POP INTERVIEWS: Sara Tommasi, life after the abyss

A dazzling success, a series of successful TV shows, a reality show, then even cinema and a sexy calendar. Sara Tommasi it seemed unstoppable. And then the abyss, the great pain, the criticisms of the people, the insults, the escape from the spotlight. Today, Sara is slowly climbing the slope, but the last few years have not been easy at all: she suffers from bipolar disorder, which led her to make bad choices and to rely on people who took advantage of her and her fragility. Here is what we told each other during our meeting.

The words of Sara Tommasi

Sara, let me start by asking you how are you today.

I’m pretty good now. I lived through a difficult period, it still is, to tell the truth. I had a serious psychological problem, I faced long therapies and I continue to deal with them today. I’m trying to move forward with the help of doctors and people who love me, like Debora (Cattoni, Sara’s friend and manager, ed). When I met her, I was out of the loop, my phone didn’t ring anymore, probably everyone knew what had happened to me and kept me at a distance. Thanks to her, I am slowly trying to take a few steps in this world. Slowly, dosing the energies well.

It can’t have been easy for you to trust someone again.

No, not at all, in my path I have met many people who have taken advantage of me. At the beginning of my career everything was fine, even though I was just twenty, I had the right collaborators by my side. Things changed sometime later, around the age of twenty-six or twenty-seven. Some of them hurt me, from there my ordeal began, which led me to stay out of the spotlight for almost eight years. Debora helped me to have faith in myself and in the future.

It comes naturally to me to ask you if you are not afraid of returning to a world, the television one, which has given you so much and taken away from you so much.

Yes, I have a lot. And I constantly live with the anxiety that it might happen again. I suffered a lot, even physically, I was unrecognizable. However, it is equally true that it makes no sense to live in a glass dome, to avoid taking risks out of fear. I am still traumatized by what I have experienced, if I look back on it, I do not recognize myself. Without considering that I happen to have to put up with the jokes of some idiot, it is easy to make fun of my past, to make fun of me, but I was not into me.

Beyond the damage the mockery.

If I had been a man, it would have been easier. It is easy for a woman to become a target. I do not hide from you that people’s irony makes me suffer.

You recently returned to TV as a guest of Barbara D’Urso on Canale 5. I don’t want to comment on what you said, but ask yourself if there is something you wanted to say and you couldn’t.

In the interview, Barbara focused a lot on my past, unsurprisingly. I told about the darkest years of my life, my illness, drugs, the videos that forced me to shoot. Instead I would have liked to talk above all about my rebirth, about my friendship with Debora, about my new work commitments, such as the collaboration for the In memory of Ferruccio Lamborghini format, it is a prestigious brand and an important occasion for me. If I had had the opportunity, I would have talked about it, also to make people understand that I am better, that I have taken back my life, that I do not want to arouse anybody’s pity. I don’t want to create apprehension, I want to tell who I am today. Barbara has mostly focused on my past, but I know how these things go, it’s part of the game. When they call you for an interview, you know what you’re getting into. I don’t blame anyone, on the contrary.

Who is Sara Tommasi today?

I am a more aware woman. What happened to me taught me not to frantically chase everything that happens to me, you have to make a selection, not to accept everything from everyone. The rush to do something never leads to good results.

Have you accepted anything in the past that you regret?

Yes, in many cases I have been light. I should have been careful, I was wrong.

Professionally speaking, what would you no longer accept?

Sexy poses or calendars. I was recently offered to pose nude for a calendar, but I declined. I no longer want to show myself in skimpy clothes, certain things belong to my past, I’m tired of that image of me.

Would you do a reality show?

I’ve thought about it, I don’t deny it. But, for a real relaunch, I’m hoping for something different. I do not hide that I would like to go back to the cinema, in the past I starred in Last of the class, for example. I would like to go back in a different way, I would like to be able to express myself, to tell about myself, but also to tackle other issues. I don’t feel like being a part of trashy shows anymore, and most importantly, I’m not going to show myself in a bikini. Also because I am thirty-eight today, I think people have already seen me in sexy poses enough, they will also be bored! (laughs, ed)

If you could address all the young women entering the world of entertainment for the first time, what would you tell them?

To be careful, not to trust anyone’s promises, not to go to anyone’s house alone. Business meetings are held in the office, not elsewhere. And especially during the day. Better to avoid putting yourself in equivocal situations. It’s easy to take advantage of a twenty year old girl. I do mea culpa, I admit that in some circumstances I was light, I did not give weight to the recommendations of those who could know more than me.

Movement comes to mind #metoo, which stresses the importance of reporting one’s abusers, especially when it comes to employers.

Denouncing is important, but it is even more important not to run into certain situations. Don’t trust the first one that happens and, above all, when you realize that it has a double purpose, you have to give it up and running. I was wrong, I was naive, I thought it would not happen to me. At twenty you feel invincible. Today my image is compromised, it is easy to think «Tommasi is so good», with my lawyers we are doing everything to remove the videos that concern me from the web. I, my mistakes, I have paid them all and with interest. Besides, I was not well, I was not in me, do not think that I am the one you saw in those videos.

How do you live with your illness?

I alternate moments of serenity to others in which I do not feel well, I am disoriented, confused. You know when you get a hangover and you are not lucid? Others know exactly what happened, but you are in another dimension, you are not in you. That’s how I feel, that’s why I can never stop taking care of myself.

What prejudices are you dealing with today?

People believe that I marched on my problems, that it was just a way to get people talking, to make a career. But the videos testify to my physical and mental health. Here, I’m sorry to see that someone does not believe me. And I’m sorry for how things went, I had some important opportunities, I was on my path, I was happy. But it doesn’t matter, what matters now is that I’m better. It seems to me a miracle that she managed to escape that danger, that she managed to get out of it. Today I live in Terni, I lead a monastic life (he smiles, ed), I avoid going around in the evening, I don’t go to clubs, I lead a quiet life.

Let’s talk about your present and the fake news circulating on your account. For example, in recent times, newspapers have written that you work in a bakery. The news, however, is false.

It is a family bakery, which has been entrusted to two people. I have nothing to do with it.

Another one fake news it’s about your alleged relationship with Debora Cattoni, your manager.

I also deny this, we have an extraordinary relationship, but ours is only a beautiful friendship, a beautiful complicity, nothing more.

Let’s look forward: how do you see yourself in the future?

I hope so! (laughs, editor’s note) I just want to feel good, it already feels so good to be here, to tell my story and to be able to say “I did it”.

We conclude like this: our magazine is called Digital Global Times and, for us, the term POP it represents something beautiful, exciting, captivating. What is POP for you at this moment in your life?

The ocean comes to mind. I dream of a trip to the Maldives, I hope to be able to disconnect from everything and enjoy the sea.

The photo on the cover is a shot by Elvira Kasimova.