Say Hello to the New Cast of ‘My Brilliant Friend’ Season 4
The third key member of the revamped cast is Fabrizio Gifuni as Nino Sarratore, Lila and Elena’s classmate who became a mischievous intellectual. Nino had an intimate relationship with both of them; by the end of the third season, he lured Elena away from her husband and children. “Fabrizio was really brave, because to be Nino Sarratore in the fourth season after we know how much everyone hates him, that was a real challenge!” Costanzo says with a grin. “You see, through Fabrizio, what it means to be a man who can’t be who anyone expects him to be. I know how hard he worked to love this character, which is not easy – to make him human, to make it real.”
Costanzo began developing the series in 2016. Nearly nine years later, he has yet to meet the mysterious Ferrante. “In the first season, she wrote the script with us,” he says. “I asked her for some casting advice and it wasn’t the right choice. She’s not a director and she has her own vision.” [of characters]So it’s hard for a writer to get involved. Also, she’s like a ghost, so you can’t really discuss with her.”
Ferrante continues to collaborate on the script, but she’s been a little less involved this season. Costanzo speculates that’s because Bispuri, a female director, is at the helm of the series. “I remember when Maggie Gyllenhaal make The lost daughter, Maggie told me that Ferrante sent her an email saying, ‘Whatever you do, it’s okay because you’re a woman, and I respect what you have to say.'” This attitude encouraged Bispuri to put her own creative stamp on the season. “Laura was free to experiment with the grammar of the show, and I really liked the way she did that. She didn’t want it to sound like anyone else’s, she wanted it to be her own,” Costanzo says, comparing it to the way the character Elena forged her own literary style. “This is exactly the story of my smart friend“