Kim Rossi Stuart: The legendary actor who turned down Hollywood
It might be the world’s largest market for cinema and the place where the biggest movies and most money can be made, but making it in Hollywood isn’t the be-all and end-all for every actor.
In fact, there’s no rule that says any performer with eyes on becoming renowned as a generational talent has to even set foot on an American production, and the complete lack of Stateside credits has done nothing to prevent Kim Rossi Stuart from earning that distinction.
When he first decided to get into the family business, though, it felt like a formality. His father Giacomo wasn’t just one of Italian genre cinema’s biggest stars throughout the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, but he was one of the first Italians to study at the prestigious Actors Studio in New York City, while his Scottish mother gave him the anglicized name that was occasionally credited as Jack Stuart.
Kim began acting at the age of five, and it wasn’t long before he was singled out as a star in the making. The fantasy romance franchise Fantaghirò, thinly-veiled Karate Kid ripoff Karate Warrior, and crime drama Poliziotti helped raise his profile to the point he was a mainstream name in Italy by the mid-1990s, but commercialism was never his main interest.
Instead, he sought out the most challenging roles and most interesting directors, which only served to enhance his reputation. He worked with the legendary Michelangelo Antonioni in Beyond the Clouds, co-starred with Academy Award winner Roberto Benigni in the fatally misguided Pinocchio, sparred with Charlotte Rampling in The Keys to the House, and trod the boards to great distinction.
Being handsome, charming, charismatic, immensely talented, and speaking fluent English more often than not means it’s only a matter of time before Hollywood comes calling, but even in his 50s, Stuart has continued resisting the jump that so many of his peers and contemporaries from across the continent have made with such regularity.
He’s won awards from the Cannes Film Festival, has one win from 14 nominations at the David di Donatello which is essentially Italy’s equivalent of the Oscars, and three Italian Golden Globes, while his wide array of versatile and accomplished performances have made him a favourite among the festival circuit dating back decades.
That’s not to say it won’t happen eventually, but considering Stuart is now almost half a century into a career that began during his childhood, the chances of him finally taken the plunge and accepting the overtures from his compatriots over in Tinseltown grows increasingly remote with each passing year.
Hollywood is unlucky not to have been given the opportunity to weaponise a talent of such calibre, but he’s evidently not been losing any sleep over his decision to dedicate himself entirely to film and television projects that don’t require a detour over to the United States.
