Before landing his lead role in Tina Fey‘s Netflix dramedy series “The Four Seasons,” U.S.-based Italian multi-hyphenate Marco Calvani had not acted in over a decade.
Calvani, who was born and raised in the city of Prato, near Florence, trained as an actor in Tuscany when he was a teenager and has appeared in several Italian and international TV shows and films, including Tom Fontana’s series “Borgia” produced by Barry Levinson. But he gradually made the transition to becoming a playwright and film director.
“By the time I wrote my fourth play, I started to direct and I was like, ‘I don’t want to act anymore. It’s great, but everything I’ve learned as an actor, now I want to put it into writing and directing,’” he recalls in an interview with Variety.
His career as a writer-director gained traction in the early aughts after Calvani moved to New York, where in 2016 his piece “The View From Up There” was directed by Estelle Parsons in an off-Broadway production.
Calvani then directed his first feature “High Tide,” a queer romance set in Provincetown that premiered in 2024 at SXSW and stars Marisa Tomei, James Bland and Brazilian actor Marco Pigossi, who is his husband.
Last year, while writing his second feature, he got a call from his “dear friend” Colman Domingo, which led to Calvani’s U.S. acting debut in “The Four Seasons.”
Below, Calvani tells Variety more about his role as Claude, “the only non-American in the group,” and why he’s proud of starring with Domingo as a queer interracial couple at a time “when LGBT rights are again at stake and in danger.”
How did you land the role on “The Four Seasons,” having stopped acting?
While I was working on my second feature film a year ago, my dear friend Colman Domingo called me one morning and was like, “Hey, are you still an actor?” And I spontaneously said, “No.” And he was like, “Dammit, I really had a vision for you. Would you be open to put yourself on tape?” So I said yes, not knowing really what it was; how big it was. It would’ve scared me. It was smart of him not telling me right away. And then this thing came and I taped myself. It was a little scary because you see: Tina Fey, Colman Domingo, Steve Carell. So I put myself on tape and I met with Tina and her team two days later for a callback. And I went to the finals and got the job.
Do you identify with Claude, who is described as being charming but over-anxious?
I can’t say I identify fully with him, although I was able to pour into him lots of aspects that I recognize in my personality. I’ve been living in the U.S. for 12 years, and even though I’ve had all the luck in the world – I mean, how can I deny that right now with this show coming up? – there’s always something about being an immigrant in a foreign space. It comes with lots of opportunities, but also with a lot of responsibilities and dangers. It’s something very difficult to explain because it’s nothing really concrete, but it always feels that you have to earn the space that you occupy, that you have to demonstrate that you’re worth it.
I feel Claude is definitely the only non-American in the group. This really helped me to understand his over-anxiety and to make it a little bit more real. The biggest challenge for me was I didn’t want to play the usual Italian stereotype. And I didn’t want to play the usual flamboyant middle-aged gay man. How you do that, if you’re doing a comedy? It’s very hard not to do that if you are in a Tina Fey show and it’s a comedy. But if you look well and deep into the script, it’s really a perfect balance of those moments of laughter and emotional depth.
How did you navigate finding that balance?
Once I fully realized this aspect of Claude, his being an immigrant, I felt almost like I found my safe spot. I said to myself, “I know his heart. I know he comes from a good place. I know his fears. I know what he fears.” That really helped me; it anchored me, and I think it anchored my performance too.
I can’t remember the last time an Italian actor was cast as a lead in a U.S. production of this caliber. That aside, do you feel that your role as part of a queer interracial couple represents a milestone of sorts?
I don’t know if that was the intent [on Fey’s part] to emphasize the interracial couple. But it’s hard not to talk about this at a moment like this, right? It’s hard not to, when LGBT rights are again at stake and in danger. When immigration is again a hot-button topic for all these political leaders around the world, especially Trump. So it’s very hard not to focus on that.
I am proud of putting my face out there to play a character like this, in a show like this, at a moment like this. Because I don’t feel safe enough right now to go out in the street and protest. I’m honest, I’m here on a green card. And the fact that I can be a public gay person representing a gay character in a pretty successful interracial gay couple in a very mainstream show that is probably going to hit both blue and red states in equal measure makes me extremely proud.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Read the full article here
