When, in 2018, she was chosen by Saverio Costanzo to interpret Raffaella (Lila) Cerullo, the very intelligent girl in the TV series he directed, The brilliant friend – as we know, from the homonymous bestselling tetralogy by Elena Ferrante translated and appreciated all over the world – Ludovica Nasti she could not have known that this role would change her life. He was eleven, he went to school and starting from his Pozzuoli he had done it without thought the audition with more than nine thousand girls like her. “I did not think about it anymore, but one day my mother comes back from work – she owns a clothing store that twenty years ago she decided to call” Loren “(not just a good omen, ed) – she takes me inside the residence to Lido Napoli that we take in the summer every year, hugs me, gives me the news and I am speechless ”, she explains when we hear her on the phone.
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By chance, even today she is still in that residence, on the same terrace where she was told that she would be the little Lilia in the first HBO / Rai series. “Mom told me that it would be a worldwide thing and that I couldn’t tell anyone, only my father (who works in the Municipality of his city, ed), my sister and my brother. I only spoke when the first press release came out and for everyone it was a surprise ”.
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From there it was all a downhill journey, “tiring, but wonderful”, she specifies that despite her very young age, she is much more mature, confident and prepared than many of her colleagues much older than her. After a small appearance in History of the new surname, in a short film on the figure of Anne Frank and after writing a book (Brilliant diary, Fabbri Editore) and composed Mom is nothing, a song dedicated to the theme of bullying (“I never suffered it and I hope I never suffer it”), became part of the soap opera A Place in the Sun, where she plays the character of Mia Parisi. His film debut will be released on August 27th, Pink Star Stone by Marcello Sannino which will premiere today at the Giffoni Film Festival, the only Italian film in competition in the +18 category, and next August 26 at the Pesaro Film Festival.
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A very intense survival story, the one between a mother (it’s Ivana Lotito, star of Gomorrah) and a daughter, Maria, played by Ludovica – “a very strong girl with great courage”, she defines her – “a very difficult relationship between them, between social services and economic problems which are intertwined with stories of irregular immigrants in a Naples that is more nocturnal than daytime, but always fascinating “. “Even in this case – he continues – it all started by chance: I did an audition, I met Ivana, we began to understand if there could be a mother-daughter spark, but first of all a friendship between us two actresses on the set. I did another audition in which we tried some scenes, they chose me, we became a family ”.
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“Parents, he says, are the parents, not the children’s friends. I have a great relationship with my parents, but I never forget that they are the parents, not my friends. Friendship is something else. They give me approval for everything I do, they are present in every set and in every interview, they give me advice, they manage my Instagram page (very popular, needless to say, to date there are more than 100 thousand followers, ed) . It is right for a parent to control his child, but without this control becoming an obsession “.
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We listen to her talk, she is a river in flood and not seeing her in person, but listening only to her voice, every now and then we forget that she is only thirteen years old who ‘come back’ soon when, with enthusiasm, she tells us that in the months of confinement she has learned to cook, “especially desserts, including panettone and crepes, interspersed with many live shows to keep and receive company, in short, very fun things to get distracted and think about other things”.
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“This year – he adds – I took the exams, I brought a paper on the Cinema that I prepared during the lockdown, in September I will start the linguistic high school, another different adventure that will lead me to meet new people, but above all, I hope, to continue traveling “. Thanks to The Brilliant Friend, Nasti has been in several Italian cities that she had never seen, but especially in Cannes, New York and Los Angeles. “My great loves are Italy and Naples, but America was the culmination of a dream, I was very excited, I’ve always wanted to do it, ever since I was very little”. At the age of five she was struck by lymphoblastic leukemia and up to ten she underwent lengthy medical treatment. “My mother never called her by her name, but she spoke of my ‘path’. I have decided to do it. From that disease I came out stronger, full of the will to live, and in this sense, making The Brilliant Friend marked my rebirth ”, she tells us without ever losing self control.
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Success came very early, “in a way – he often repeats – unexpected” – but, he assures, “I have remained the Ludovica Nasti of all time, then there are Mia, Lila and Maria: they and the others I will play, are and will be my work in which I put all my passion, everything I have inside. This also leads the people who are part of my life, my classmates and classmates, my teachers, to treat me normally. For them, I’m not the star of the TV series, nor do I feel like that. Normality, being with your feet on the ground is essential to avoid illusions ”. With his male friends he plays football more than once a week, with a local team, the Uetolaba Calcio Academy, integrated with the women. “They treat me very well. Males seem a little like that at first, then after a while they pass the ball to you, either out of fear or fear. They are a bit ‘stupid’, but they make me have fun (laughs, ed) ”.
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Brave and intelligent like the now famous Lila, Ludovica now goes further. She starts again with this new film and there is a great desire in her to continue this work. “At the beginning I didn’t even know what a casting was – he explains – but then I understood the mechanism well. On the set I realized that acting is for me, since there is a special relationship with the camera, the director, the set and all the people who work there. “Now I’m grown up, I want to do something else”, she adds, before telling us about the unexpected phone call from her idol, Sophia Loren: “She complimented me through her lawyers via email and her” You’re very good “is worth more than a prize won. She is my model, from one like this there is only to learn. We are both nice and stubborn ”. Being so, we point out to you, can also be an advantage. “No, not for me,” she replies categorically. “I see it more as a defect”, he adds before greeting us. “Now I have to go over my part in“ A Place in the Sun ”, duty calls me”. Like Lila, she attracts, confuses, surprises and attracts again: a new star is born.
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