L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2014 www.italoamericano.com L'Italo-Americano 9 The many cultural identities of Alfred Molina MIchAEL TRAVERSA The destiny of character actors is that of secondary roles to the story but not secondary to the memory of the audience. They often shine brighter than the lead. People remember their faces and have trouble associat- ing them to a name or placing them in a movie, yet those are the actors that often do the best work, because they don't have the burden of carrying the movie and can build up an array of different characters. British actor Alfred Molina is one those actors. "I was a character actor from day one. When you're kind of my size and look the way I do, leading man romantic leads aren't going to come your way". He capitalized on his Mediterranean looks and throughout his career he played many different nationalities and ethnic roles. He was legendary Mexican painter Diego Rivera in Frida, an Iranian doctor in Not Without My Daughter, Russian Boris the Butcher in The Man Who Knew Too Little, a Frenchman in Chocolat, a Cuban in The Perez Family. He has been often sought out to play the foreigner, but it doesn't seem to bother him; Molina always sees it as an opportunity to pay tribute to his parents who raised him with respect to old traditions. I met him for the first time at this year's Emmy Awards. Surprisingly for an actor of his caliber, this was his first time attending the most important award show for tv. "I'm sixty one years old and this is my very first time," he admitted. While engaging in conversation he told me that his father is from Madrid and his mother from the Italian region Piemonte, "From Astigiano to be precise," to which he added in perfect Italian, "dove fanno il vino buono!" Red wine is his preference of choice, having grown up with Italian reds on the table. "I've always enjoyed the big reds from the north, Barolo, Dolcetto, Nebbiolo," he told me with a joyous smile on his face, probably already eye- ing the bar in close proximity to us. His fluency in the Italian language recently led him to an artistic collaboration with Scottish writer, comedian Lynn Ferguson, sister of popular tv show host Craig Ferguson, for a series of webisodes titled This Day Today. In that Molina plays the Italian American dentist, Fabio who, by continuously switching between the two lan- guages, recalls events on the given day in history and ends every bit with a wisecrack. It's an amusing departure from the dramatic roles he's known for. "Both my parents tried very hard to keep the old ways alive. My parents taught me how to speak Spanish and Italian." Although his exposure to differ- ent cultures growing up served him well in his acting choices and in his ability to do different accents, there was a time when he resented his heritage. When he was little he would be con- stantly picked on at school, other kids making fun of Italian cowardice during the war. Young Alfred wanted to blend in, be an Englishman like his classmates, getting to the point of claiming that his par- ents' culture wasn't his. His father taught him to appreciate history and that, as Molina recalls, it didn't matter how English he felt, an Englishman would always remind him that he wasn't. Lesson learned. When he decided to become an actor he could see a relation between the notion of pretend- ing to be somebody else and the experience of an immigrant. As an adult he developed a great love for different cultures in terms of the history, the art, the food, the music. In fact music has become a great passion of his and an integral part of his life. He always carries an iPod in his pocket to listen to in between takes; he's very fond of world music and the sounds from Africa. It shouldn't come as a surprise that he adores melodic music, which originates from his Italian roots. "My mother made me listen to a lot of the pop stars from the 1950s and 1960s, like Rita Pavone, Claudio Villa, Gino Paoli and I love Luigi Tenco." What may come as a surprise, even to fans of his work, is that he was in Raiders of the Lost Ark, marking his debut on the big screen. He played Satipo, the Peruvian guide who, in the iconic opening of the film, helps Indiana Jones acquiring the fertility idol in The Temple of the Chachapoyan Warriors. Twenty three years later he would reach masses worldwide portraying Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2, a role that he expressed interest in revisiting in future sequels and reboots. Molina has crafted a career that spans over three decades, my two favorite being An Education where he played the button-down father of ingénue Jenny and The Hoax, where he is the anxious sidekick opposite con man played by Richard Gere, always leaving a memorable mark. He gets his inspiration by the greatest of Classic Hollywood, such as Spencer Tracy and Cary Grant, "But, there's also an Italian actor I admire a great deal: Alberto Sordi." One of the greatest, indeed. Alfred Molina

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