Nancy Brilli at 60: A Reflection on Beauty, Love, and Life

Nancy Brilli turns 60 years old, but her energy and her relationship with beauty remain unchanged, as she tells Adnkronos, on the eve of her birthday, next April 10. "I love beauty, I like being beautiful and I like beautiful people, if it were up to me I would help everyone create harmony. Of course," she admits, "the body is no longer what it was when I was 20 years old, but I care that it is healthy because I have to stay in shape a bit longer, for my grandchildren. That said, I am not obsessed with diets or with strenuous and daily workouts because, basically, I remain lazy." Sure, "you change over the years and if someone can give themselves a 'little fix' they do it," she smiles, "but the overhauls I see around make an impression on me: having been with a plastic surgeon, at that time everyone was convinced that I was all 'done up', just think," she says, "it was the first question in any interview. A nightmare. In reality, if one sees me in person, they see and understand that it is not so, but that fortunately I am very photogenic." Nancy Brilli at Pechino Express: "Sexism in cinema? It's still there, I've slapped away so many hands from my behind. Self-harm? I've resolved it." Among the stories, from childhood to adolescence to her first job opportunity, which happened by chance, there is also room for immense pain, experienced at only 10 years old, with the death of her mother. How was it? "I don't know," she responds impulsively, "because it was so great, tragic, and shocking, that my memory has completely erased it. Removed. I don't remember anything," she assures. "I have never, ever, managed to dream of my mother," confesses the actress, "and, at a time when I was desperately looking for a memory of her, I even tried hypnosis: no use. It's all buried under layers and layers of consciousness and has never come out." Brilli then tells of growing up with her paternal grandmother. A second mother? "No," her voice hardens, "a woman who only acted as a guardian, and because she was forced to do so. A woman who hated other women, who for her were all stupid or all no good, the classic Italian mother of an adored son." Male, precisely. There was no space for a woman, even if a child and orphaned granddaughter. "Perhaps, precisely for this reason, unlike my grandmother, I have an immense sense of protection towards women, especially those in difficulty," Brilli recounts, who has been very involved in campaigns against violence towards women or in initiatives in favor of women from difficult suburbs, like Scampia in Naples or San Basilio in Rome. Love plays a very important role in Nancy Brilli's life. "It's something that defines me, I care about people being well, I take care of people I know and even some I don't know, like my 12 adopted children at a distance in India, it makes me feel good and gives me a sense of helping especially women. You realize that this kind of love enriches you, and you always receive much more than you give." As for a romantic relationship, she confesses: "At this moment there isn't one, but I am not closed to welcoming it. Surely today I am much more selective, because after my last story, I wanted to understand why I always ended up with a certain type of people, why the talks and the fights always ended in a sense, in short, the why of these repetitions. And the answer almost always was my seeking at all costs a family. Until I realized that my family is my son, the very few true friends, who can be counted on one hand, for whom I would do anything and they would do the same for me, in short, the people of the heart. Unlike the blood family which is a lottery, a dice drawn, that you do not choose, the family of the heart you choose!" But today is the sixty-year-old Nancy Brilli happy? "What a big word!", she laughs. "For me, happiness does not decline in a constant manner. Let's say I am not unhappy, let's say that I definitely live a serene, positive phase, I am well, I have learned many things about myself and I have put them in the right boxes" with an 'operation drawer'. "I," she explains, "have a mental dresser where for example there is the drawer of friends, the drawer of those with whom you go to the movies, those you meet at the X Award and with whom you talk only about work. I moved a lot of people from one drawer to another, giving a different order. Perhaps before I would not have been able to do it because, having been an abandoned child, I needed affection at all costs and from everyone, I focused more on the quantity than on the quality of affections. Today I ask myself why I always have to please so much everyone, even those you don't even like? Today I am no longer interested in absolute consensus, unanimity. For this reason, from some drawers, I eliminated many fake people, who were worth nothing, who were next to me for some kind of profit. So, from the 60th onwards I start 'purification'.