Italian actor still having the time of his life
He may have a reputation as one of cinema’s original monosyllabic tough guys, playing Django in Sergio Corbucci’s 1966 iconic Spaghetti Western of the same name, but today actor Franco Nero couldn’t be more warm and charming.
Dressed in a white towelling dressing gown, longish hair slung back over his shoulders, the 74-year-old Nero is sipping a coffee between takes at a smart St Albans hotel.
It’s a setting vastly more in keeping with his role in new British movie The Time Of Their Lives as the love interest Alberto; all rich and raffish artist rather than grizzled gunslinger. In the film, Nero is torn between two women: faded glamour-puss Helen, played by Joan Collins, and Pauline Collins as dowdy Priscilla.
Does he think men change in their attitude towards women as they age? ‘‘Well it depends,’’ he says thoughtfully.
‘‘Of course, men appreciate beauty still. But as you get older you like calmer women. Not the ones who are a pain in the a...’’
He continues: ‘‘At a certain point you want a quiet life; a gentle way. Friends of mine, they have women who yell. A quiet woman, as you get older, is nice.’’
But, hang on, Nero is married to his long-time love, firebrand actor Vanessa Redgrave – she of political rallies and matriarch of the Redgrave-Richardson acting dynasty. Quiet?
‘‘Oh yes,’’ says Nero, feigning surprise. ‘‘Vanessa is much calmer at home.’’
Their love story is the stuff of silver screen folklore. The pair met on the set of Camelot in 1966, when he played Sir Lancelot to her Guenevere. He recalled some years later: ‘‘I see this woman with blue jeans with holes, no make-up, glasses. I asked the director: Are you sure you made the right choice?’’
But when Redgrave invited him to dinner, Nero, then aged 24, couldn’t resist meeting her and soon found his mind was quite changed. ‘‘A beautiful lady opened the door, and I told her I was invited by Miss Vanessa Redgrave. And this beautiful lady said: ‘I am she.’’’
Redgrave was mother to two girls – Natasha, then 3, and Joely, 1, by director Tony Richardson – but the couple began a relationship that ended after the birth of their son, Carlo, in 1969.
In the nineties, after many years apart and other liaisons on both sides, they rekindled their romance, and pledged their love by marrying on the last day of 2006 – 50 years after they first met. The couple now split their time between his farm near Rome, and her London home. ‘‘We have an incredible relationship,’’ says Nero. ‘‘We talk every day, discuss the family, even when we are doing different things. And then we get the whole family together in Italy. It is a great and large family.’’
That clan includes Carlo, a screenwriter, his wife and child, plus Joely, now 51, and her daughter Daisy Bevan, 24, who also acts. Then there is Micheal, 21, and Daniel Neeson, 20 – the sons of Natasha, who died in a skiing accident in 2009, aged 45.
When Natasha married actor Liam Neeson in 1994, it was Nero who walked her down the aisle. He says: ‘‘I consider her sons my grandchildren.’’
Redgrave’s daughter, Joely, also appears in Time Of Their Lives. ‘‘It was so good to spend four or five days with her.’’
Nero’s character in the film, Alberto, is a reclusive millionaire widower, and sharp eyes will spot that the framed photographs dotted around his villa are of Nero with real celebrities over the years. He has met almost everyone, it seems, including Yugoslav statesman Marshal Tito, who invited a young Nero to help kick-start a film industry. He has known Joan Collins since the sixties too, first meeting her when he was filming Camelot. ‘‘She was so nice. We have been in contact for many years.’’
Nero has had the good fortune to work with many fine directors, including John Huston (The Bible: In The Beginning), Guy Hamilton (Force 10 From Navarone) and more recently Quentin Tarantino, making a cameo in Django Unchained.
Currently, Nero is working on the true story of a blind man from Turin, who was able to draw an accurate face from listening to a person’s voice and became a ‘‘hostage to TV – the sort of talentshow circus. I want to show how TV takes advantage of people’s misfortunes to draw an audience.’’
He’s also pessimistic about Italian cinema. ‘‘We were the first; now we’re the worst. The world used to learn from Italian cinema and directors, now we only have a few ... TV ruined everything.’’
Does he think an Italian audience even watch a movie like The Time Of Their Lives, which has an older cast?
‘‘No, they wouldn’t accept old people. They just want cheap comedies.
‘‘It’s not really a comedy – more a road movie and a little bit sad and bitter. But we hope we will make you laugh and maybe shed some tears, too.’’ – Telegraph
The Time Of Their Lives (M) is now screening in New Zealand.