-This week defend multiple characters in the montage Malvivir, on the Cuyás stage. What attracted you to the challenge of assuming all the roles that she embodies in this picaresque feminine of the Golden Age?
-I think what attracted me most to this challenge was doing it hand in hand with my partner Marta Poveda and that, in addition, we shared characters, above all, the two main ones, the mischievous Elena and the mischievous Montufar. Then, the experience of working with Ay Teatro has been wonderful, because the shows by Yayo Cáceres and Álvaro Tato [director y dramaturgo] They always play with that closeness and, at the same time, that respect for what Golden Age theater and its language mean. His fast-paced productions, where music plays a fundamental role and the acting composition goes through the game and the rigor of being in a score that has to work like clockwork.
-A clock with many hands, which unfold into many papers.
-Yes, interpreting so many different characters requires very important body, physical and vocal work. In addition, the text has a very high degree of poetry but also harshness, because we played with that tragicomic counterpoint to tell a very harsh reality of women who had to survive in miserable conditions to get ahead. But they find that perfect balance between the lightness of comedy and the depth of tragedy.
-It could be said that Malvivir It is an exercise in pure theater. As an actress and mythical face of the cinema, do you confess, even so, a theater animal?
-Undoubtedly. For me, the stage is my natural space, the place I always want to return to. Although I say that I am going to take a long vacation, there is something that inevitably drags me to the theaters. I think it is, on the one hand, the vertigo and the adrenaline, the possibility of living a complete story from start to finish, with the complete adventures of all the characters, and on the other hand, doing it with the complicity of the public, which is another of the actors who are with us interacting from the seats. That secular ritual that is reproduced every day is something that has no equal.
-How have you coped with the blows to both branches of the sector during these long years of pandemic?
-For me it was very traumatic, because I was in the middle of the tour of the Juana show, with Chevi Muraday, and of course, it was interrupted from one day to the next, and with the uncertainty that lay ahead, we didn’t know if it was over forever. Fortunately, we were able to resume production once the theaters reopened and we were allowed to leave the house. But it was a very strange experience, with the limitations of the forum, the empty cities and the almost post-apocalyptic roads. So, people barely move and, on one occasion, we even did a streaming function in Parla, and it was one of the strangest and most curious experiences I’ve ever had in my life. It was good to live it once: but once and no more.
-What have you missed on the part of public institutions in this crisis?
-Well, I missed that, when we actors and actresses did theater in this risky situation -and it is still being done now-, it was not considered a risky job because, in fact, it was. Practically, almost 70% of the shows that I know had to stop because someone on the team had been infected and had infected the rest of the teammates. We were running a real risk and, then, at an economic level, what it meant to stop the shows for 15 days was not taken into account.
-His role in parallel mothers distinguished her with a Feroz award and a nomination for the Goya awards. What stands out from her experience as an “Almodóvar girl”?
-My experience as an “Almodóvar girl” could not have been better and more rewarding, really. I think that the character of Teresa is one of those supporting characters that Pedro embroiders and that remain mythical. Although her presence is small in the film, he gives them a unique entity and depth. Look, there are people who have even told Pedro to shoot a spin-off with the character of Teresa, and I have told him that, of course, I am at his disposal. But the best thing has been the pleasure of playing such a sweet character, because she is an actress playing an actress, but she is very different from me in so many things. I also love having coincided with Pedro at this moment in my life and his too, because I feel that he is in a very calm moment, very calm. I have come across a very open-minded Pedro, with a very rich back-and-forth dialogue. If I had caught this when I was younger, perhaps I would have lived it with more anguish, but I have lived it from the pleasure.
-Precisely, the last time he performed at Cuyás, in 2019, he gave life to Nora in dollhouse 2, sequel to the mythical work of Ibsen. From the 19th century to today, are real, complex, powerful female leads finally being written?
-I think that in the theater there have always been powerful female characters. And that I have been lucky enough to play many of those great characters. However, I think it is now that, in audiovisual fiction, it is beginning to be noticed for some time now that female characters are gaining in presence, density, complexity and reflection of reality.
-Last month the film was filmed in Toledo let no one sleep, an adaptation of the homonymous novel by Millás, with Malena Alterio. What can advance of this project?
-Well, I can make little progress on this project, but I can say that my participation is with a supporting character as well. The project is from a theatrical production company and its protagonist, whom Malena plays, is a taxi driver, and I am her first client. And from there, a relationship between us is established.
-Finally, at what point is Aitana-Sánchez-Gijón?
-Well, I’m living a fantastic moment, let’s say a life cycle change with a lot of stimuli at the work level. This tour of Malvivir is being a gift and next April 29 the premiere of La jefa, a film in which I starred alongside Belén Sanz, a fantastic young Argentine actress, directed by Fran Torres in her feature film debut. It is a very disturbing film and one that I am very, very happy about, and that addresses the issue of surrogate motherhood and the bond that is established between these two women, peculiar and disturbing.