2 April 2024
Acting is a world of emotions and discoveries. Emotions come from goals, and from what we as actors and actresses manage to convey to people.
The discovery is linked to profound self-knowledge and the ideal dimension into which actors and actresses enter, giving their uniqueness to the public.
This is how it is for Federica Sottile, an SRC graduated actress, followed by the Giorgia Vitale agency, and now busy on the set of the film “Mascaria” directed by Isabella Leoni and produced by Red Film for Rai. Federica is currently also an acting teacher in the Child class of the SRC Lab.
Federica teaches us that determination and confidence can give you the drive to do what you love, even if to study and grow you have to change cities and cross the strait.
In this interview Federica shared with us some steps of her journey in acting, from before she started to today.
How old were you when you started acting? And where?
I started attending acting workshops at the age of 15 in Messina, the city where I was born. Let's say it all started by chance. From the age of 4 to 14, I attended dance, then at a certain point I decided to leave. In the same dance school I attended, my mother met an acting teacher, because they had activated musical workshops. Without telling me anything one day he took me there to try. From that moment on I never gave up.
I started following musical, acting, diction and poetry workshops. Given the lack of participation, however, the workshops did not last long. I remember that at yet another interrupted workshop, I burst into tears and the director gave me the opportunity to continue by having individual meetings.
Why did you decide to undertake the Triennio Accademico at the Calabria Acting School?
I decided to undertake the Triennio Accademico at the Calabria Acting School, I don't know why. When they ask me why do you want to do this? Or why you persist in continuing on a road that is perhaps a little tortuous, a little unstable, I don't know exactly why except that it makes me feel good.
As a child I was always insecure about choices. Even now before doing something I think and think about how it should be, but I have always been certain that I wanted to act. I never gave up on the workshops, despite my shyness being the protagonist, despite homework and questions, because I was sure I wanted to do it. And after graduating from high school, I had no doubts about undertaking the professional study of acting. Confidence and determination led me to the Calabria Acting School and to start the Triennio Accademico. I moved from Messina, I started living in Calabria. I rented a house in another city.
What do you take with you from your educational path?
I carry the world of my educational journey with me.
It's not just about learning to act, about artistic growth, what I have experienced about myself is human growth. The SRC changed me as a person, because it allowed me to get to know myself, to know my strengths, but above all my weaknesses, what was wrong or what I could improve. With this school I have grown in every way. It was beautiful, a crazy route taken in Cittanova, a quiet place ideal for studying.
How did it go with the cast, how did you experience these moments?
When you finish the Triennio you find yourself in a jungle and the SRC prepared me to face it even before I met it. The world of casting director, del selftape, The CV, the agencies, I met him before, because during the course we studied Career Training and we interacted with directors and castings invited to the School.
And that is a great school. And the fact of preparing, of waiting, of standing in front and introducing yourself to a director who gives you instructions for doing the audition, this is great training.
I have always experienced it with great anxiety, because I am anxious myself, yet the School taught me to manage it and be more confident: when you know what to do and how to do it, you also know how to manage anxiety.
How did you feel when you were chosen? Tell us about your experiences on different sets.
I was chosen for the first time in a small role in the second year of the three-year course, for the film "L'interno" directed by Salvatore Romano. My first set. I was very nervous. I had to play a novice, it was beautiful and exciting.
Then the graduation short with Giorgio Colangeli, acting alongside him was also a great school. Immediately after graduation, “The Homecoming Party” arrived.
I didn't think the audition went well, as well as being anxious I'm also highly self-critical. And, fortunately, I was wrong. I got the part, and I got it because I had given the right interpretation, the one for which it was written, to a particular line. And I was chosen. I felt a very strong emotion. It was about a main character, that of Elisa, and the possibility of immediately putting into practice everything that I had studied and learned up to that point. Lots of stuff!
You also act in the theater, at the moment with the monologue "The world between your fingers" taken from the book "Novecento" by Baricco, and from the film "The legend of the pianist on the ocean". What changes for you between acting on stage and behind the camera? How do you prepare and how do you live the two experiences?
Theater is another world. A different language than the cinematographic one, but I really like it. The adrenaline that the theater gives you, being in front of an audience, feeling the warmth of the audience, the emotions and the vibrations, that only happens on the stage.
At school we had the opportunity to deal with and experiment with both languages. “The world between your fingers” is a good test. It's a monologue, so I'm alone with a musician doing a 50-minute monologue. And there the work is totally different. You have to work a lot on your body, on how to manage the scene, and above all you can never collapse! In the theater, you don't have the chance to repeat. There are no takes and therefore the responsibility multiplies. I have to be fully concentrated, but what the stage gives me is an enormous emotion. The energy and emotion are priceless. And when he's not there I miss him.
Why is acting good?
Acting is good for all ages. It's about getting dirty, overcoming insecurities, it's monstrous human personal growth. It should also be part of the educational path at school because radical change can be experienced first-hand at any age.
Three good reasons why a young person should participate in the auditions for the next Triennio Accademico of the Calabria Acting School.
For me there would be more than three, if I had to choose I would say:
- the training is also complete in the open air, because at the SRC disciplines such as clowning, fencing and horse riding are studied which are not available in other schools. I took lessons by the sea and among the centuries-old trees of the mountain and it was beautiful.
- Working and experimenting in nature is wonderful and Cittanova is ideal for following this path with serenity, away from the chaos and close to the sea.
- the possibility of dealing with the world of work during the Triennio itself. The possibility of casting, and being cast, of facing a set or a stage, as well as the possibility of doing theater shows, because the theater is just a few meters from the school.