We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Gillo Giustolisi a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Gillo, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

This dates back to 2015. I was 15 years old at the time. I had this class called “Communications” class where every year, the topic would change around. The topic of the year was film. How can we successfully communicate through Film? It doesn’t much of a genius to figure that out:) Anyway, the assignment in question was called “Six Word Story” and the goal was to make a short film, like a minute long maximum, where you illustrated the six word sentence you chose. I did mine very last minute, as always. I chose “Hard outside can be Soft inside” as my sentence. The short film went as follows: I’m watching TV, I look at my watch realize it’s late and I should make something for dinner, I walk over to the kitchen, open the fridge and notice there isn’t much except an egg. I then take the egg, grab a fork and a bowl, break open the egg into the bowl and whisk it. The end. I based my sentence around an egg…It’s hard shell hides a short, liquid interior!
My project turned out great and I got a perfect score. My teacher liked it so much that she showed to her other classes. And it was feeling I felt, that feeling of success and appreciation for my work that got me thinking “Huh…I like this…Maybe I should give it a try!”
I went on to take an acting class, was told I could actually make a living out of it one day and they didn’t have to tell me twice! And this then I never stopped. I know I never will because there is simply nothing else I would rather do for a living.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was born in Bologna, Italy but grew up Paris, France until the age of eleven. After which I Geneva, Switzerland and eventually back to Italy in 2015. My family is entirely Italian and the reason I moved around so much is due to my mother being a well known Opera singer. I moved to the United States in the summer of 2017 and haven’t left since. After graduating from St. Monica’s Catholic High School, I got my professional Performing Arts training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Hollywood. Getting out into the “real” world wasn’t easy due to the fact that the pandemic was raging. The Entertainment business is tough enough as it is but somehow we persevered! One of the things that I am most proud of and definitely sets me apart from my peers is my ability to speak English, French, and Italian to a “mother-tongue” level as well as Spanish at an intermediate level. This has opened a few doors for me that I am very grateful for, whether it is in the Acting world or any other industry, really. I have worked as a translator a few times, I’ve been offered dubbing gigs as well…all things that I wouldn’t be able to do if I didn’t have that advantage. I pride myself in being very serious about what I do, especially when it comes to prepping for a role. Acting opportunities are rare which means you can’t slack when the phone does ring. I pride myself in being a very social person, always love to meet new people and getting to know their story.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I would probably say that the biggest thing I had to unlearn/forget is the idea that a career like this could be linear. It is so far from it, it’s almost funny. Let’s start with this fact in mind. Out of the entirety of actors out there, 2% make a living through it. 2%. It’s a quick way to understand just how difficult it is to pay the bills with it, let alone be a “Star”. It’s easy to think that once you’re out of school, you’ll double down to doing EVERY Self-Tape/Audition you get and say YES to anything that comes your way. Not only that, but creatives do their job for FREE most of the time just to get their name out there. And you think “Right, so I’ll do this for this amount of time, struggle, but eventually someone will find me and put me in the next huge movie and then I’ll be a star”. Yeah, no. It happens to a very select few of lucky people, but for most people…they’ll either quit eventually or barely make it and be unknown for their entire career. Which brings me to this…You have to love it. You HAVE to. Otherwise, the rejection will push you to quit. I recently lost my father to cancer and the reason why I bring this up is that my father always used to tell me that I had to “open my mind to more possibilities.” I didn’t understand what it actually meant for so long. Now that he’s gone, I think I get it. What he meant was that artists need to go where they are needed. Coming to Los Angeles and making it big is what every actor hopes for, but it doesn’t have to happen that way necessarily. As performers we need to have more than one road to walk on. That way we give ourselves a better chance at possibly making it! So if it doesn’t happen in LA, it might happen in London, or France or Italy etc… Change is scary, unlearning something is scary. However, it is the only way we can move forward. Change is constant and it’s part of life. This counts for everything, not just the performing arts.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

To be honest, I don’t really understand it. I feel like they are the new Bit-coin, so to speak. It feels like they’re just trying to find new ways to get rich! I respect the hustle…but I’m probably never going to buy any. I don’t really get why a drawing of a teddy bear with sunshades on should be worth tens of thousands of dollars. I’d love to have someone who actually knows how it works explain it to me.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: gillogiustolisi
• Other: imdB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12271176/

Image Credits
All images were shot and taken by Mikael Fontanez.