Interview: Margherita Pincioni

Photography: Claudio Carpi

Styling: Simone Folli

Makeup: Alessia Motti

Hair: Matteo Bartolini using Mr. Smith, Eleven Australia

Styling assistance: Nadia Mistri, Julie Wozniak

**dress** Annakiki **earrings** Zohra Rahman

You started off as a model, can you tell us about the beginning of your career?
Mine is one of those “random beginnings” stories. I was scouted on the streets on a dark night, when I was coming back home from university. They saw me, liked my haircut and offered me a modeling job. I thought about it and said “why not?”, it can be a cool experience. I would have never thought it would turn into all of this.

You are a bit of a citizen of the world. What has travelling taught you?
To embrace and appreciate diversity, avoiding judgment.

You’ve been to China also, what was it like and what did you bring with you?
I’ve spent ten months in China alone when I was only 17, I can’t tell you it wasn’t tough. To be fully immersed in a culture so different from ours was a gift but also a challenge, especially when obliged to respect rules you don't agree with. My Chinese high school had military rules, for example. Or the fact that teenagers in China don’t have as much freedom as we do in Europe. I guess I’ve learned acceptance.

At some point you started to act, what brought you to this turning point?
I probably always wanted to do this since I was a child. My grandma, the only creative person in my family, pushed us to perform in our living room and create stories all the time. I was about seven when I was imagining receiving an acting price in front of the mirror. I’ve always watched movies, almost every day of my life. When I started modeling, I asked my agency to help me out finding an acting coach, an acting school. I was very lucky though because I shot a short movie and the directors of my first TV show, Made in Italy, casted me for the main character. That’s how everything started.

What do you think of Italian cinema today?
There’s a lot of directors I’d love to work with. I think now there are way more roles with female characters than before, it is very interesting to witness this process.

Tell us about a scene from a movie that stuck in your mind.
One of my all time favorite movies is Kill Bill, from Tarantino. The last dialogue between Bill and the bride is poetry to me.

You seem very determined and independent, what does your job teach you?
It teaches me to free my true self, to search deep into my feelings and to take risks. But that’s a process.

**dress** Giorgio Armani **gloves** Duecci Gloves

You have a very special grandmother, who climbed Mount Everest at the age of 60
She is all of this, but she can also be very strict. I can tell you a funny story, it was summer and I’ve always spent a few weeks with my grandma at her place, near the seaside, where I have a lot of dear friends. I basically grew up there when I was a child. But this one time I was eighteen and I didn’t respect my midnight curfew... So at 12:05 she locked the door from the inside and I had to sleep in my car because there was no way I could get in.

Armani was an important chapter in your professional life. How did it happen?
That short movie I told you about previously was produced by Armani Laboratorio, that’s when we met for the first time. I was invited to the projection and when he saw me, he told me to come closer. I was very excited and emotional, I wasn’t expecting to have the chance to talk to him. I mean, we're talking about the King, Giorgio Armani. I thanked him and he asked me if I was a model. I guess that’s how I started representing his brand. I have a letter he sent me after Made in Italy came out, it's hung in my apartment. I will always be so grateful.

How do you use social media?
I share about things I like, I try to share topics of worldwide importance, especially all information regarding mental health, a topic very important to me. It’s very difficult to show yourself for who you really are on social media, though, and I think that’s good.

Do you have a mantra?
Empathy is the greatest gift of all.

You travel a lot and change cities often. What is your favorite place?
I have many special places in my heart, many life-changing trips I’ve done. But probably the dearest are these small islands in the Adriatic Sea called Isole Tremiti. I grew there, I feel free there.

What surprises you?
Small acts of kindness between people, especially if between strangers. It warms my soul.

What are you working on now?
I’m writing my own movie, it’s an idea I’ve had for a while and it's finally coming to life. Moreover, I do auditions and I sink in despair. The usual for actors!

Who would you like to give your business card to?
Greta Gerwig and Mainetti.

French Fries #6 The Traveller: Greta Ferro

© French Fries Magazine