UNICO

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It’s the first thing people see in me.”
Trigiani did not recede nor assimilate
but rather drew personal strength and creative
inspiration from her Italian-
American family and its traditions.
“I wake up every day very aware
of my Italian-American heritage,” Trigiani
says. “There isn’t a day that goes
by that I don’t call on it. My temperament,
my opinions and certainly my
faith and sense of family and art,
everything about the way I create my
art, comes from the long line of
women and men in my family who
make things with their hands. They’re
working people, and I absolutely inherited
their sense of perfectionism.”
Outside of long-form fiction, Trigiani
is an experienced hand at television
writing and producing, having
worked on “The Cosby Show,” “A
Different World” and projects for
ABC, Jim Henson Productions and
Lifetime. So it comes as no surprise
that the theatrical version of “Big
Stone Gap” is breezy, a little screwball
and unabashedly old-fashioned.
As a first-time director, Trigiani handles
her all-star cast, 1970s period setting
and the narrative’s tonal shifts
with an assured, deft hand. It took
more than a decade to bring this story
to the screen, and Trigiani says she
used every minute possible to shape and
polish the characters’ journeys.
“I had a long, wonderful, luxurious
time to really finesse the characters and the
scenes in the book into the script,” Trigiani
says, adding that, once on location, “The
greatest artistic challenge was to stay in the
moment and revel in the gift and joy of the
actors interpreting it.”
Much of the film’s charms — and
certainly its emotional core — can be attributed
to lead actress Ashley Judd. Similar
to Ave Maria, Judd has
Italian-American roots mixed in with a little
bluegrass/Southern belle charm by way
of her native Kentucky. And like Trigiani,
Judd proved herself on set to be a workaholic
and consummate perfectionist.
“She prepares unlike any actor I have
ever seen, knowing everything inside and
out about this character,” Trigiani says of
her star. “She embodies [Ave Maria], she
invents her.”
Before production began, Trigiani remained
insistent that the film be shot on
location in Big Stone Gap and not in a
cheaper foreign locale doubling for her
hometown. This request was not subject
to negotiation, Trigiani says. “As the
granddaughter of Italian immigrants, I
can’t for the life of me understand why
you can’t make American products in the
United States,” she says.
If the excitement over “Big Stone
Gap’s” release wasn’t enough, Trigiani has
a highly anticipated novel about the
golden age of Hollywood, “All the Stars in
the Heavens,” slated for release just a few
days later on Oct. 13. As for seeing more
of Ave Maria
on screen,
Trigiani says
she’s content
to let audiences
decide.
“I
wanted the
campaign for
this movie to
be: ‘If you’re
Italian-American,
and you’re not in the movie theater,
we’re sending you back to Italy,’” Trigiani
says.
60 September 2015 FRA NOI for ComUNICO