For many artists, it can take years—a lifetime even—to understand what motivates their work. But for 23-year-old Francesco Serpico (Nino Sarratore on the HBO drama My Brilliant Friend), there was a clear connection to acting from the moment he took his first theater course as a 14-year-old high school student. “Acting is a necessity,” he explains. “It is, above all, an incessant discovery of oneself and others.”
Directed by Saverio Costanzo, My Brilliant Friend is one of a wildly popular quartet of novels by pseudonymous Italian writer Elena Ferrante. Set in 1950s Naples, it features a sprawling ensemble cast and intricate, heart-wrenching performances. In preparing for his role, Serpico says, “I fed on the stories of those who lived those years—my grandparents mainly—and the opinions of the most severe audience [members], the readers of the quadrilogy, from whom I collected expectations and hopes about the character and the filmic story.”
SWEATER Emporio Armani, Francesco’s own necklace, HAT Martin Luciano
SWEATER Sandro Homme, PANTS Federico Curradi
Nino is the shared love interest of the two main characters, Elena Greco (Margherita Mazzucco) and Lila Cerullo (Gaia Girace), young girls who grow into womanhood as the series progresses. To better understand Nino’s troubled relationship with his family, and with women, Serpico visited the Italian island of Procida, where he had spent many of his own adolescent summers and “often met love in the eyes of shy friends at the first heartbeat,” he says poetically.
But My Brilliant Friend goes well beyond stolen glances. The series examines the complexity of family trauma, the unbearable mistakes we make in the name of love, and the roles we assume to protect ourselves and others. Serpico’s character experiences romantic entanglements and even a kind of mangling of affections with the women in his life. “Nino’s relationships with women—derived from his family lexicon—are disastrous,” Serpico says. “Not only for those who love him, but also for those whom Nino loves. In a way, they are always frustratingly incomplete.”
Serpico has worked hard to create his own relationship to the character, and it’s had a profound impact on him. “For a long time, I suffered a suffocating overlap [with Nino], especially during the first seasons, when I was more inexperienced,” he admits. “On set, I was the only one who had the task of understanding and defending even his darkest sides.” Playing the role requires Serpico to be deeply introspective, but he aims to connect with Nino as a man first, and then a character to be played.
SWEATER Sandro Homme
Challenging as this kind of work may be, Serpico’s compassion for Nino’s foibles (and even cruelties) in some ways feels liberating to him. “The cinema lets you test yourself in the most disparate fields and dimensions,” he says. “Ultimately, the freedom of being is a constant exercise to which the actor is called.” It’s not liberation just for liberation’s sake, in other words; Serpico sees his art as a kind of communion with love. “I take care of myself and others by acting,” he says.
Despite the language barrier (English is not Serpico’s native tongue), his wit easily shines through in our conversation. Asked how he spends his time off-camera, the actor jokes, “I usually travel and do drugs. I’m kidding. I don’t travel as much.” Currently, he’s working on a short film that he’s written and produced. It follows the life of Michele Malasorte, an Amalfi-born trumpet player who comes of age in America. At its core, it’s the story of a young man exploring his creative depths, just as Serpico has in his own work. As he sees it, storytelling is a craft that goes well beyond the page and screen. “My hope,” he says, “is that cinema, art, and the whole damn world will finally create space for and give more attention to new generations—to their passions and their mistakes.” ❤
SWEATER Martin Hugo, PANTS Emporio Armani, HAT Martin Luciano
TOP and PANTS Ermenegildo Zegna
STORY CREDITS
PHOTOGRAPHY Eleanor D’Angelo, STYLIST Francesca Donnarumma, GROOMER Antonio Granato, PRODUCER Sophia Seymour, PHOTO ASSISTANT Carmine Covino, PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
Stefano Rumolo, SPECIAL THANKS Teatro Bellini and Alessandra Attena
HERO IMAGE CREDITS
SWEATER Sandro Homme
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