Ricci Guarnaccio Interview for Boar
The stars of Geordie Shore are known more for their boozy antics than their acting prowess. Hoping to change that though is Ricci Guarnaccio. Guarnaccio joined Geordie Shore in its second series before leaving at the end of series five. Following his time on the show, he has appeared on Celebrity Big Brother, Dinner Date and Ex on the Beach. Now though, Ricci is looking for a change of career path as he branches out into the world of acting.
First up is his role in forthcoming creature feature horror film – Boar. The film debuted to UK audiences last Friday at Arrow Video Frightfest. Ricci was there to present his debut to the Frightfest masses and we caught up with him prior to the screening to find out how he made the move from reality television to film, his Neighbours dream, and the importance of always checking Australian toilet seats.
How do you go from Newcastle, England, to Australia and being part of Boar?
Geordie Shore, it gave us a platform. It plays to seventy-nine countries worldwide. We get tweets from Colombia, South Africa, Canada, it’s crazy. I mean obviously we got our shore off of the back of Jersey Shore, but we’re like ten times bigger than Jersey Shore, we just went viral. In Australia and New Zealand it’s been such a good home for us. All going over there, all doing tours. I moved there in 2016 and I’m gonna move back over there next year. It’s just such a beautiful place, I love it. But to get Boar, I was touring Australia and I met the director on set there. He was – ‘I’d love to get you involved in something one day,’ and then because I moved over he was saying ‘let’s get Ricci in the film, let’s get Ricci in the film. We’ve got to kill him off!’ So I had a few meetings with them and got the script, and went and did acting classes with a coach for four months.
Chris [Sun, the director] was very hands on. He was really on at the coach, ‘is he doing this, is he okay at that’, very hands on which is good. It was quite daunting. Going from reality TV….I’m confident in front of the camera and you get used to it. I’ve done that many reality TV programmes, you know what you’re doing, you know what you’re saying, you know what the audience like. Even though it’s edited, you still have an idea of what you’re doing. But acting is obviously a completely different kettle of fish. You’re playing someone completely different as a role. You’ve kind of just got to lose your mind in a sense. Especially as I was the only one in my scene. You’ve got no one around to bounce off of.
When I went on set, you’ve got ninety people, cameras on cranes, lights, and he says action and I’m like, ‘What am I doing here?!’ But you kind of just get the flow of it. We were filming that scene for fourteen and a half hours straight. It was ‘cut, action, cut, action’ on set. The adrenaline just takes you through the night. It was just amazing. It was class.
Ricci Guarnaccio Interview for Boar
Is acting something that you’d like to move into more now?
Absolutely! I would love to jump into something like Neighbours or Home and Away. I just feel like they’d be really enjoyable to do. Reality TV will always be there, always. I might be doing something in America at the end of this year, and in New Zealand, but I think acting for me at thirty-one / thirty-two… so I think for longevity it would be something good to go into.
So are you a big Neighbours fan?
Yeah, I’ve watched it since I was a kid!
They had Ryan Thomas in a guest stint recently, would you maybe like to do something similar?
No, more of a solid role to be honest with you.
What type of character?
Someone smooth, relaxed… a ladies man. A ladies man. I can see it now, the first scene, walking on the beach, top off, shades on, in the wind. Hair just going back, I can see it right now. All the ladies being ‘whose that guy?’ (laughs).
Outside of work in an Australian soap, what would your dream role be?
I don’t know about a role, but I’d really like to work with Sylvester Stallone. Love to! Because of the Ricky films and stuff like that. I think he’d be the one person that I’d be in awe of as well. I would love to mix it with him, it’d be cool man doing a boxing film or something, pure class!
But for now you’re in a horror film…
It’s gorier than horror because of all the kills in it. It’s got endless kills in it. I think it’s got the most kills you’ll ever see in an entire film. I think the whole cast get killed off (laughs).
And there are some big names in the horror genre involved….
Huge!!!
…that killed off.
So you know…you know John Jarratt?
Yes.
Finally, I’m speaking to someone who knows who he is! Every single other interview they have no idea. So you’ve seen Wolf Creek?
Yes.
Thank you! So when I was fourteen / fifteen, I remember going to Blockbuster and I’ve always loved horrors, and I remember renting Wolf Creek, and I was thinking I would never go to Australia. This was when I was young, I’ll never go to Australia, never go to the outback. So to do a film with Bill Moseley, John Jarratt, Nathan Jones, I mean these are big, big actors. To be even mentioned alongside them is mind-blowing. You can do all the TV shows you want around the world, but when you’re doing something with John Jarratt. He’s literally one of the biggest stars in Australian veteran film stars there is.
Personally, I’m never going to go to Australia because of the spiders…
They’re horrible you know? I hate them. Hate them! I remember when I first moved to the Gold Coast there was this metal railing and there was this big grey fluffy spider, with this white thing. I was like ‘Jesus’! But there are red-backs everywhere. Everywhere (shudders), oh it goes through us. I hate them. I can’t think of anything worse. It’s the only thing that scares us over there, spiders. When I was filming, we were in the outback and obviously, there are spiders, snakes. We were in the middle of nowhere, and I mean nowhere. When I had to do a lot of the takes I had to be on the floor. For doing the barbwire and stuff like that. I’m on the floor for about four hours and I’m thinking ‘get me off this floor!’ I’m rolling around in these fields and you just think, ‘what if there’s a spider or a snake?’ You’re in the back arse of nowhere. I was just thinking get me off of this floor!
“I’m meant to die in the film, not here!”
(Laughs) not literally! If you ever go to Australia, make sure you flush the toilet before you go to it. Underneath the rim because it’s colder and cooler for them. So there was this guy I was talking to at some radio station, and he said he sat down and apparently a spider bit his balls, (laughs) so he had to go to the hospital. That’s why you should always flush the toilet first.
Ricci Guarnaccio Interview for Boar
Knowing who the likes of John Jarratt are, you’re clearly familiar with the horror genre. What are some of your favourites?
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, loved that one as a kid. I’ve seen every single horror under the sun – not by myself though – all the old ones like Friday the 13th and stuff like that. I watch all the old-school ones. If you get more recent, you can not beat the Paranormal Activity. You can’t get any better. I think the first one cost like thirteen grand or something to make and it took two-hundred million dollars. It’s insane! For sticking some cameras in a house?! It’s mad.
You have a big social media following, I’m guessing that will help get Boar out there?
When we and Chris spoke about the project as well, he said it’d be great as I bring in a different demographic, which is great for the film. It was nice to go into a role that I was really happy to do, rather than just going in and being ‘I’ll do it for the sake of doing it’. I can’t explain to you how comfortable he made us feel as well going into it. I mean, I’m a confident person anyway, but doing that was really important. It’s just mind-blowing, Universal Pictures? It’s crazy.
What do you hope that the audiences will get from watching Boar?
Well, obviously I’m not in it for too long, even though I was filming for fourteen and a half hours. It’s a gory, fun film. Nathan Jones is in it as well. He normally plays bad guys in every single film he’s in, but he’s quite hilarious in this one. I just want people to watch it and enjoy it.
