Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alice Lussiana Parente. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alice, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
TThe biggest risk I’ve ever taken in my life was definitely when I moved to New York City From Italy. I was very young and I had no connections in the United Sates. Sometimes I still look back with great admiration at that young girl that left anything she knew behind just to follow her dreams. After I graduated at the University of Turin in Cinema and New Media I got admitted to the summer conservatory at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. During the program one of my teachers suggested that I’d auditioned for the 2 or 3 year Conservatory and that their were happy to support me with a recommendation letter.
Before I even realized it I got accepted into the school and my life changed forever. Sometimes you just need to take that extra step out of your comfort zone to take your life and turn it upside down.
Alice, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I started acting when I was very young, only twelve! I’ve always loved dance and music since I was a little girl but I never considered acting until my stepfather brought me to my first acting class in a local company in Turin, my hometown. It was love at first sight! I spent my teen-years between school, dance classes and acting classes, sometimes I think about it and I still can’t believe how focused I was! I was so young but so passionate, nothing could distract me! Somehow I built the woman I am today during those years.
At 16 I got cast in a movie directed by Peter Greenaway: “Peopling the Palace”. It was a beautiful experience and my movie debut so I was very nervous! Two years later I auditioned for one of the biggest theaters in Italy, Teatro Argentina, for a production of the Theatre of Rome. They were casting the Italian version of Pippi Longstocking and were looking for the three leading roles. I went to the audition extremely conscious that I wouldn’t probably get cast. I was barely 18, on my resume I had few regional theatre credits and one film, and I found myself surrounded by many successful actors. After four days of auditions, I ended up in the last round and got cast. That experience changed my life. We started rehearsals the following year and I left school for four months, moved by myself to Rome and worked on my first professional production. After the first successful run, I went back to Turin and graduated from high school and that fall we started a one-year tour all around Italy. I was 19 at the time, and I was realizing my dream!
After those first experiences it was clear to me that I wanted to be an actress. I graduated at the university and decided to move to New York where I got accepted into the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. After graduating I immediately started working. It seems crazy to think about how many things I accomplished in those years, to be honest in the moment it always seemed as if I wasn’t doing enough! I guess we are our hardest judges!
During those years I started collaborating with Kairos Italy Theatre and became their resident company member, curator and commedia dell’arte theatre and with the Blind Cupid Shakespeare Company based in the UK, where I also work as an executive producer. With both companies I had the chance to work on incredible shows.
Recently I played the leading role in Netflix’s Immersive show: Money Heist, the experience, a wonderful five months of my life, even more special considering that it was during the pandemic!
At the same time I kept on working on my voice over acting. Over the years I worked for national and international commercials, audiobooks, educational videos animations and more. Fun Fact I got to realized one of my childhood dreams playing Minnie’s vespa in one of the episodes of the Mickey Mouse Shorts!
My biggest love however remains the big screen. Over the years I worked for several European movies and tv series and I feel extremely lucky being represented by an incredible team of agencies that strongly believe in me.
What do you find most rewarding about being creative?
I get to tell stories as a job! I get to create and bring characters to life every day. This is absolutely the most rewarding aspect of being an artist: I get to PLAY! My biggest source of inspiration are the people around me, but especially children. I find inspiring and so helpful for my job the way they make-believe, I steal from their focus in playing Legos, from their imaginary cooking and dragons’ fights. It might sound silly but as actors, especially in this time of self taping we have to “believe” imaginary circumstances every day. It’s a blessing and a privilege to make the audience dream and cry and I don’t take that for granted.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
You don’t have to be perfect. You can do everything perfectly, follow every single rule and you can still fail. I won’t get too much into the details of the backstory as it’s something very private to me, however I will share this un-learning experience because I hope it will help someone else in the same situation.
I have always been an over-achiever. In school I was awarded best student of the year, I always had the highest scores in my class and I kept that mindset for a long time in many different aspects of my personal life and career.
Guess what? It doesn’t always work.
You can do everything perfectly, follow every single rule and instruction and then something unexpected happens and things fall apart.
The biggest learning about this? Stop doing. Just be. Sometimes there is no way out but through, so be messy. Stop finding solutions. Trust that sometimes things need to fall apart in order to come back better and stronger.
I promise you, it will work out, and it will work out because you let it go. You didn’t try to make it perfect. You breathed through the ashes of what you’ve built and let the Fenix do all the work. Be a Fenix.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.alicelussianaparente.com
- Instagram: @alicelussy
- Facebook: @AliceLussianaParente
Image Credits
@Arseniy Grobovnikov @Michele I. Arazi @Valeria Bonazza @Umberto Nizza @Mattia Furlan