THE ART OF BECOMING: EMANUELA POSTACCHINI

EMANUELA POSTACCHINI DIVULGES HER ROOTS, HER REFERENCES, AND WHAT DREW HER TO THE STAGE.

By Megan Liu

Emanuela Postacchini is no stranger to the stage. Trained as a ballet dancer, she grew up attuned to the audience, developing the discipline required to perform before others. At 13, while rehearsing for a company recital, she stumbled upon a theater group. She longed for that vulnerability and freedom—it seemed to move beyond the body. “I was fascinated,” she tells Beyond Noise. “I would spy on them [from backstage].” Acting’s pull was immediate, and she hasn’t looked back since.

Raised in a small Italian village, Postacchini traces her taste and sensibilities back to the visual language of her home country’s classic cinema—films like Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (1960). But if Italy set the atmosphere, Hollywood gave her an emblem: One of Emanuela’s earliest idols was Audrey Hepburn, who likewise had her start in ballet. She admired the actress’s elegance and composure, particularly as it appears in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). Audrey’s style, through Emanuela’s eyes, seemed to operate as both armor and invitation.

That comfort with duality emerges in Emanuela’s roles today; she gravitates toward nuanced characters, who move the narrative forward in unexpected ways. In her most recent film (the crime-comedy Riff Raff (2024), also starring Gabrielle Union, Jennifer Coolidge, and Pete Davidson), Postacchini fully embodies Marina, the pregnant girlfriend of Rocco, who reunites with his father, a former criminal. She fully sells the bodily transformation—ethereal, radiant, and empathetic—while containing Marina’s past traumas, complexities, and motives.

In preparing for the role, Emanuela imagined that Marina grew up as an orphan. It helped her understand her character’s fierce attachment to familial love. During filming, she wore her prosthetic belly whenever she could, learning the postures by heart, resting her palm against it without thinking. Not long after, life mirrored art—she became pregnant in real life. “Whatever I was playing became reality,” Emanuela says.