Rising Star Christian Vit On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Entertainment Industry
An Interview With Karina Michel Feld
Prepare to be very patient. — Since I started this career, I realized that it has a lot to do with the “waiting game”. You wait for an audition, for feedback, for a confirmation. Even when you get the job and you are on set, you wait A LOT. I haven’t a clue there is so much waiting. If somebody told me before, I’d probably make peace with that earlier instead of thinking too much about my phone ringing.
As a part of our series about pop culture’s rising stars, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Christian Vit.
Christian Vit is an Italian British actor based in London. Born in Venice, he discovered his passion for acting at a very young age, and he was in his first show at the age of five. He started his acting career in Milan where he also accomplished his studies. Christian has a Master’s degree in Public Relations majoring in Consumerism and Publicity at IULM University, Milan.Bilingual in Italian and English, he is also fluent in Spanish and French.
His First role in a film was in 2001 then, relocated to Rome, his acting experience continued with theatrical productions, and roles in Italian TV series and films such as: “Romanzo Criminale”, “La Squadra”, “Don Matteo”, “Carabinieri” and others. Soon after making London his home Christian was offered the role in Game of Thrones. This led on to other British and international productions including “Crossing Lines”, “The Job Lot” “The Heart Of The Forest”, and others..
In 2016 Christian joined the main cast of the very popular BBC1 medical drama series “Holby City” playing the character of Dr Matteo Rossini. His recent jobs include a role in the very recently broadcasted BBC sitcom “The First Team” by the same creators as “The Inbetweeners”, in the multi awarded comedy “I won’t say I love you” by director Jamie Anderson, in the web series “Sins of Solitude” by director Abbie Lucas, in the upcoming movie “I’m Not In Love” by director Col Spector and in other projects which are currently in post and pre production.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
Hello there! Such a pleasure to join you! I was born in Venice and I grew up on its outskirts, what we call “the mainland”. Of course, life was easier there, especially because transportation doesn’t happen only by boat or on foot. Yet Venice continued to be very close and accessible from my parent’s place and I used to go there a lot to enjoy its very “international” vibes, arts, and crowd. I think it’s because I began to soak up those vibes from a very young age that I always knew my life would have to lead me somewhere else in the world.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
I had the chance to play in a few school recitals when I was a kid and I remember that I really enjoyed those experiences, but the “cathartic” moment happened when I bumped into a movie set nearby the city of Vicenza where I happened to go for a visit with my parents. We arrived when the actors were filming a broadsword fighting scene. It was a period drama. Although the scene was happening a little far away from where we were standing, I could clearly see what was going on. I remember that at some point my legs started shaking, and I had a very strong feeling of excitement mixed with joy and curiosity I had never experienced before and I couldn’t explain. That feeling stayed with me for days. In the following years, that ”flame” that has been ignited inside me has been growing and has helped me to sense and understand what I had to do to follow my path. So at some point, I started taking my first acting classes in Milan and getting my first acting jobs in commercials and movies while I was still studying at the Uni.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
One of the first projects I took part in when I started my career was a movie about the life of Father Umberto Terenzi, the founder of the “Divine Love” Sanctuary located near Rome. It was an independent production, and the shooting went on for almost 1 and 1/2 years amongst a lot of difficulties and numerous journeys I had to do to reach the location via my own scooter from the city center on one of the most dangerous and trafficked local roads. The project has never been aired on television and never had a distribution either. It became a DVD sold to the pilgrims in the Sanctuary’s bookstore. Despite all the odds, the movie managed to have a premiere in a local movie theatre. At the end of the screening, an elderly lady who I had never met before came to me in tears. She held my hand and started thanking me, saying that she met Father Umberto Terenzi when he was alive, that my performance was very compelling, and that I very much reminded her of him. In that moment, something clicked in my mind and my heart. That was the best, the most emotional and truthful reward I had for all my acting jobs. That experience put a very solid ground stone within me as an actor and made me understand why I want to do this job and how I want to feel with my work, even if things didn’t go exactly the way they were planned.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
At the beginning of my career, I had an audition for a movie, and I was reading for a very colorful and picturesque kind of character. It was a callback, and I was asked to play in front of the casting director and the producers. I received the whole script, but I was asked to know by heart just a few scenes. Everything was going ok until the point I stopped, as I thought I reached the end of the scenes. A very awkward silence pervaded the room, and at some point, the casting director shouted: “Keep going!” I had to break character and say: “These are all the scenes I learned.” And the casting director replied: “Oh no! There is one more scene you were supposed to know by heart! The last one!” Gosh, I felt terrible! And I still remember that day like it was yesterday. As soon as I left the room, I immediately re-checked the email with the instructions for the audition and I realized I made the mistake. From that day, you can bet that I’ve read all the instructions before my auditions at least 3 times!
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
I’ve most recently been filming an American project in Florence called “Gabriel’s Rapture” by director Tosca Musk. It has been a while since I’ve filmed in Italy, and some of my scenes were happening in the Uffizi Galleries. Because of the pandemic, they were closed to the public, so we were blessed to have such an amazing venue just for us. This project is part of a trilogy and it is based on the novels by Sylvain Reynard. My character will also be appearing in the next and final part, which is meant to be filmed next year. I’m also involved in the post-production of a short movie I shot a few months ago named “The Bench,” written and directed by Rawaa Barnes. I think this little movie tells a great story and I’m really excited for it to be finalized and out to be watched.
You have been blessed with success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
My acting career has always been hand in hand with a journey to better understand and know my inner self. So if I look back since I started, I can definitely see there have been some dramatic changes in the person I am now, and I can say these changes were for the better. I’m not saying they happened easily, but they were certainly necessary. The first thing I would suggest is to take a moment and ask yourself “Why do I want to embark on this career?”
If the answer is because there is a “call” or a “need” that you are feeling, something deeply passionate and emotional within yourself that at the moment you can just barely visualize or name, it will never be a failure. No matter how things go. If the answer is instead because of the hope of overnight success, quick fame, and money, then besides the fact everybody needs to pay the bills and make a living, it will be very easy to see failure at every corner when things don’t happen exactly when and how you planned. If you are not prepared to be patient and resilient, to face rejection, and to commit and to be devoted to this path, it’s better you take another one.
We are very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?
Diversity is absolutely a great asset to the industry. It’s like adding a wider color range to a painter’s palette. When I relocated to London a few years ago I was told many times that I looked “exotic”. That made me laugh at the beginning, but then I understood that my diversity in the UK could have easily been used to fit a huge range of characters that I never considered while I was in Italy. The more diversity represented in film and television, the more this will help to positively affect the future generations and our culture, in order to be educated and respectful to each other. Also, what contributes to making some projects really brilliant and outstanding is of course the casting choice, and I think diversity is extremely helpful in delivering a different vision and thinking out of the box.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
1) Prepare to be very patient.
Since I started this career, I realized that it has a lot to do with the “waiting game”. You wait for an audition, for feedback, for a confirmation. Even when you get the job and you are on set, you wait A LOT. I haven’t a clue there is so much waiting. If somebody told me before, I’d probably make peace with that earlier instead of thinking too much about my phone ringing.
2) Make rejection your best friend and don’t take it personally.
No matter how many jobs you get and auditions you go through, I think getting a “NO” is always unpleasant. For this, you really need to find your own “recipe,” and the sooner you understand that it’s not just a matter of “you are liked or not” but that there are so many variables that occur in a project’s decision, and that they are totally out of your control, the more you relax and keep going.
3) Never lose hope and faith.
As I mentioned before, it’s very important to keep your mind and thoughts always in a good and positive place. There are moments when things are just going wrong, you feel stuck, frustration rises and the whole situation seems unbearable. Those are the times when I feel really tested, and when I think: If I manage to go through this moment, it really means my faith in what I’m doing is rock-solid. And this is exactly when a lot of people give up. Faith and hope need to be nurtured every day and they will become your lifeline.
4) Don’t compare yourself to others.
It is inevitable to look at what point other colleagues are in their career, but it’s very important to understand that the acting path is a very long journey and everyone has his own history. It’s easy to judge just from the outside and complain that everything is happening and going well for somebody else and not for us. But we don’t have a clue of what that person has been going through in his life. You really need to trust the process and just focus on creating and following your own path.
5) Trust your gut and don’t be afraid to say some “no”s.
It’s always good to be on set and doing the job, but we need to be careful. It will certainly happen that we will be a bit “naive” on our path and accept roles in projects just because they keep your career going, and they might hopefully generate some useful reel. Try to feel what your gut is saying about that. Of course, this is something it will come with the experience, but believe me, your gut will tell you. Every time I’m joining a new project or I’m embarking on something, I take some time to feel it. And if my tummy hurts, it’s a sign that what I’m about to do is not good for me. So it’s better if I say “no”. I really wish someone would have told me this before. It would have certainly kept me away from some disappointing and unpleasant experiences.
Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
I think developing good and healthy habits is very important because they positively affect both our body and our mind. Throughout the years, I’ve learned to develop my own discipline and that helps me to be strong and solid and to navigate even in the most challenging times. Once I was told: “The mind is like a wild horse. If you don’t take control, then she will.” So I think it’s crucial to cultivate positive thoughts and teach your mind how to nurture them and to divert back to them as soon as the negative ones knock on the door. This is a good and effective way to overcome some of the obstacles that you’ll almost certainly face on your path. Some people do meditation or other practices. I take very long walks in nature, listening to tunes that touch my emotional chords, and visualizing what my heart wishes. After that, I feel amazing, soothed, inspired, focused, relaxed, and ready to get back on track stronger than ever.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I’d love to see people be more gentle to each other. A movement that promotes doing something nice to others at least once a day. I’d love to create the habit of being more considerate to others through little gestures like a smile, a nice word, a phone call to someone we love, a polite answer, a “Hello,” a genuine “thank you”. I just have the punch line in my head: “Once a day, keep the love in place.”
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I’m blessed to have a very solid family behind my back and that has always been supportive and understanding. Such an example of consistency, love, reliability, and integrity. Without them, I certainly won’t be where I am now. After accomplishing my studies (I have a master’s degree in Public Relations with a major in consumerism and publicity), I got a permanent job in the marketing department in one of the biggest consumer goods companies in the world. A position everyone in the corporate world would have dreamed about. But I was completely unhappy. One day, I went to visit my parents and I told them I wanted to quit that job to become an actor. They were a bit scared of course, but they wanted me to be happy and they gave me their support from day one.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I always found this quote very inspirational by Norman Vincent Peale: “Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you’ll land among the stars”. When I started my journey I had clear images of where I wanted to be, what kind of person I wanted to be, and I had little glimpses of how I wanted to feel. Then I had to “translate” into reality what was in my mind: I had to act towards those new goals. Step by step, things started to get a shape and to happen, not always in the way I planned, of course, and because of that, I had to adapt and be flexible. My journey took directions and ways I would have never expected, but at the same time, I learned that it is crucial not to lose sight of the main goal, of the bigger picture. I had moments where things were going very well and I thought I was in the right place, and I finally arrived at the “destination,” even if that looked a bit different than my former idea. And then things suddenly changed again, and the feeling of keep going towards my former idea broke through again. So I understood that no matter how big and daring my dream seemed from the beginning, I had to honor that completely and not be satisfied with a smaller version of it.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)
I would love to have breakfast or lunch with Jeff Bridges. Despite the tremendous respect and admiration I have for his work, I always had the impression that he is a solid, genuine, and down to earth human being. Also, he’s a man who improves and gets better with age. Like a good wine.
How can our readers follow you online?
I think the easiest way is on social media, here below are my profiles:
Instagram: @christian.vit
Twitter: Chr_Vit
Facebook: Christianvit.actor
This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
About The Interviewer: Karina Michel Feld is the Owner and Executive Producer of Tallulah Films. Karina has 20+ years of experience in TV, film, and print and is a respected member of The Producers Guild of America. The mission of Tallulah Films is to bring together directors, entrepreneurs, film investors, and screenwriters to produce award-winning TV and film projects. Tallulah Films continues to be drawn towards films that are meaningful, influential, and uplifting. Karina is also Co-Owner and CFO of Fresh Patch LLC (as seen on ABC’s “Shark Tank”).
