Gandolfini in the Mexican
Mel Gibson in Mad Max 1
Jeremy Piven in Entourage
Takeshi Kitano
7) This year the Gay Pride parade in Italy was in Genoa. Did you attend?
It was the first time of the gay pride in Genova, it has been an important event. The parade has been fun and definitely sober, which is not surprising since Genova is the capital of understatement. Unfortunately I had to hear Lella Costa mixing up the spirit of the day with her personal views about the 2001 G8 events.
I hope this gay pride will be the starting point for the creation of a gay party which is neither left or right wing oriented but is just focused on the things we need as a communtiy.
---
Alessandro Calza is a webdesigner and has his own site www.ahunter.org and he says he is a nerd "I love Windows, I hate Mac. I love the two triads, ie Adobe: Photoshop / Illustrator / Indesign and Macromedia: Fireworks / Flash / Dreamweaver”.
The things he likes are, in order: "muscle, martini / campari, Leigh Bowery, grass, men, Levis 501, Ducati Monster 650, Microsoft, light & sound machine, I have already said men?, working between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m.". In 2005 he co-wrote and played a gay independent movie, CIAO, that is having a good audience at film festivals (gay or not) all around the world.
CIAO beautifully explores the difficult path to accepting loss amidst the hope of new beginnings. This somber and touching modern love story focuses on the incidental friendship between two strangers living in two different parts of the world. Their connection is sparked by the unexpected loss of a mutual friend, Mark. When Jeff (Adam Neal Smith) is left in charge of handling Mark’s possessions and tying up loose ends he stumbles upon one of Mark’s email conversations with Mark’s online Italian romance, Andrea (Alessandro Calza) and must tell him the bad news. With a trip already booked, Andrea decides to come and learn more about his recently departed friend. What begins as a tragedy that links two strangers from different ends of the world becomes a deeply realized friendship that may change their lives forever.
Gay Romance Movie: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/715953.html
Amazon: Ciao [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Australia ]