Tom Graziani: "I never felt comfortable with my body, I thought it was less masculine" | Israel Hayom

When was the last time you made an external change?

"During COVID-7, I weighed 8 or <> kilos more than I do today. Me and a good friend of mine ordered from Walt all day and ate lots of schnitzels, until I decided enough was enough. I never really worked on my body properly, but then I started a nutrition program. I take care of my body and it makes me feel good. I also play tennis at least once a week and follow rules that work for me, like not eating breakfast and working out at the gym. It helps me a lot, even with my self-confidence. I may seem to have no problems with my appearance, but I've never felt comfortable with my body, that's the truth. I always felt that I had a slightly 'childlike' body, less masculine. I think it also influenced my casting. After the change came other roles, so I can say that it was necessary both professionally and personally."

When was the last time you spoke to your parents?

"On Friday. We have an iron tradition of meeting the whole tribe on Friday or Saturday at my parents' house in Netanya. I am the youngest son in the family, and family is very important to my mother, this cohesion. My mother had a dream to live by the sea. They lived in Modiin for 20 years, and I was interested in real estate and found them a psychic apartment in Netanya, on the sea. The transition was difficult for her, but today she enjoys the view. I grew up in Modiin, and when we grew up, the city grew with us, but there wasn't really anything to do there. We used to do a lot of sports and games on the computer and snooker. To this day I have a snooker stick. We were a family of bourgeoisie, and my parents were dealing with debt and an economic crisis, but I didn't lack anything."

When was the last time you went out?

"I had an adventurous period, but I never enjoyed going to mass parties or clubs where I didn't know anyone. I enjoy a wedding where I know and love people, and prefer private parties. The period of experience has passed for me, and today I look at it as a myth.

"A good artist is a sane and healthy artist, because the pain is already there. You don't have to suffer to bring some kind of deep art. If it's ingrained in us, it's inherent in us. There is a clichéd thinking that an artist must endure to be an artist. I've been there, and I've done all kinds of drugs. Today I think that drugs are the dumbest thing a person can do to himself, and that all psychiatric drugs are also an epidemic that needs to be stopped. There are other solutions.

"I've had periods of drugs and all that, but I always knew it wasn't doing me any good and I didn't want it in my life. It was part of a social convention and a time when I thought I needed to experiment, and I wanted to rebel a little. I stopped after less pleasant experiences, when I realized that I didn't want to be there because it changed me as a person. I've always become less 'me' under the influence of something.

"When I decided to study acting, at the age of 24, I said I didn't want drugs in my routine and I partially succeeded. With cannabis and hashish I stopped, and there were other things in small doses, but then I stopped completely and today I am a big advocate for nurses."

When was the last time you were complimented?

"Two months ago I received a compliment that I liked. I took on a project that is my baby, I am teaching a new course called 'X10' by B Rich - Grant Kardon's representative office in Israel. I built the course from the foundations, which helps business owners get more out of themselves, and something amazing came out. The CEO of the company complimented me that everything was going smoothly and that he had never had such partnerships before, without brakes and obstacles.

"The business field is relatively new to me, I've only been in it for a year, but it's an area that has always interested me. I always had a dream to open something of my own, the dream of an actor who wanted more. I work and everything, tapu-tapu-tapu, but I wanted more, I wanted not to depend on others. And if I can make money and help people with my knowledge and abilities - then at all. I'm turned on by the combination of both, business and art, and the thought behind it is that if you have funding, go do whatever you want, and you won't have to wait for your dream job."

When was the last time they started with you?

"Girls start with me on Instagram sometimes. It's flattering, but I usually don't answer. Men start with me, too, and that's flattering, too, but it happens less often. A year ago, something unusual happened to me on the street, someone came up to me while I was sitting with friends and said, 'You look really cute to me, can you have your phone?' It was a little discouraging, but I said to myself, 'Wow, I need to be flattered.' I gave her my phone, because I was single at the time. Today I'm in a relatively new relationship."

"I'm turned on by the combination of both, business and art." Tom Graziani, Photo: Efrat Eshel

When was the last time your heart broke?

"When I lost my dog, Stella, who had been with me for 14 years. She wasn't really sick, but she got to the point where she had no strength for anything. I saw her being put to sleep in a video my mother sent me, and I literally whimpered. It happened just as I was in class, and it was very hard for me, it just broke my heart. A human being is often the result of the things lost to him - loved ones, money, possessions - this is what shapes us. A person can be sensitive, and it is natural to experience the pain, cry and continue living. I let the pain be, it's part of the cycle of life. Today I have another dog, Lucky."

When was the last time you adopted an animal?

"During COVID-4, I adopted Lucky, my dog, a pit bull mixed with Amstaff. She came to me as a <>-month-old puppy, gorgeous little with blue eyes, and I fell in love with her in the second. The way I saw it, I wouldn't return it, but I had to return it to the owner. Fortunately, after a week he called to say that she didn't get along with his other dogs, and that he decided to give her to me. She came and brought me a lot of happiness in life, along with responsibility and care. Really preparation for the child."

When was the last time you thought about fatherhood?

"I'm thinking about it, but there's still time, not now. They don't ask me much about it, even my mother stopped bullying, but sometimes I feel like I want to. For example, when a friend who studied acting with me becomes a father, a kind of reflection of me is created, and I ask myself where it goes. I know it will happen, even if it takes another seven or eight years."

"I had an adventurous period, but I never enjoyed going to parties or clubs where I didn't know anyone."

When was the last time you were on set?

"In December, I was filming 10 Kilos of Cocaine in Guatemala. We were there for ten days, and it was abnormal fun. This is a film by director Doron Eran, based on the true story of Sharon Yitzhaki, which was also published as a book. She was caught with drugs in Bolivia and escaped from prison to Israel, a psychic story. I play her Israeli boyfriend, a great role in which I speak Hebrew, English and Spanish. For the role I learned Spanish, or actually remembered it, because as a child I learned Spanish from telenovelas and I also have family in Panama, so I absorbed the language. I was already in Guatemala with my parents when I was 17, so I took the opportunity to travel to the town and the volcanoes we were in to remember. The pace in Guatemala is different – calm, stress-free, stunning views.

"In parallel with the film, I filmed Dreamers, a science fiction series for youth that premiered a month ago on HOT. It was also a special experience, because we filmed in Timna, near Eilat, a cool place that looks like Mars - where the young astronauts at the center of the series will fly to see if it is possible to settle there. The team was composed of young guys without egos, and with director Rani Saar there was a great atmosphere. I'm counting on another season, because the series was also sold abroad.

"Before that, I participated in 'Fauda,' and there too it was a lot of fun. Omri Givon, the director, brought me to a challenging role that was 90 percent in Arabic. I didn't know a word of Arabic except 'Salam alaykum,' and a good friend of mine, actress Merav Shirom, told me, 'Study really well, because if you come to the set without knowing you'll get nervous' – and she was right. I studied with a friend who speaks the language from the army. A month before filming, I learned everything by heart, and when I came to Fauda, you could already say that I spoke Arabic. In general, I think languages are an important tool for the player. On the set it was a lot of fun, you feel like the team of 'Fauda' has been working together for a long time, and it's a great honor to be part of a series like this."

When was the last time you were on stage?

"A few days ago, at the play 'The Band' in Herzliya. I play Detner, and it's a show that has been running for a year plus and the audience flies over it. I really like the stage, even though it can be abrasive when you do the same thing many times. I reached such moments in the play 'Daddy's Braid' with Yaakov Cohen in Habima, which ran 280 times. I was there in dissonance, because the audience delights in every show - and I already feel like dying, because I'm on automatic. Today I am also acting in the Be'er Sheva Theater, in the play 'One of Ours', a remake of the film. It's a powerful show, about the conflict between morality and loyalty within a paratrooper unit.

"I love the stage, I can't do without it. Must play, instruct or teach, and I like applause the most. I always knew I wanted to be an actor, but without recognizing and saying it. My older brother bought drums when I was 16, when I was 7. I got on the drums and started playing, and I remember doing imitations of all kinds of actors in the shower. In eighth grade, we had a theater workshop at school. I did some exercise with masks, added an accent, and without expecting anything, everyone laughed, and I felt elated. I realized there was something here. Then I went to a theater program and signed with an extras agency. As a kid I was pretty shy, not the funny guy of the class, I only opened up on stage."

When was the last time you disconnected from your mobile?

"I want to do it, but I don't. Only when I'm sleeping or playing tennis. I'm not an addict, but I'm on the phone a lot, like everyone else. We are the result of consciousness engineering, and in the end this device provides us with content, information and interpersonal communication that cause the secretion of hormones like dopamine and serotonin, but it is not natural to receive 50 simultaneous communications from all kinds of people at once. There's a lot of information on the phone, and when I put it aside reality as if it's very boring, that's when the addiction develops. Maybe one day the world will turn upside down and everything will go backwards. It will be part of therapy, perhaps, or a technological detox."

When was the last time you learned something new?

"I'm constantly learning new things in the business world, like how to overcome barriers in learning and learn anything. Today I study at the Center for Scientology, and it's a crazy course. I love learning on my own, I'm self-taught. I was exposed to a lecture at TED not long ago about people who are good at a lot of things, a 'multifunctional personality.' This is characteristic of people who learn fast and also get bored quickly and need to move on to the next thing. I find myself getting excited fast, researching - and then running on... It's part of my ability to get some information and think broadly. What I need to work on is to maintain the passion and enthusiasm over time, like I have in the game, which is the thing I've been most persistent in over the years."

When is the first time?

When did you first audition?

"I remember that audition well. It was an advertisement for the dating site Love Me, which I did when I was 21 or 22, at the beginning of my career as an actor. The audition took place on Hefetz Haim Street in Tel Aviv, and I remember going into Match with someone and acting out of instinct and pleasure. Today I teach acting, and I tell my students: 'Try to have fun, not just achieve some impressive result.' That's exactly what was there - I acted from a place of pleasure and didn't think too much, I just enjoyed the game and the segment - and I got the advertisement. Later it became a bit of a joke, because of course the guys made fun of it."

Tom Graziani \ 34 years old, actor and lecturer, resident of Tel Aviv. He began his career in the film "A Place in Paradise" and played in the series "Galis", "Tagged", "Mother's Day", "Messiah", "Rule of Shadows", "Fauda" and more. He currently plays in the musical "The Company" from the National Theater founded by Sami Levy, in the play "One of Ours" at the Beer Sheva Theater and in the series "Dreamers" on the "ZOOM" channel on HOT. Founder of the course "X10" by Bee Rich - Grant Kardon's representative in Israel

shirshirziv@gmail.com

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