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1. What's been the most defining moment in your career so far? The most defining moment was certainly returning to the stage after three years away from it, following the death of my father and what was the hardest period of my life. I had to stop working in theatre when I was 24. At that point, I already had several productions behind me, and apart from three or four months without work, things had been moving with a certain promising rhythm. Just when it seemed my career might truly take shape, life, with its usual delicate manners, decided to interrupt the script. At 27, I had the opportunity to return. But I did not want to start again by simply waiting for someone to cast me. So, I acquired the rights to The Lonesome West by Martin McDonagh, already a masterpiece by an author who would later become internation- ally celebrated, and I produced it myself. The result was a critical and public success, and the production earned P.P. Sepe the Flaiano Prize for direction. But, more importantly, it changed my consciousness. I understood that I could work not only as an actor waiting for a role, but as the creator and producer of my own artistic path. From there began collaborations with important theatres and companies, and everything that followed. Sometimes a career does not restart. It changes spine. 2. As a creative, how do you navigate the world and speed of social media? With caution, curiosity, and a certain instinct for self-preservation. For my events and professional projects, I prefer to leave social media management to people who truly understand that world. It is not false modesty; it is survival. Social media has its own language, its own speed, and sometimes its own strange metaphysics. A post can disappear in five minutes or become eternal for all the wrong reasons. Personally, a few months ago I opened a YouTube channel under my own name, with a blog called Mi spiace, ci tocca pensare—which means, more or less, I'm sorry, but we have to think. The title already contains both my programme and my apology. There, I deal with Western values, social issues, philosophy and cultural themes through irony, because I believe thought should be serious, but never heavy. As a cultural worker, I am not particu- larly in love with the idea of "virality". I prefer the idea of "success" in its deeper sense: not merely being seen, but making something hap- pen. Of course, social media today is important for any public figure. The challenge is to use it without being used by it. 3. Do you consider artificial intelligence a threat to your career, or an opportunity? Do you remember the pill in the film Limitless? That is how I see artificial intelligence. Not as a replacement for human intelligence, but as an extraordinary amplifier of it. AI can help us save time, save money, organise ideas, refine projects, accelerate research, and improve the quality of what we do in ways that, until recent- ly, would have seemed almost science fiction. For a creative person, this is not a small thing. Time is often the most expensive material we have, especially because nobody ever gives us a refund for the badly spent hours. But we must be careful. AI is a tool, not an oracle. It can be like a giant robot, and you are the pilot. Wonderful. Powerful. Impressive. But if the pilot is confused, lazy, or convinced that pressing random buttons is a creative method, the robot will eventually crash and probably take the pi- lot with it. So no, I do not consider AI a threat in itself. The real threat is using it without culture, without taste, without responsibility. In the right hands, it is an opportunity. In the wrong hands, it becomes a very fast way to produce mediocre things with great confidence. 4. How do you stay motivated and inspired, especially during tough times or when the work feels hard? The word that comes to mind is 'urgency'. Not the false urgency of emails written at midnight by people who discovered planning only after the disaster. I mean a deeper urgency: the need to do something because not doing it would feel like a betrayal of yourself. My passion moves this urgency. It pushes me forward, sometimes gently, sometimes by kick- ing me down the stairs. It gives me the strength to overcome obstacles — or at least to fight them with a certain dignity when they refuse to move. Of course, passion alone is not always enough. There are days when inspiration behaves like an aristocrat: distant, unavailable, and slightly offended by your existence. In those moments, what truly sustains me is love. I have a wonderful daughter, who gives me a reason to be better than I am. And I have a wife who has six gears more than me—perhaps sev- en, but I keep the last one secret for my pride— and who, every day, pushes me to do better, think better, live better. Motivation is not always fire. Sometimes it is discipline. Sometimes it is love. Sometimes it is simply getting up and not allowing darkness to have the final say. 5. How do you balance your creative instincts with the expectations of your audience or collaborators? I try to begin from one basic awareness; creative instinct is precious, but it is not sacred. It must be cultivated, challenged, contradicted, and sometimes politely taken aside and told: "My dear, today you are being a little ridicu- lous." To do what I want to do, in the way I want to do it, I need to study a great deal. I need to keep my gaze open. I try not to have fixed cer- tainties, but solid ones that are strong enough to support me, yet honest enough to be destroyed when necessary, so that something more alive can be built on their ruins. The expectations of an audience or collab- orators are not enemies. They are a form of resistance, and resistance can make the artistic gesture sharper. One must listen without becoming obedient; lead without becoming arrogant. When I was younger, like many young people, I did not love the classics. I thought they belonged to dust, school, and punishment. Then I learned how to read them. And I discovered that the classics are not old. Instead, they are dangerous, alive, and often more modern than we are. Today, part of my work is to reveal the brightness of that treasure to those who are sceptical, or who simply had bad teachers who failed to transmit its immense value. 6. How do you approach a new project? Do you have a specific process or routine you follow? It depends on the field. In cinema, I am very pragmatic. A film project costs a lot — some- times so much that even dreams start asking for a production budget. So, before I allow myself to fall in love with an idea, I ask myself some very concrete questions: Who is the audience? What is the market strategy? What kind of film is this? Why should it exist now? Poetry is wonderful, but invoices are written in prose. In theatre, the approach is different. I have the good fortune, thanks also to my physicality, to be able to aspire to many kinds of roles. So, I ask myself what role belongs to the present moment of my life, and which one represents the most exciting challenge. My process usually begins with listening: to the text, to the charac- ter, to the time in which the work will meet the audience. Then comes study, physical work, doubt, more study, and finally the dangerous moment when you must stop preparing and simply jump. 7. Can you let us in on some of your future projects or works? Yes, with pleasure and with the usual supersti- tion of actors, who announce future projects as if whispering in front of sleeping gods. In April 2027, I will return to the Manoel Theatre with The Grand Inquisitor by Dostoevsky, in both English and Italian versions. Paul Portelli will be the protagonist of the English version, while I will perform the Italian one. It is a text of terrifying beauty: philosophical, spiritual, theatrical, and dangerously alive. In other words, exactly the kind of material that does not let you sleep peacefully, which is usually a good sign. Paul Portelli and I will also alternate between the English and Italian versions of what we are developing as the first 3D audio graphic work in the world: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Dickens, fortunately, still has a great deal to say to us, especially in a world where ghosts are perhaps less frightening than the living. Between the end of 2026 and the beginning of 2027, two films in which I am involved should also be released. I am also working to complete three film productions that have already begun. So yes, there is move- ment. And, as always, movement is life even when it gives you backpain. maltatoday | SUNDAY • 14 JUNE 2026 Culture The bard moves to Floriana – MADC to stage Hamlet at Msida bastion historic garden ARTS • TV • WHAT'S ON BY LAURA CALLEJA suggestions by email lcalleja@mediatoday.com.mt The Q & A GIOVANNI COSTANTINO 7 questions for... Extra round What's the most memorable or trans- formative role you've played, and what did you learn from it? I will answer by gently breaking the rule and naming three roles, because actors have a complicated relationship with obedience. K. from Kafka and Alyosha Karamazov from Dostoevsky were among the most difficult characters I have ever approached. I have a strong physical presence, and with those roles I had to work not only on psychological depth, but also on physical subtraction. I had to remove, reduce, almost disappear. For an actor with a powerful body, learning how not to use it too much is both nec- essary and slightly humiliating, therefore very useful. Those characters taught me that intensity does not always come from force. Sometimes it comes from restraint. Sometimes the most powerful gesture is the one you do not make. On the other hand, Mastro Don Gesualdo by Giovanni Verga gave me the opposite kind of joy. There I could finally express carnality, strength, earth, hunger, ambition, and pain with a more natural physical power. It was a role that allowed my body and inner world to meet without apology. Giovanni Costantino is a stage and screen actor working between Italy and Malta. He has performed in major Italian and Maltese theatres, playing lead and co-lead roles in works by Kafka, Shakespeare, Verga, Sciascia, Goldoni, Dostoevsky, Sarah Kane, and Martin McDonagh. Over the course of his career, he has worked with directors such as Andrea Battistini, Lina Wertmüller, P.P. Sepe, Cinzia TH Torrini, and Andres Arce Maldonado. Alongside his work on stage and screen, he is also active in audio productions and acting training Books Book review by Tarcisio Zarb on two works by John P. Portelli PAGE 2 PAGE 3 MaltaToday is supported by Arts Council Malta