"My Don Matteo? Deep down, he is Trinity. Some details went unnoticed, but I used the beret instead of the cowboy hat, the cassock instead of the duster and the bicycle instead of the horse" reveals Terence Hill in Torella dei Lombardi (Italy) during the 15th edition of the festival Premio Sergio Leone.

Shortly before going onstage for the public interview conducted by Gianni Minà, the popular actor reveals that behind the priest-detective lie the tricks of the trade he learned from the 'father of spaghetti westerns'. "Sergio has changed my life. On the movie set of 'My Name is Nobody', I learned that a character is developed by definition. An example? To choose the hat for the film produced by Leone, we spent two days searching the stores of Los Angeles".

The success of the fiction 'Don Matteo', produced by Lux? "it's a conjuring mix of ingredients, but the success of a series is always inexplicable". A little hard to explain, just like his correlation of forty years with Bud Spencer, a global success, which lead them to make 18 movies together. "It was 1967. They were looking for an actor to play the character of the 'cat' in a western, directed by Colizzi, with the working title 'The Cat, the Dog and the Fox'. I had to change my name Mario Girotti and chose Terence Hill from a list of names, given to me by the producers. The character of the 'Dog' was played by an actor called Carlo Pedersoli, but he had also taken an american name: Bud Spencer. The movie title changed to 'God Forgives, I don't'. After the filming was over, I told the producers: I'll take this name for this one movie only, then I'll go back to my original name. But after the success of the film, I had to keep it. After every following movie, I said to myself: Next time, I'll call myself Mario Girotti again. And now, forty years have gone by".

He doesn't rule out another movie together with Bud Spencer, which would be their 19th. "But we would need the right script. Bud wanted us to play Don Quichotte and Sancho Panza a while ago, but their characters fail to win, and our audience wouldn't enjoy seeing us in a basically melancholic story. A more appropriate project is 'Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde'. I would play the doctor and Bud would play the monster. But that's just a faraway thought. One thing is sure: If we would find the right idea, we would have nothing against returning to the set together".

For the first time in Irpinia, where the festival takes place, Terence Hill admires the landscape. "I asked the driver who accompanied me to stop the car, to be able to enjoy the panorama of this pristine place. It reminds me of Umbria, where I filmed 'Don Matteo'".

Other projects for the future? "I acquired the movie rights of a novel, which I will only direct. No, it won't be a western, but when I'll work behind the camera, my role model will surely be my great teacher Sergio Leone".