- Luca Argentero plays the hero of “Doc”, the new medical series from TF1, broadcast this Wednesday.
- The series, inspired by a true story, was a hit in Dante’s country ( the final episode drew 8.5 million viewers on the Rai channel 1).
After the Americans Grey’s Anatomy, Good Doctor and New Amsterdam , and the French The Red Bracelets, TF1 is betting on an Italian medical series, which was a hit in Dante’s country (the final episode gathered 8.5 million viewers on the Rai channel 1). Inspired by the true story of Pierdante Piccioni, an emergency doctor who lost his memory after a car accident,
Doc follows Andrea Fanti, a brilliant doctor, who sees his life is turned upside down after a patient’s father shoots him in the head. If he survives the shooting, Andrea Fanti wakes up having lost the memory of the last twelve years of his life. He will have to reclaim his life and accept the man he had become … The Italian Luca Argentero, who plays the hero at three different periods of his life, granted 20 minutes a consultation.
My first question is for French spectators who may not know you yet … You studied economics and became famous thanks to the Italian “Big Brother”, “Grande Fratello”, how did your vocation as an actor come about?
Wow! You make me talk about something that happened twenty years ago! At the time, Big Brother was kind of a social experiment. I was young, and I don’t know if I was stupid or brave, but after that I was offered a small role in a series. I replied: “I am not an actor, it is at your own risk!” I discovered my passion and told myself that if I could do this all my life I would be a happy man. I have put all my time and energy into this area. And things have worked: I’ve been making two to three films a year for about fifteen years. I worked with very important directors, I had good teachers. I am almost forty-four years old and some fifty films behind me. From the start, I was a lucky guy!
What made you want to play Andrea Fanti, this character inspired by a real doctor, Pierdante Piccioni, in the “Doc” series? 20201231
From the first reading of the script, I immediately knew that Doc was a great story and a great opportunity as an actor. Because from the first season, I play three versions of Doctor Andrea Fanti. It was also very interesting to have the opportunity to deal with the real protagonists of this story.
Have you met Pierdante Piccioni?
Pierdante Piccioni has been really involved in all stages of the production from the start. This story is taken from his book, titled Meno Dodici (a work published in 2016, still unpublished in France, whose title means “Minus twelve” in French). He is now participating in the writing of season 2. We chatted for hours. You can understand what it means to lose twelve years of memories, but what he mostly tried to explain to me is how much the world has changed in twelve years. When we wake up with twelve years of missing memories, we forget how much smartphones and social networks have entered our lives or that there were no skyscrapers in Milan, nor sushi bars. The understanding of everything around us changes completely.
And for the medical part, have you had any training? 20201231
With all the actors we spent two months in a real hospital in Rome in the service by Professor Gandolfi. An incredible experience! We were in the emergency room, in the operating theaters, as discreet and polite observers. I understood that I could never have become a doctor. Absolutely not ! But it was very interesting and we really wanted to respect the real world of doctors. We also had advisers on the set. We especially understood how doctors talk to each other, how they talk to nurses, interns.
Julianna Margulies of “Urgences” says it’s very hard to play with medical jargon…
It’s difficult. It’s a whole new vocabulary to learn. You just have to practice… like reciting a prayer.
How would you describe Dr Andrea Fanti or rather the different versions of Dr Fanti and which one is your favorite? 20201231
My favorite is the one who was born out of this tragedy and that we get to know at series thread. Young Andrea is very funny. He was a young doctor, enthusiastic, full of life, full of love for his wife, his children and for his work. A man full of dreams. The bad Andrea Fanti is a detached, selfish and arrogant doctor, but I don’t blame him, it is the result of the loss of his child. What unites them is empathy. It’s something I share with him. Empathy is the key word in this story, but also the one that fits the situation we are all going through right now. Taking care of the one next to you, listening, Andrea Fanti, that’s it.
You recently became a dad, it wasn’t too hard to play a character faced with the mourning of her child while your partner was pregnant? 20201231
It was crazy and so hard! I am very lucky because I have a wonderful wife. She understood my emotional state when I came home at night after work, having mourned the loss of a child all day and kissed her tummy. Emotionally, it was incredibly difficult. We experienced this pregnancy during the first confinement. We were very worried about the situation. So, imagine the loss of a child at the same time! I think that was a key part of my interpretation. Pregnancy is a roller coaster of emotions, and I kept those emotions in me and let them go on set. I especially thank my partner, Christina, because in these moments, we need a good partner.
“Doc” was a huge success in Italy, what makes this fiction a medical series different from others? 20201231
What makes it so special, and what convinced me to play in it, is is the fact that it is based on a true story. When I go to the movies and see “inspired by a true story” on screen, my brain shows a strange higher attention… I don’t know why. In Italy, before Doc , the medical series were not very successful. This incredible success is quite bizarre in Italy. I don’t know what happened, but it happened. We don’t know what the recipe was. On social media, we received lots of thank-you messages from the public. I’m thinking it’s probably because this series shows the empathy we have for each other in a time when we are so isolated from everyone …
In France, and on TF1 in particular, medical series are very successful …
And I am very happy with this broadcast in France, and at the same time in Portugal and Spain. It means that we are working in the right way. Today, we have to think of a European audience and that is what is happening. So we are very proud of the first season of Doc .