Original subtitles

My first Roman friends were the guys who

frequented Piazza de Spagna, that is, those of

whom they had made the film Poveri ma

Belli, and I was another poor guy, but

he came from far away, from the forest,

and I began to speak Italian with the

Italian of Belli, not with that of Dante,

and I thought that if I spoke like

that, there was a very famous Italian woman,

very chic, very beautiful, and I said, listen,

what a beautiful fringe that is, Thomas, but

what are you saying?

But what are you saying?

I said, well, what a beautiful fringe, what

do you mean?

And if you don't say that, it's terrifying.

I remember

a gift, a Christmas gift that he had

given me, I can't say the name, but

a very rich man who gave me a

gold cigarette holder, it was long like this,

and narrow like this, and I went to

the house of these aristocrats for Christmas Eve,

and then I, before going out, I take

my gift, my massive gold cigarette holder, with

18 sides, and I put it here, in

this pocket, and I close it, I look,

and a piece of cigarette holder comes out,

I say, no, but I say, but why?

It was when the twist was starting, and

then the landlady put the twist.

I start dancing with this lady, like, let's

twist again, every time I did this, the

cigarette holder fell, I say, I'm sorry, and

I put all the cigarettes, and I do

it again, two or three times, at a

certain point the landlady calls me, and says,

that cigarette holder that they gave you is

a table cigarette holder, not a pocket one,

I say, God, I say, what a shame,

the host

of a Roman trattoria that is here, I

say, did you know that you made all

the best cigarettes in Rome?

I say, well, in a way, yes, I'm

a bit of an arsehole, but I'm a

friend of Casanova, and it was Quinto who

pretended to be me, he was my counterpart,

and he told all the girls that he

was Tomas Miglia, I say, but weren't you

Cuban?

He says, are you kidding me?

I say, well, that's my press office, to

make me appear more exotic, they say I

was born in Cuba, but I'm from Rome,

but the reputation of a smuggler that I

got, because, my goodness, Quinto is a whore

that never ends.

Do we pay the rent in a cooperative

or is there some asshole that pays for

us?

He pays that fascist of my father.

Ah, then we're good.

Do you want a cigarette?

Between the Indian drug and the Scottish drug,

I prefer this one, so I don't have

a problem with the law.

I came from an experience of cocaine, vodka,

I drank, I got high, and one day

Rita told me, look, if it continues like

this, my son...

I didn't know what to do, so I

read in a newspaper about this guru in

India, he did miracles, I was in a

terrible situation, I just needed a miracle, he

could only save me a miracle.

So I read this, he did miracles, I

said, let's do this, let's go to India,

I'll take this vacation...

and you never know.

I got there and I was really, really,

I found this thing strong, too strong.

People think that because you work with Antonioni,

with Bertolucci, that this guy can be a

very intelligent person, very cunning, like his directors,

like the character that the director makes them

do, but it's not true at all.

I'm not an intellectual, I'm a simple person,

complicated, but simple.

If I hadn't been able to do Monnet,

I wouldn't have done it, and that's why

I love Monnet.

I'm very shy, and if there's someone

behind the camera, I don't know, that looks

at me badly or something like that, I

get angry.

But I need that anger, because I use

everything, even the anger, because everything can be

done in different ways.

The words are what they are, for the

state of mind it is what it is,

which then makes you say the joke in

a certain way.

Leonardo, come on, don't be an asshole, come

on, first you have to talk to me,

do you understand?

Tell me who Marsiglia is, if he's not

the next interrogator, we'll do it at the

hospital.

But then comes the voice actor, as I

have the blessed accent that I have, and

I had to look for the voice actor.

I found him watching a film by Al

Pacino, who dubbed Al Pacino, and I said,

this is the voice I would like for

Monnetza.

If you want to be gunmen, it means

that you are not worthy of belonging to

our federation.

This Italian Anti-Violence Federation.

We don't have to wear the balls, we

have to wear these, the balls.

Hurray for the fig!

Hurray for the ass!

Hurray for the fig!

Ah, in Tepepa I dubbed myself.

Yes, as I wanted.

It is very difficult for a father without

hands to raise a son without a mother,

right Pio?

Right Pio?

Yes.

It is even more difficult to find someone

more imbecile than me, right Pio?

I can't spit on the plate where I

ate, because I have to tell the truth

to all the dubbers.

Well, it's true, otherwise I would have gone

to America.

And if it hadn't been because I met

Rita and got married, I would have gone

to America, returned to America.

Because I wanted to speak with my voice.

What interests me, what I do in cinema,

is to look for the truth of the

feeling of what I have done.

All there.

I came from intellectual cinema, with the contract

I had with Cristaldi.

And Cristaldi wanted to renew it.

I said no, for another five years.

Then I found myself with one hand in

front and the other behind, really, and I

had no money.

And I knew about this boom of Western,

where the actors changed their names because they

were ashamed to do it.

But for me it was a story like

any other, another era, other customs.

On the contrary, it was also a challenge

to interpret, what is it called, to make

Westerns.

Because it is a genre that one would

never have thought that another country other than

America, in the Far West, would make Westerns.

Everything I chose to do was out of

hunger.

And that was a wonderful motivation, because I

was hungry, but those who were hungry also

had talent.

And I did it as if I were

making omelette, putting it all in.

But no one wanted me, they didn't want

me.

Because they said, but Thomas Millian, who makes

intellectual films, who does he think he is?

So I told my people, look, there's a

rumor going around that Thomas Millian wants to

make an almost free Western.

That's a magic word in cinema, like Abracadabra.

This thing even arrived in Spain, in Madrid.

And there was an offer from a producer,

a Spanish director.

The director Eugenio Martín and the producer Pepe

Maeso came to see me.

And nothing, I pulled it out a bit,

like, okay, I have to think about it,

that kind of thing, I pulled it out.

I would like, as the bad guy was,

one of a terrifying evil, I told him,

I want there to be a motivation for

which this boy is as he is.

Because I write a whole story that you

can't see, but if by chance, let's say

the partner forgets a joke, or I forget

a joke, as I am, because I have

already written his past, then, as they say,

I improvise on that.

And everything comes very, very, very true.

That's why I was so hungry to break

my balls.

Because I wanted to do things as I

knew they had to be done, which were

not written on a copy.

So I fought to the death to do

it as I felt it had to be

done.

I did that for Giulio.

I did it for Giulio.

And in that film, something I never told

anyone, now I'm telling you, something I never

told anyone, now I'm telling you, I mean...

No, I better not say it.

No, they made me fall...

Well, no, you can't.

Giulio found me very handsome, as a man,

the face, etc.

And he made me shots, one more beautiful

than the other.

I mean, in a way, I went through

the film like a...

like a Mastroianni of the Western, that brought

from one situation to another, etc., always with

very beautiful foregrounds, etc.

And it's a film that I think is

a cult movie.

And...

Because Giulio is a very intelligent man and

the film is a great Western.

I did the Thomas Mannion Group because I

wanted long hair.

Because the Beatles had arrived.

I said, no, no, I can't get old

without being a hippie.

Me neither.

And I let my hair grow, so I

took these other five hats, I formed the

Thomas Mannion Group, I spent a lot of

money, I bought the truck, all the best

devices and stuff.

We went to sing in Sorrento and I

had an appointment the next day, that is,

that same morning, at 7 a.m. at

Pauli's, for some face-to-face scenes.

I had just finished running to Rome, to

be there at 7 a.m. I was

there at 7 a.m. without sleeping.

And then I realized that I couldn't be

a singer.

Westerns were really hard to do.

For example, with the myth of looking for

the realism of the feeling, I remember that

one time the Bounty Killer caught me and

he carried me with a rope, tied up,

I was behind the horse, I had to

run as the horse ran, but behind the

horse, through a field full of pebbles and

stuff.

At a certain point, they were shooting the

scene from above.

When I saw it, it was such a

small figure, with the horse and stuff, a

sandal fell on me.

I immediately reacted, and instead of stopping, I

said, I immediately thought, with a knife, that

a sandal could have fallen on me.

I kept running without the sandal on my

foot, I cut my foot with a knife.

I was a bit inspired by Che Guevara.

A bit.

I say a bit because Vasco was shooting,

we were going to kill our comrades.

Che Guevara said that man must be a

kind of machinery, that man must be full

of hatred.

Anyway, I didn't see it from that point

of view.

If I had to shoot, it was to

seek social justice.

We all have to obey the laws, don't

you think so?

Don't you agree?

No, sir, no.

And why?

First, because we made the revolution, and second,

because we won it, sir.

For example, I became famous with Monnezza, and

Monnezza and all these people, even in Mexican,

are all Monnezza.

Even Vasco.

I say I was inspired by Che Guevara,

but Che Guevara in me.

I mean, there are some things I don't

like, but I'm always a...

how do you say...

a good guy.

But like all good guys, when they become

bad, they are fucking bitter.

THE BATTLE WITH FRANCO NERO We go to

kill Compañeros with Franco Nero.

The scene where Franco is tied up, hands

and feet, on a barrel, and he had

the rope around his neck.

And when we meet, I arrive and see

him tied up like this.

And...

I don't remember if he asks me to

take the rope or whatever.

I go on the pole, then on that

other horizontal pole, I get to where the

rope is, and I knew how much Franco

cared about his beauty, his heavenly eyes, his

moustache, his gold, etc.

When I arrived on the set, I arrived

very early, and Franco's personal make-up artist

was already there, doing the lines of Franco's

wrinkles, everywhere.

I say to Fra, excuse me, you're young,

you're a good guy, what the fuck are

you doing with all those lines and stuff?

And...

he says to me, when I'm 30 years

older, people will say, how good he still

is.

Think about it.

Think about how diabolical it is.

Look, I'm diabolical, but that doesn't even occur

to me.

Knowing how much he cared about his moustache,

I couldn't defend myself, I had my hands

tied, I put my finger in his eye,

and I pull it like this, his eye

is all white, and I compose a little

song for him, and I'd say, blue beautiful

eyes, blue like the sky, and Franco would

suffer, nothing.

At night, Sergio told me the other day,

that Franco woke him up at night, saying,

please, I was thinking about today's scene, I

mean, Thomas put a finger in my eye,

and I have to have a white eye,

please Sergio, let's do this scene again, because

I don't feel like it.

You know that the producer warned him, he

warned him, he had a vice, that when

something went wrong, or there was a black

cloud, announcing rain, and he had to stop

the film, he got nervous, and there was

a whistling that came out, that's what he

meant.

Yes, he was nervous.

The money, the money.

And then, at a certain point, I get

angry with Sergio, I kiss his soul, and

I say, I'm leaving, and I start walking,

I thought I was walking towards the roulette,

to leave, to change and go to the

hotel.

Instead, out of nervousness, I took the opposite

direction, and I was walking towards the highway.

I should have asked, who would give me

a ride, with all those things, he looked

like a guerrilla, a Tupo Amaro.

When I say, oh God, oh God, oh

God, I have to go back and pass

in front of the troops, in front of

everyone again, another time, what a shitty figure,

but if I don't come back, there's someone

on the highway who would give me a

ride.

And with my face like an ass, I

went back in front, I passed in front

of everyone, I went to the roulette, and

I get the warning, what's up, what's up,

Tomassi, what's up, he's not going.

Once, really, Sergio E.

Uno, Sergio Solli, he was a bastard, slow,

everything was slow, like the Japanese, like Zen.

And he looked at the cloud, at a

certain point, and it explodes.

Go fuck yourself, oh God, take the copy,

we don't do this scene, go away, let's

go away, let's change places.

Got it?

THE END It was something that

Corbucci wrote for me, because Corbucci had a

lot of fun when I did this, which

was Japanese, and the bounty killer asked me

where I was born, and I said, I'm

the son of a Japosotta, and what's a

Japosotta?

A Japanese girl.

I wanted him to be a bit stupid,

to look a bit stupid, and then the

rest, the voice, I made it up, like

this.

It's not that I took as inspiration a

Japanese actor, no, I made my own Japanese,

a Japanese that came from inside me.

You know what you have to do?

I feel like this, at ease, you had

to go through this stuff here.

THE ACTOR An actor, at least in my

case, always wants to be loved, and it's

a way where I, because I'm full of

defects, I'm a mass of defects, but I

want everyone to forgive me.

There's an American philosopher named Joseph Campbell who

always says, go with the flow, go with

the flow, and that's what I've always done,

intellectual films.

Then I wanted to make westerns, they didn't

want me for westerns because I made too

many intellectual films and people wouldn't have believed

what I was doing.

So I had to make almost free films

so that they would believe me.

Now, people didn't go to see westerns anymore,

and police officers started coming out.

So I said, this is my chance to

get on my horse, and instead of the

horse I'll take a motorbike, and instead of

the police there will be cars, panthers, goats,

etc.

And again, I said to my people, go

with the flow, because I'm willing to make

an almost free police film.

Then I'll be in charge of making it

happen.

I was offered by Estelvio Massi, a very

good man, very, very good, he loved to

shoot, he loved it, because he was an

operator, and he put himself on the...

I was driving like crazy all over Milan,

and he was in Pensoloni, outside the window,

the trams were passing by, and he said,

Thomas, fantastic, fantastic, Thomas!

He was someone who really enjoyed it, and

he laughed a lot with me.

He made me laugh a lot, I didn't

know if he could offend me or not,

but...

Umberto is someone who...

I mean, I surprised him a lot, because

it was...

it was for him, it was something...

when I did things, I felt how much

he liked them, you know?

But, but he was always afraid that if

he gave me too much space, changing things,

the cards on the table, as he always

did, the producer would get angry with him,

and then he wouldn't let me work anymore.

With the bitter blood in his mouth, he

let me do it, but he didn't like

to let me do it.

And he knows, even if he said he

felt hate for me, which is a mixture

of love and hate, I don't know why

I hate him, I didn't do anything, I

mean, just to make films, we spent a

lot of money, we made a lot of

people work, we made a lot of money

in Italian cinema.

Giulio Sacchi is a...

he's a little good, to say the least,

he's a little kid.

Giulio Sacchi wasn't amoral, Giulio Sacchi was immoral,

which is different.

I can't say I'm like Giulio Sacchi, but

if I want to, I could be Giulio

Sacchi.

I mean, why can't I be like Giulio

Sacchi?

Because I don't need to.

At that time, they didn't talk about cocaine,

they took pills, instead of saying this guy

is high on cocaine, they said that guy

is high on pills.

They were pills called Magris, to lose weight,

and the guys took them when they were

under examination.

Who has these Navarone guns?

Calabria!

What the fuck are you doing in Calabria?

I'm in Monnezza!

I need to talk to you!

So what?

I'll come down and explain.

In Monnezza, the movie was very successful.

And then, they shot the second one, where

the producers understood that it was the first

time that they said such things.

And there was that sentence that I say

to La Pira Gagliazzo, that is, Monnezza gets

out of prison and goes to fill up

the tank, and asks the tanker how much

it is.

And he says, and he tells me the

amount, because he fills it up, he fills

it up.

Then, as soon as he fills it up,

I say to him, excuse me, what's your

name?

And he says, I say, if you don't

have a penny, get the fuck out of

here.

And all the scenes were written by me.

And I wrote them in a roll before

going on stage.

There was a driver who had a tongue,

and I saw him laughing, because he really

liked Monnezza.

So I didn't like this joke.

I say, it must be the most vulgar

joke I've ever seen.

And he saw me thinking that I wasn't

coming, that I wasn't coming.

And I see him laughing, I go to

him and say, what are you thinking?

He says, well, this is too much.

I say, tell me.

He says, you have to tell Marie, but

you broke the fucker's ass, okay?

I love Monnezza.

I mean, how is Monnezza?

I would give up Thomas Millian to be

Monnezza.

To live around Marancia, to be a simple

guy, a nice guy, a good thief, an

asshole.

For me, Monnezza is the best, he's an

idol, because I would have liked to be

like him.