Joe Wright & Luca Marinelli Interview | On Mussolini: Son Of The Century

Wright: After the war and his death, Italians swept the whole fascist period under the carpet and pretended it never happened. There’s no Nuremberg trial, there’s no truth and reconciliation, though there were violent local retributions. There was no national reckoning. Is that fair to say, Luca?

Marinelli: Yes, there were few movies but I agree with everything you said.

Wright: It was decided in development of the scripts. The book is like a collage of different forms, comprising letters, speeches, telegrams, newspaper articles and fiction. At the beginning of the book, there’s a tiny bit where Mussolini is speaking in first person. The idea was expanded from that indication in the book. In a way, it was an attempt to portray Mussolini’s control over the narrative. As the show develops, especially in the latter four episodes, he loses control. As these autocratic characters gain power, they somehow lose control paradoxically.

Marinelli: I saw a lot of things, yes. It came naturally that I had to do something with my body. I began occupying a bit more space in the room. I was prepared to devote all my energy.

Wright: He ate a lot of pasta and pizza and sandwiches! (laughs)

Marinelli: Then there were heaps of propaganda material where his triumphalist aspect asserted itself. But there were moments where you could sense slips in the control. I tried to communicate it with the audience. I read books written by him and about him. One of the important ones was by Bandinelli. He was an archaeologist said to be a tour guide to Hitler and Mussolini. He wrote about things he didn’t want to but was obliged to see, the work of these two criminals.

Wright: It’s an interesting debate. I remember when George Bush was talking about the horrors of Abu Ghraib, he said those who committed those abuses had sickness in their souls and that they were evil. That somehow absolved him and all of us of responsibility. I don’t think that’s very useful. The idea of demonizing these characters isn’t useful for progress—personal or societal. We all have the potential for such darkness. It’s as if he were the shadow of masculinity. If we just say it’s a phenomenon and dismiss them as monsters, it’s purposeless. The truth is more immediate and it’s up to us to make the choice as to what kind of man or woman we want to be.

Marinelli: Among all of us, the work was beautiful and collaborative. I remember there was a line in his autobiography that struck me and Joe allowed me to retain it in a dialogue in the show.

Wright: It did feel like a great responsibility, and we all took it very seriously. As often as it happens when you’re making something particularly dark, the only way to get away with it is through laughter. There was a tight group of actors and crew and we worked 420 days for the shooting. There was a lot of love in the room, despite the fact that we were depicting a lot of hate.

Marinelli: A lot of the speeches in the show were his own words. I remember the parliament scenes being very tough. I really felt the violence and spite inside him. Artistically speaking, it was an amazing adventure, but the human and ethical side was difficult. One has to suspend judgement and say these words and be a part fictionally. But, as Joe said, we were a tight ensemble. There was great togetherness. We knew what we were going through and looked out for each other.

Wright: While working on the script, I would underline the parallels, which were too many. By the end, I realized it would be better if the audience was allowed to draw these parallels themselves. Certainly, the way in which Mussolini took legitimate concerns of the disenfranchised people and exploited them for his own gain is a major parallel. The amazing thing that Joe and the writers did was the combination of the past and present, music choices, the fourth-wall breaking. We tried to tap the fact that if you open your phone, you get all the politicians speaking directly to you.

Marinelli: Well, I didn’t change my perception. He’s a criminal. I concentrated mostly on the five years the series shifts through. There were a lot of different things about how the power ended in the hands of this man that really unsettled me.