Filming Italy Sardegna Festival – V Edition | Interview 

Tiziana Rocca – I thank all the students who are here but especially all those who are connected with us in streaming with 20 schools from all Italy. I know that there are many who have booked, so I am happy that you are following the Festival but today I am particularly honored to have not only a friend, from the time of Venice Film Festival, but an actor that I respect very much, because in addition of being a very good actor, he has now written also a book “It Seems Strange to Me Too”, and today gives us the privilege to presenting it here at the Festival. He is also a man of great generosity and tonight we will find out how by getting to know closely about his solidarity association that really raises a lot of funds to do good. This is important because it is a very rare thing and as a Festival we have always been close to solidarity initiatives with many associations for the past 5 years as FareAmbiente, Sarah’s Trust, Never Alone, so we are very happy to introduce here at the Festival also a great guest who, he is himself generous and whatever he does has an eye for the weakest, so I really welcome Can Yaman, thank you for being here…

So let’s leave Giulio do the interview and today we will get to know a little more about you Can with this wonderful book It Seems Strange To Me Too.

Giulio: Hello Can, first of all I thank you for being here with us, “It Seems Strange To Me too” the first question is: what prompted you to do an autobiography at the age of 32?

Can: The title says it… “It Seems Strange To Me Too” having written this book, I’ll tell you the most interesting thing, I wrote it at the age of 32 but the book talks about the first 24 years of my life, in the book I speak about another side of the person that I am, because the people who follow me, in general, they fall in love and know the characters I create and maybe they get confused with the characters I create thinking that I am that particular character. When you do this job, you always run the risk of not being well known for who you really are, when you reach popularity so quickly, because I became popular very quickly, like in 2-3 years and when you go up the stairs that fast people get curious about you, they search, investigate and maybe if they don’t find information about you, they invent it. When I went to google and I wrote Can Yaman, I saw informations that are totally false, they does not reflect me, they does not represent me, this bothered me. There is very little information about the real person that I am, so receiving such great love and affection internationally, and also doing a drastic thing as changing country and coming here in Italy, shooting in another language, being the protagonist of an Italian series, people want to know more about you, who you really are, so to reciprocate this attention I wanted to explain to everyone, once and for all, who I really am, in what environment I grew up, the teachings of my parents, which schools I did, what difficulties I had, so that they can identify with me, so my relationship with the public could still be more healthy, because they know me better, I had this need to explain myself.

Giulio: What does Italy represent for you from a personal and artistic point of view?

Can: Italy …. I also described it in the book as “providence” because I grew up in Istanbul which is a somewhat peculiar city because it unites two continents, Asia and Europe, it is a particular city and having grown up like this, I always wanted, always dreamed of being a citizen of the world, an international citizen, I did not want to be defined only as a Turkish, my mother was very keen that I learn languages ​​and other cultures so in middle school I learned English perfectly, then I already wanted to learn another language, in high school, this is a culture that derives from the Ottoman Empire that we have many foreign schools as French, American, English, German, I wanted to do Italian, which was more niche, more unique, and therefore I always liked Italy, the language and culture. At that age I already was aware of the fact of how important it could be to learn another language like this, and I wanted to learn Italian so at the age of 14 I chose this in Italian school. For 5 years I studied in the Italian high school, all subjects was in Italian, the teachers too so I Italianized myself.
I was a smart student, I fell in love with the language and in 1 year I spoke Italian very well, I finished the school with a very high average, then I chose Law and after I started acting. For 10 years I haven’t spoken Italian anymore, but as I said this fate is a bit ironic, after 15 years it takes you to Italy, to shoot in Italian, all these things I did during my childhood they satisfied me, for this reason Italy would be important, I don’t know if it is a coincidence or the irony of fate that I was particularly popular here in Italy, I don’t know, you have to ask God.

Giulio: We will ask for suggestions. You also had an important period of study in the United States…

Can: Yes, in the last year of high school I was the first in school as average, I had very high grades so in Turkey there was this competition that they were doing for all Muslim countries, when all these horrible events of terrorism were happening in America, September 11th, it started this thing of sending the best students from Muslim countries to America to create a more peaceful bridge. Turkey was one of these countries, they had to choose 36 students among the 3000 best students in all Turkey, I represented the Italian high school, being the best, the school had chosen me, they did a variety of tests, an English test, a general culture test, an oral interview so they could choose healthily. I was one of them, I went to America to represent Turkey and study there 1 year. Having discovered the European world through the Italian high school, for me it was an opportunity to discover the American world at that age, therefore approaching my goal of being a citizen of the world I was very excited. I went there to study 1 year in high school, to experience this thing and for me it was very important in my life because even today the things I learned from this experience have determined me and defined me who I am.

Giulio: Based on what you said but also reading your book there is a word that come back to my mind which is “change” you are very open to the change..

Can: Yes, I had many lives I can say and many phases, ups and downs and a lot of changes in my family also in terms of economic status, therefore in all my life I have always had scholarships, in the book I talk about how I got all these scholarships, because everything was a fight, a challenge, every time I had another victory, for me every year was a competition, in my opinion your question is about all this, the schools I have done, since I was studying law I had other dreams, when I was a lawyer for a while I also practiced the profession of lawyer it was another world, when I was in America another world again, when I was studying Italian another world , we can say that I am very open and I am also courageous, I could define myself as a courageous person because I decided to come to Italy in just 1 night, I woke up and said I am leaving, so it is not for everyone to decide this way and act too, however the life I led in childhood prepared me to be like this, if I didn’t do all these studies in my life, I couldn’t be so brave today in deciding things.

Giulio: Speaking about Italy, the Viola Come il Mare series, which you shot with Francesca Chillemi, will be broadcast in autumn, how was this experience, what can you tell us?

Can: For me it is a turning point, a challenge being a protagonist in another foreign language. Even if I know Italian I had a couch that made me work 3 hours a day, she prepared me, for me it was a very important experience, we have shot for 7 months, I have been able to experience a set environment in another country and it is definitely a very very important thing for me, so I can’t wait to see it on air and share with the public.

Giulio: Speaking About On the air, I ask the director to send a contribution before the next question (Video about the visit of the Hospital Umberto I in Rome)

This we saw was a contribution that concerned your Can Yaman for Children, you founded it last year if I’m not mistaken, what does this Association mean to you?

Can: For me it means Everything, what you see is just the beginning, the best is yet to come, we will do many other beautiful things that you will discover in the future, we have very important plans for the children, we will have beautiful things this is a beautiful beginning, the job I do, the work of actor is always about sharing, we share, we transmit emotions, it’s a continuous sharing, and therefore sharing is very important, for example Viola Come il Mare we shot it and it is not yet on air, I go crazy, I want to see it on screen, I want to share it immediately, I want to have the review immediately. Sharing is very important even in these cases I want to share my fame, because God has given me everything, if I do not share who I am, I would be selfish. In my book I shared the first 24 years of my life because I want to explain that I care about childhood, is in this period of childhood where we suffer, where we have difficulty, where we struggle, we fight, I believe that every child must have opportunities, if they do not have opportunities in this life it is not good, so creating this association I care that children have opportunities and I want to share the things I have received, I received a crazy love and I don’t want to keep it just for myself, I want to share it and to reciprocate, I want to do something ….we have done beautiful things together with my group and we want to do even more for the weakest creatures in the world.

Giulio: The last question I ask you is just about you, how do you imagine your future biography from now on, how do you imagine your future?

Can: I don’t think I will write another bio but I could do it because I haven’t revealed everything … there is a period that I have not revealed, in my book I have explained what kind of person I am to give people a chance, those who love me, to think like me, so maybe if a person reads fake news about me, they can think like me, they will understand if this news is false or true because they know me. I wanted to give them an opportunity to make them think like me so my book is particular in this sense, because they really know my roots, my base, the future book I don’t know, it would be maybe in 10 years, I don’t know, it’s impossible to write now because since I became an actor I interact with other famous people so it’s difficult to write another book where I talk about people because you can’t, ethically you can’t, so I see it as a bit tough, but let’s see.

Giulio: Well we thank Can Yaman for being here with us and a greeting from the Filming Italy Sardegna Festival. We remember his book “It seems strange to me too” Best wishes and thanks again!

Can: Thank you, thank you very much.