Matilda De Angelis: ‘Watched Priyanka after I had shot for my Citadel’

ldquoI was over for the London premiegravere of Citadel and watched Priyanka Chopra for the first timerdquo says Italian lead actor Matilda De Angelis from Citadel Diana Which is the Italian extension of the Prime Video multiverse spythriller seriesBy then Matilda says she had already shot for her own show ldquoSo I couldnrsquot take anything from Priyankarsquos performance in Citadel into mine But I just thought to myselfmdashplease let me be at least as good as herrdquoIn the series Matilda plays spy Diana Thatrsquos pronounced lsquoDeeanaarsquo the Italian way As against lsquoDieanaarsquo for the late princess from Londonmdashwhere midday exclusively met Matilda along with her showrunner executive producer Gina GardiniShowrunner Gina Gardini with actor Matilda De Angelis PicGetty ImagesCitadel Diana dropped Oct 10 The show also has an Indian arm titled Citadel Honey Bunny that drops in November This while the second season of the main Citadel is currently being shot in London with the OG lead PriyankaView this post on InstagramA post shared by midday middayindiaAs a simultaneous crossover this is a first of sortsmdashwith Russo bros Anthony and Joe best known for Avengers along with sister Angela creatively helming this leap of faith for a global OTT projectThe final frame of Citadel 2023 lets out that there will be Diana One wonders if the Indian version was planned alongsideScan the QR code for videoGina says ldquoWe started at the same time fiveandahalf years ago The fantastic part of the experience was the Indian and Italian showrunners writers would get together every two weeks to spend two hours on Zoom to check where we were at in the writing processrdquoWhich is different from a common writersrsquo room ldquothat involves 27 people over 10 months breaking down episodes Our mission from the Russos and to Raj amp DK creators from India was the shows have to stand on their ownldquoThe idea isnrsquot to develop interconnected stories like Marvel There are however several winks in both showsmdashsubtle easter eggs for superfans where Dianarsquos world is in Honey Bunny and Citadel itselfrdquoThat Italy and India got picked first for expanding the Citadel spyverse appears natural to Gina ldquoHistories of cinema in both countries go back a hundred years with strong cultural identitiesldquoOur family values are similar Also despite genres we try and tell deeply emotional stories This isnrsquot just true for Diana and Honey Bunny but the overarching Citadel as wellrdquoWhile Matilda would like to be favourably compared to Priyanka in her Italian Citadel what she has in common with the dually hyphenated BollywoodHollywood star is shersquos also a singerTo drill in the fact of how big Matilda is back home the Italian press in Londonmdashrightly mesmerised by her performance in the showrsquos first episode premiegraveremdashtold midday what beats everything else is shersquos hosted SanremoMatilda laughs ldquoCan you imagine I did 20 movies but the time I conducted that one show everybody got to know me what am I doing with myselfrdquoAnd whatrsquos Sanremo ldquoItrsquos our Super Bowlrdquo Only that instead of sportAmerican football it involves Italyrsquos top musicians competing annually as if on Indian Idol that the whole nation is collectively hooked toMatilda doesnrsquot sing in Citadel For her favourite musical moviemoment she points us to ldquothe sequence of singing and acting in the film Robbing Mussolinimdashreally proud of that scenerdquoAs Diana of course she kicks ass with stunts and sophisticated weaponrymdashall along terminally embedded within the rival spy network Manticore while she belongs to CitadelThe former being a conglomerate of spies put together by the worldrsquos richest to take on Citadel Which in turn comprises exspies from wellknown agencies CIA MI6 etcHaving learnt of the nefarious ways of the deep state Citadelrsquos superspies have taken it upon themselves to save the world from both nationstates and Manticore sponsored by global billionairesItrsquos a farout idea alright But whatrsquos a movieseries of this genre if not a consummate conspiracy theory first We ask showrunner Gina if she herself believes in the possibility of a deep state within a deep stateShe says ldquoHonestly Just like therersquos dark web anything is possible That tradition where powerful families would want to maintain control for personal gains goes back centuries It wouldnrsquot surprise me if they created a network to sorta guarantee thatldquoIn this moment in time though I find it less possible that a bunch of people would similarly get together for the greater good like Citadel So I wish Citadel existed I wouldnrsquot be surprised if some kinda Manticore doesrdquoPoint taken