'I'm not tied to beauty and I keep my breasts, maybe a little dropped,' confesses the former actress. She that she ran away from Tinto Brass, she let herself be 'seduced' by Cossiga. And she now she writes novels. The last one dedicated to the tragic story of a gay

Anna Kanakis, from fifteen Miss Italy to today: evergreen beauty Photo

Anna Kanakis has always been one that you remember. Mum from Messina and dad from Greece, she brings with her a beauty that is not at all obvious, colors and scents of seductive places like her smile. She could focus on the physical and instead, once more, she put her brain and passion in motion. Since 2010 she has left the entertainment world behind to devote herself to writing. And with her third book, do not judge me (Baldini + Castoldi, from 23 September), deals with a delicate topic. This, like his first two, is still a historical novel. Inspired by the figure of the French baron Jacques Fersen, a homosexual and cocaine addict writer and poet, who in 1923 took his own life in his home in Capri. - Photo

Why him?
'On the island I was walking around Villa Jovis, dear to the Emperor Tiberius, and I took the wrong road. I found myself in front of this large white temple that plunges into the water: Villa Lysis, the last refuge of Fersen. A girl made me visit her, taking me to the opium room which was the scene of the suicide. I was fascinated. I always go in search of lost souls, in the sense of derailed, suffering ».

What did you discover by digging around this character?
'I didn't know that homosexuality was a crime in England, France, Germany, Central Europe in the 1920s. In Italy Mussolini had, at first, coined the saying 'free ass in a free state'. He was trying to have the complacency of the homosexual world. He changed his mind as he went and allied himself with the Führer. Then the 'different' were deported to the camps, marked by a pink triangle that was the mockery of the National Socialists ».

Homosexuality provides the baron with isolation from his family and even imprisonment. He leaves Paris for his Italian retreat.
“He is fascinated by children who smell of masculinity. In Rome he meets Nino Cesarini, 15, an adult teenager. They stayed together for twenty years and he had transformed for Fersen into a sort of caregiver, protecting him from his vices. It was a love story '.

Legally, things have changed, but do you think there are still barriers to break down on the homosexuality front?
“We live in a strongly bigoted country. While working on this novel, I had the opportunity to get closer to homosexual friends and acquaintances in a deeper way. Daniele Miglietta, the painter who illustrated the cover of my book, is a homosexual now solved. He got married and lives in Bologna with her husband, but had a very complicated childhood. Mr Zan, with his bill, acted in terms of criminal protection and awareness in schools. It is not a fault to love a person of the same sex. Yet I still hear parents calling it 'uncomfortable' to have a homosexual child. I get angry. Homosexuality is just a different way of loving. And loving is not a fault ».

Anna, you left the show to get into writing. Because?
«I found my first book in my hand and it was like having conceived something, almost as if it were a paper child. When you are an actress you play a role, but you are part of a whole: director, cinematographer, screenwriter, and there are those who cut and those who edit. When you write, you don't depend on anyone. You are free. No, I have no nostalgia for the past ».

She was elected Miss Italy. It was 1977, she was 15, the youngest to win the title.
'Please! On Miss Italia a postage stamp and go. When I fly to a better life, despite her having done a thousand things, they will remember me for it! I grew up in one day ... I was on vacation in Vulcano with my mother and my sister and that evening they elected the miss of the island. Friends signed me up and I hid behind the columns: I was just a little girl! I found myself in Aspromonte to fight for the crown. I was sitting in the corners reading Salgari, the protagonist of a situation absolutely not sought. When they called out my name, my mother almost fainted. '

And how did you do it with the school?
«I attended the Cutelli classical high school in Catania and I returned there. He was heavily politicized. I remember my entry into this open space full of young people: I advanced with the books and they moved, in absolute silence. They disapproved. But what had I done wrong? I discovered the envy of others, the gratuitous malice. But by now I was the Kanakis Miss Italy ».

He got married when he was only 19.
'I met a young musician, Claudio Simonetti ( founder of the Goblins, author of the column sound of Profondo Rosso , ed). I thought he was the man of my life, but after two and a half years of marriage I opted to flee. I met the man of my life at 42 and we have been together for 18. With Marco ( Merati Foscarini, lord of finance, descendant of one of the last doges , ed) there is a relationship of absolute complicity and love. It came after a good time as a single, when I didn't want to know about cohabitation and marriages ».

I also remember the former politician and company manager Chicco Testa among his companions.
«Always people with intellect. The brain does not deteriorate, on the contrary it improves with age '.

The push towards the cinema was given to him by Tornatore.
“We used to hang out in Rome, we were friends, both Sicilians. I had avoided the cinema of showers, that of slightly erotic comedy. Peppuccio devoured my brain by saying that I had specks in my eyes, that is, that quick change of expression that is the joy of all directors. I debuted in O’ re by Gigi Magni, feeling totally at ease on the set. Then came more complex characters such as Maria Malibran for Bolognini, the great opera singer of the nineteenth century '.

I also have an audition for Tinto Brass. Confirmation?
'True. He convinced me, a very cultured man. But I left before I even got to the bare bottom. '

She has never exploited her beauty as well as she could have. No calendar, neither Playboy nor Playmen. The reason?
'Wanting to be an actress and living in a country where beauty is associated with stupidity, I also spent my time choosing the right characters to avoid being classified as the bellona. I always had to prove that I was better and my problem was dodging advances. For calendars, not being a venal woman, the interest was zero '.

It also had a political phase, at the end of the 90s, with Francesco Cossiga's UDR. How did it go?
«The President saw me a Door to door . I argued that actors cannot express a political thought because they are labeled and often derive professional problems from it ».

She was then considered a right-wing actress.
“But I've always worked. But I was a maverick, not being part of that privileged elite of actresses who declared themselves to the left to access a certain cinema called auteur, of the left in fact. Cossiga noticed me and the next day he called me at 7 in the morning to propose the cultural and entertainment direction of the UDR. “What if I get some professional retaliation?” I told him. And he: 'I will come under the Rai and I will make a huge mess'. My department worked harder than the others. I was also busy on a set, spending the night to stay in touch with the party ».

In this delicate moment for the country, would you like to return to politics?
«The passion has remained with me. But I'm in love with writing and I prefer to express myself this way. Of course I would like there to be more attention to civil rights, work. The programs are the real watershed, I don't care about the color of the shirts ».

Anna, changing the subject. Does it weigh on you not to have had children?
'No. I had one mamma bed who raised two daughters alone and always pushed me to build something in life. I spent it chasing my passions and the work distracted me. And then to have children you need inspiration and an inspirer. I met him after 40 and the children did not come. If it had weighed on me, I would have tried to adopt a child. But with Marco we compensate: sometimes I am his child, sometimes he is my child ».

You are in the years of full and conscious maturity. What relationship does it have with the passing of time?
'Marvelous. I am not tied to beauty and I do the minimum wage to be presentable, elegant. Furthermore, I am an intact prototype ( ride, ed): I have not remade anything, I still have my boobs. Maybe a thread went down, even though my husband says it doesn't. What I always take care of and do not turn off is the head. The engine of everything, even of passion. Not the butt or the boobs, rather the brain. But many women do not understand this ».

Source: oggi.it