World’s a Stage for Anna Galiena, Star of ‘Hairdresser’s Husband’

Having no plans for her future have paid off handsomely for Anna Galiena, who currently stars with Jean Rochefort in Patrice Leconte’s romantic French drama “The Hairdresser’s Husband.”

“I have always followed my whims, my desires, my wishes,” explains the Italian actress. “When I was younger I had a great desire to travel. I had to be all over the place. It was very destructive because each time I built something some place, I would leave it to go some other place.”

Her vagabond existence has become her biggest asset. “I find myself with credits in lots of countries and with the capacity of acting in four languages (Italian, French, English and Spanish).”

After living in Europe and Canada, Galiena moved to New York in the late ‘70s to try her luck at acting. “I spent the first year going to the theater and reading and memorizing Shakespeare,” she recalls. A friend encouraged her to audition. As luck and talent would have it, Galiena landed the role of Juliet in an Off-Broadway production of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” on her first audition.

“Your country was really a place of opportunities,” she says.

Galiena trained at the Actors’ Studios and worked steadily on the New York stage until 1984 when she decided it was time to return to Italy.

“I was doing good things, but I was so dissatisfied. I thought there was something wrong inside.”

The problem, she says, was her family. “My father didn’t really want me to be an actress,” she explains. “He hated me for being an actress. So when I left home it was pretty much an act of rebellion. I burned bridges at an early age and I had a desire to connect with my roots and go back. I wanted to make peace with my father.”

So the prodigal daughter returned home to Rome. “It was great for my mental health, my evolution and my relationship with my family.”