The writing “Save the planet” stands out on his WhatsApp status and on Twitter he addresses the users who follow his battles by calling them “terrestrials”. And then, in the midst of the pandemic, he is nominated «Top green influencer» for the contribution made in the social dissemination of environmental issues, while a few months ago he was awarded the Ciak Verde Award, established by the CinemAmbiente Festival and by Legambiente to give recognition to the personalities of cinema and entertainment who take the field to safeguard our ecosystem. And again, in 2022 she wrote Me and the #GreenHeroes. Because I decided to think green (Piemme), where he tells the stories of those who are working to create a sustainable economy.
Alessandro Gassmann he is not only a man of cinema and theater but he is also a “megaphone” – this is how he likes to define himself – of a more than ever necessary ecological transition. Someone who goes from the broom to clean up the streets of Rome to hashtags on social networks to involve companies and individual citizens in joining his (and not only him) campaign “green revolution”. And if you ask him why he is so attentive to environmental issues, he replies that «if you love your child with an unconditional love, you can’t help but worry about the children he will have, the planet we are delivering to them and how he will live the same worries as me in the future ».
So is it thanks to paternity if he developed this ecological sensitivity?
«Becoming a father has projected my responsibilities into the future, certainly representing a turning point in my modus vivendi. With parenthood, my concern no longer had my last day of life as a dividing line, as it had been up until then, but extended far beyond my time, my existence. Leo’s birth opened my eyes to how important it was what happened in the future, even after my passing.
For years I have eaten and consumed as if there were no tomorrow and this is not just a very popular way of saying: it was just like that, we have all wasted and squandered without thinking about the consequences and who would come after us. But when you have a child, you hold him in your arms for the first time and you watch him doze and yawn under his blanket, you think of the planet you are leaving for him, his children and grandchildren and what you too have done for make it a worse place. Now that I’ve realized it I want to try to reverse this trend and avoid disaster. It’s a great little gift that I’m giving to Leo and to those who will come after him».
The one with nature is a long-standing relationship, however. Especially thanks to his parents?
«Yes, if I have developed such a visceral relationship with the ecosystem it is above all thanks to my mother. Even before being a cosmopolitan actress, she won the Silver Bear at the 1960 Berlin Film Festival, she was the daughter of French peasants. A woman who, even after embarking on her career and settling in the city, has always felt the need to return to the land.
We lived in Rome, but as soon as we could, on weekends or during the holidays, we took refuge in the countryside, first on the Argentario and then, after a terrible fire that devastated the woods around our house, in San Casciano dei Bagni, in the province of Siena. Here I spent hours and hours climbing the holm oaks and my mother, bent over the earth to hoe and plant cabbages, called me “enfant sauvage”, wild boy. This is, in fact, an aspect of his character that I have inherited. Me too, just like she always was, I feel more comfortable in nature, away from urbanization, noise and light pollution, crowds. Paradoxically I, who for the work I do am almost always in the spotlight, i love isolation very much».
It is always said that each of us can implement small daily measures to make a big difference in terms of environmental sustainability. What does she do?
«First of all, I’m careful about what I put in my shopping cart, trying to opt for foods produced with low carbon and nitrogen emissions and without intensively exploiting water and land. In this regard, I choose organic and always in season fruit and vegetables. If I find strawberries in December or cabbage in August I know it’s only thanks to production systems with a high energy impact and I don’t buy them. Furthermore, I have almost completely eliminated meat, given that farming, especially intensive farming, is one of the main causes of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. I eat legumes and whole grains without problems, which do not cause damage to the ecosystem, and I try to limit the consumption of swordfish, tuna, molluscs and salmon, partly so as not to impact too much on fish resources and partly due to the quantities of microplastics present in the oceans today.
In addition to taking care of nutrition, I am an avid supporter of waste sortingwhich I do in an almost military way also thanks to the support of Junker, an application invented by three Italian guys that allows, thanks to the geolocation and the barcode on the waste to be disposed of, to differentiate correctly, obviously respecting the municipal rules. However, I realize that in some cities, such as Rome for example, there aren’t always the ideal conditions for sorting and this leads, in some cases, to turn a blind eye.
An example? I live on the third floor without a lift and the waste collection point is 750 meters from my home. At the age of 58, I have no problems traveling this journey with three or four different bags or containers, but perhaps an elderly person, unaided, prefers to throw everything in a single bag and leave it at home. I am sure that the municipal realities could do more to facilitate individuals in this sense. Always staying in the Capital, here I get around by bike and, if I really have to, with my hybrid car. I would have liked to buy an electric one, but the lack of charging stations made me give up».
Of all the energy we consume, 35% is used in the home. I guess you’re not one of those who always forget the lights on in every room…
“Among friends and family, I’m famous for being ‘the fastest finger in the West’: where I pass the light goes out. Seriously, in my house the lighting stays on only in the rooms where we are physically present, otherwise it is rightly turned off. Of course I have them all led bulbs, which save energy and emit warm light. I say this because cold LEDs are being abused on the streets of Rome, making a city known throughout the world for its beauty ugly. It’s okay to save money, but you can also do it with taste, eh!
And then I regulate the heating and air conditioning in order to avoid the tropical heat in winter and the polar frost in summer, I try to reduce my water consumptionturning off the tap while brushing my teeth or soaping myself in the shower, and I turn off the TV, tablet and computer completely instead of leaving them in stand-by mode».
When it comes to environmental sustainability, another sore point concerns plastic. Do you know how many grams we ingest per week?
«Look, it’s a fact that I know well because when I learned about it, while writing the book, it shocked me. Every week we ingest about 5 grams of microplastics, the equivalent of a credit card, which come from different sources, including fish, water, food packaging and much more. For my part I try to minimize plastic by purchasing, for example, glass bottles of water or detergents on tap or with sustainable packaging. However, I wish that in order to do this I didn’t have to pay more. I think that if we forced companies to produce only recycled or biodegradable plastic packaging, which by the way is increasingly cheaper, costs would go down and this would allow everyone, not just the actor who can obviously afford it, to give a hand to protect the planet.
Also, if we went back to the good old custom of empty to return, now present in some countries such as Germany, Denmark and Norway, I would be one of the first supporters. Speaking of microplastics, I’d like to know if these particles, which we ingest every day, are actually dangerous to health because with a view to reducing our ecological footprint we must also think about protecting our psychophysical well-being. Talking to experts, I discovered that conducting scientific studies on the harmful effects of plastic on humans is quite complicated, but it seems that some compounds, used above all in the production of containers and containers, interfere with the endocrine system, causing serious damage”.
There is plenty of plastic on film sets, just think of the single-serve lunch boxes for cast and crew. As an environmentalist, do you think that some steps are being taken in this sector to pollute less?
«The film industry and the audiovisual sector are still doing too little, but in reality something is moving, also thanks to “pain in the ass” like me! The sets are still very polluting places: for example, as you said, plastic packaging and bottles are used for meals, which are then thrown away and contribute to having an impact on the ecosystem. And this happens every day, for the entire duration of production. But there are also houses, like la Greenland founded by Matteo Rovere and Sydney Sibilia, who have developed a certain ecological sensitivity, so much so that they set up set plastic free, with the use of recyclable or recycled products. A little has been done and is being done, but more could be done, both by polluting less during the making of a film or a TV series, and by telling stories that touch on this topic».
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