Luisa Ranieri

Actress

“Like the wind, I can be a sweet breeze and very warm, very summer-like; but I can also be a hurricane. I have both elements in myself”

Italian actress Luisa Ranieri admits she felt disbelief when she received her invitation to participate in this year’s Pirelli Calendar, but was thrilled to be asked to represent the natural element of “wind”, one she says marries perfectly with her own personality. She was also delighted to work with photographer Sølve Sundsbø, an experience she describes as “being embraced by him”. For Ranieri, the veteran of more than 30 films, including Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-nominated The Hand of God (2021), the biggest challenge of the shoot was revealing her true self, after 25 years of “hiding” behind a camera on screen…

“On a photo shoot, what is required is to actually give part of yourself as something to be captured, something to do with the moment and not with the story to tell. It’s difficult, especially for someone like me who is used to playing a character. You are naked outside, but also inside yourself”

Despite this sensation of feeling exposed, Ranieri has always enjoyed the process of being photographed, saying it gives her the chance to learn something new about herself.

“I remember as a girl watching this picture being made and thinking how completely different I looked from how I saw myself, my inner self in particular. It still happens today. I find it very interesting. Every single photographer gets something different out of you. Doing this job, I have learned a lot about myself. Working with pictures and images gives you something perhaps you don’t want to see about yourself, or you’ve underrated. I’m always learning”

Away from work, Ranieri, who was born in Naples, likes to retreat to the sanctuary of her home on the island of Pantelleria, often called “the black pearl of the Mediterranean” due to its dark volcanic rock. It is somewhere the wind is ever-present, reminding her of the untiring power of the elements…

“It is the place of my soul. It is very wild, with an imposing nature, and a sea that gets very rough because it’s in the Strait of Sicily, a place of extremes. It hasn’t become a crowded island, so you can live in long periods of silence. When I don’t work, my leisure time is spent reading, for which I need silence – and that’s my place.”