A London stranger from Canada who you will instantly fall in love with!

Gina Budai: The character is called Ben, who used to be a soldier but is now a bodyguard. He is quite a complex figure, it is difficult for him to show his emotions, although he is quite sensitive and has difficulty trusting people. However, he falls in love with the girl next door and starts courting her romantically.

Since you are also an actor (congratulations on your new film), how much can you identify with this character?

Joseph Cannata: Thank you, I was really excited for this movie to release, and I’m happy it was well received as a holiday movie, it was a lot of fun to be a part of and I certainly look forward to many more.  I can identify with ben quite a lot actually. Its interesting when you read quickly about a character and find traits in you that match with this character. That’s important, for me especially as an actor, I want to find a few things that are relatable, because the performance can feel more natural.  In my everyday life, I am actually quite closed off, I don’t allow everyone to get too close to me, like Ben, I do have trouble trusting, but once I’ve given you my trust, I am a lot more open.

 

GB: How romantic are you? Also, if a girl likes you, how proactive are you? Are you more of a fan of long courtship?

JC: I’ve not been in love in quite some time, I think a large part of it is due to my past relationship, I needed time to grow, learn and experience more about myself, the things I want in a loving relationship, but more importantly myself, being able to look in the mirror happy with the man I have become. I don’t think I am a romantic, but I also am not NOT romantic, I fall somewhere in the middle. A balanced approach.

 

GB: What is the perfect woman for you? (For appearance and internal properties.)

JC: The older I have gotten, my preferences for woman has really changed. I am a person who must be challenged, she must challenge me to be a better person everyday, to help me learn, communicate in an effective, positive way. Physical appearance is important to me, of course, it is not everything, which is why I’ve chosen to answer the question second. Beauty really does come in all shapes and sizes, and my “type” is someone I know when I see her, she can have blonde, brown, purple hair it doesn’t matter. I want her to be active, and enjoy a healthy, balanced approach to life. Definitely no smoking, drugs - That’s something I cannot stand by to.

GB: Please tell me what a perfect date with this girl would be like?

JC: My background is italian, so naturally I love to eat. I really do love going out for dinner, to a beautiful restaurant, preferably sit outside, listen to some quiet music, and share a wonderful meal together, this way you get to enjoy food, company and hopefully a great conversation, I really think sometimes the most basic concept of a date is the best.

 

GB: I saw on your Instagram page that you like to travel, what are your favorite countries?

JC: Yes! Travel is extremely important to me, it’s a chance to find out more about yourself, learn, grow, gain knowledge, see other parts of the world, see how other peoples live their lives, embrace culture. I think it’s such a special thing if you get to travel. My favourite country I think is South Africa, I spent almost 1.5 years there, and that is what really propelled me to fall in love with traveling, fortunately from work I’ve been able to travel to some unique places like Zambia, Austria, Hamburg.

 

GB: Is there a country you haven't been to but would like to go there?

JC: The list is very very long, there are so many countries I have not yet been able to travel to. Off the top of my head, I certainly want to see more of Europe - I’d like to go back to Italy (as an adult) I haven’t been back there since I was a little boy. I would love to travel Greece, Turkey, Portugal, France, Hungary :P - I have an obsession with the middle east, so to travel through there would be wonderful as well.

GB: In the novel, it often happens that the characters play video games. Do you like video games? If so, which one is your favorite?

JC: I do enjoy video games :) I have finally got myself a Playstation 5, so my down time I do play a lot of it. I am a sports guy, so I like to play the hockey game on it, it’s super competitive and actually a very difficult game to play, everyone seems to be so good online.

 

GB: In one of your interviews for the movie "A Brush with Christmas", you showed the painting you made.. Do you like the painting?

JC: Well that painting was just something I came up with during covid - during lockdown, I wanted to try painting, but I didn’t paint very much because it’s an expensive hobby and I wanted to use good paint/canvas etc..

GB: My new novel features a tennis player (partly inspired by you, partly because I love tennis), do you still play? Or do you follow the matches? Do you like clay or hard courts? Who is your favorite tennis player?

JC: I have really enjoyed playing tennis, I am rather new to playing but it seems I picked up the sport pretty well, I am not great, but I am decent, and just play for fun, but competitively fun :) I would say Nadal is my favorite, as I LOVE Spain, ha ha ..makes sense right?

GB: If you could see into the future, how would you see yourself in five years?

JC: What’s important to me is family, and health. So I’ll keep this answer as honest as possible and just hope that myself, and myself have our good health, because without that, life can be very challenging.

 

GB: A shaky topic is coming.

How spiritual are you?

JC: I am not too spiritual - I believe in things like, energy, vibrations, other peoples vibes, I believe in inner dialogue, conversations with ones self - if that’s spiritual or not I don’t know. But I am  also open minded.

GB: Let me know what the daily life of an actor/model is like.

JC: I wish I could tell you this answer is exciting, but its really not. When you’re busy, you’re working, enjoying your job, and focused, But theres also a lot of downtime, I am not a movie star so I am not extremely busy. So a lot of my downtime is focused on myself, working on my mind, my body, staying ready for what may come.

GB: How do you relate to your fans? Do they embarrass you sometimes? And most importantly, how do you handle positive and negative criticism?

JC: I have fans? - maybe my mom is my only fan, and she doesn’t ever say anything bad about me, so thanks mom for keeping it positive haha. People are always going to say something negative about anyone, fortunately I haven’t dealt with a lot of that, and maybe in the future I will, but you have to ignore it, it is what it is.

GB: We already talked about the fact that there will be a summer book festival in Budapest, you don't have to answer now, but we would love to see you and it would be a great experience for everyone.

JC: Yes, it seems like it would be a really fun experience, you never know what can happen. I think it would be fun! Thank you so much for the invite.