Rudy Mancuso (‘Musica’) on turning his neurological condition of synesthesia into musical magic [Exclusive Video Interview]
Rudy Mancuso knew that he wanted to tell as authentic a story as possible in the Amazon Prime Video made-for-TV movie “Musica,” his romantic comedy, quasi-musical, semi-autobiograhical, coming-of-age story on which he basically does everything. He executive produced it. He co-wrote the screenplay. He directed it. He composed the music for it. And he co-stars. But Mancuso took his need for realism still further. He also cast his very own mother Maria Mancuso – who had no previous acting experience – to portray his mother. And shortly after he began shooting the film with co-star Camila Mendes (“Riverdale”), the two weren’t just pretending to be attracted to one another; they fell in love for real and are still attached. In other words, not only did life imitate art in the movie. Art imitated life, too. “I know, slap on the wrist,” he jokes. “I’m a method actor – what can I say?” Watch the exclusive video interview above.
Indeed, it’s hard to know while watching the impossibly charming “Musica” where reality ends and fantasy begins, or vice-versa. “We also shot the scenes of me and my mom in the house in the actual house I grew up in in New Jersey,” Mancuso emphasizes. “The fish market where I meet Isabella (Mendes) is the actual fish market where my mom would go when I was growing up. The restaurant is one I went to every weekend as a kid. The surrounding Ironbound streets, that’s the actual neighborhood in Newark. It’s all real.”
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But perhaps the most genuine thing is the film’s storyline itself. It counterbalances a simple boy-meets-girl tale with a more complex perspective involving Brazilian culture, the Brazilian-American experience, the Portuguese language Mancuso spoke in his house – and finally synesthesia. What is synesthesia, you ask? It’s neurological condition that’s impacted Mancuso throughout his life in which one involuntarily experiences one sense through another. As he describes it, “Some people can taste Tuesday, others can smell the number four.” In Mancuso’s case, it’s manifest itself through hearing everyday sounds like a ball bouncing or a shoe hitting pavement into musical rhythm. The musicality its brought to the filmmaker’s life and how it’s impacted it for better and for worse form the crux of “Musica.”
“Growing up, synesthesia is a perspective and an experience I’ve always had, but I didn’t really know that it was diagnose-able,” he stresses. “I didn’t know there was a name for it until way later in my life. What I didn’t know is there’s so many different types of synesthesia. It’s just intertwining of the senses that is sometimes super-torturous and sometimes super-helpful. I’m very lucky. I get to channel that perspective and experience through my work and through creating art and storytelling. Growing up, though, it was getting in the way of school, of relationships, of conversations, of family, until in my young adulthood I finally found my footing…To this day, the synesthesia hasn’t gone away, but I’ve been able to use it as an asset instead of a hindrance.”
Mancuso’s condition leads in his film to space-outs and occasional misunderstandings with the people around him. It also generates exciting moments in which everyday objects (a broom, pans, eating utensils) energizing beats skin to the stage play “Stomp.”
Working with his mother Maria proved a revelation for Mancuso in “Musica.” He says, “I wanted more than anything to have that chemistry and authenticity in the other-son relationship, and my mom is a natural. She’s kind of unapologetically herself on- and off-camera and had this ability to play herself regardless of the size of the crew or the environment. So I had to take advantage of that and it wasn’t always easy. She’s not a trained actor. She doesn’t understand blocking and memorizing lines and camera positions, but I’m not trained either, so it was a lot of fun.”
Also fun for Mancuso was falling for his costar. As they were shooting and their characters were building a supposed chemistry, so were they in real life. “I didn’t anticipate the chemistry being that palpable that quickly,” he admits. “Pretty early on, we realized, ‘Oh, this is probably more than just a performance.’ I think it was day of shooting where we were physically shot together. Our characters were kind of laughing and charming each other. So it was pretty much immediate.”
“Musica” streams on Prime Video.
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