When Sabrina Impacciatore got the script for “The Paper,” she wasn’t sure how she should play Esmeralda Grand, the newspaper’s managing editor.
“I used real emotions,” Impacciatore recalls. “I was really crying. I was really shaking and then, at the end of the audition, I can’t remember who told me, ‘Sabrina do you understand that Esmeralda is manipulative and she’s pretending to cry?’ And at the end of this, I said, ‘I’m going to use this because it’s a process … I’m still figuring out Esmeralda. I’m still trying to figure out what’s going to happen.’”
Sabrina Impacciatore, left, as Esmeralda and Ramona Young as Nicole in "The
In the new Peacock series, Esmeralda steps aside for a new editor, but retains control over the online version of the Toledo Truth Teller. Still in charge? Old habits die hard.
For Impacciatore, who earned an Emmy nomination for the second season of “The White Lotus,” “The Paper” was a real gift. Creators Greg Daniels and Michael Koman crafted a character who is loud, “all over the place … and just a little bit crazy,” she says.
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Producers initially wanted her to have an American accent but, after meeting, decided Esmeralda is an Italian who married an American and came to live the American dream.
“That’s what we have in common,” Impacciatore says. “The American dream.” Otherwise, the two are wildly different. “I don’t want to learn anything from Esmeralda because I do not want to become like Esmeralda. She’s fun … but I’m really trying.”
Before she hit in “The White Lotus” (creator Mike White “changed my life forever”), the 50-something actress was largely known for her work in Italian films. She did reality series and theater as well but never really thought she’d find a place in the American entertainment industry.
Then, “White Lotus” came into her life. Valentina, the hotel’s manager, was very private, very intimate, “almost ashamed of what she was feeling,” Impacciatore says. “Esmeralda is all over the place she thinks she can do anything.”
That crazy label? The actress welcomes it. “I don’t want to get bored.”
Sabrina Impacciatore and Domhnall Gleeson star in "The Paper."
When Impacciatore got on “The Paper’s” set, she realized the lighting was realistic, not screen quality, “so I thought, ‘Esmeralda does her own lighting,’ and Greg and Michael loved this.” The character, as a result, is bathed in ring lighting.
“I was scared that this character could not be likable because she’s so manipulative, so nasty. She says things that are very, very bad — ‘How can I make her nice?’”
Then, a picture of Tweety Bird came in Impacciatore’s head and she realized Tweety Bird acts out of survival. So, too, Esmeralda. “To protect herself, she has to use every possible gun. First gun, is nails. I always had the shortest nails but I thought if she had long nails she can hypnotize people. She can seduce. She can be sexy. She’s not a journalist, but she’s very good at selling things.”
Add in a Rita Hayworth “Gilda” hairdo, a desire to be the documentary’s star and a plan to always wear dresses, and Esmeralda started to come together.
Now, with 10 episodes completed, Impacciatore is musing about the next 10. A Halloween episode is a must, she says. And, in the closing episodes of the first season, viewers get a glimpse of her life as a mother.
As a result of the one-two punch on American television, “I could die in a half hour as a happy person,” Impacciatore says. “I’ve been failing all my life … I’m used to failing. Every moment of struggle and every moment of failure was just perfection (because) now I feel I’m a richer human being.”
“The White Lotus” gave her a launching pad. “The Paper” could do even more. “It’s a long story,” Impacciatore says of her background. “I could write a book … but this is how it happens.”
“The Paper” airs Sept. 4 on Peacock.
