2023-09-24 11:27:56
After starring in ‘A Perfect Tale’, the romantic comedy based on one of Elísabet Benavent’s novels, Anna Castillo finds herself immersed in an intense story of survival in ‘Nowhere‘, the new Spanish film by Netflix which arrives on the platform on Friday, September 29. In this drama by David Pintó (‘Sky Rojo’, ‘La casa de papel’) she plays a pregnant woman who flees from a totalitarian regime with her husband. But she ends up alone in a container and in the middle of the sea, where she will have to manage to try to stay afloat, about to give birth.
Her character, Mia, has a really hard time in the film and the viewer also experiences that tension with her. Was the filming that nerve-wracking?
Not distressing, but it was exhausting to always be in such an extreme emotional state and maintain that continuity of ‘connection’.
The film also required physical effort. Was there any mishap?
I was wearing protection and a giant belly that weighed eight kilos, but when in the film the container falls into the sea the hits are real because everything was moving a lot. Plus there was smoke and with that and the screams my throat became irritated. I got tonsillitis, I got a fever and we had to readjust the filming so that I could be on antibiotics at home. And another day when we were filming in the sea I got heatstroke. They came to take my blood pressure and it was very low, so we had to postpone the scene to the next day.
Mia appears in all the scenes movie, in most of them alone. Did she get dizzy when she read the script?
Clear. For me the challenge was that, how to carry the weight and responsibility of the film. Also, in a type of film that doesn’t usually reach me, so commercial. It seemed like a great opportunity to me. And on the other hand, there was the challenge of being in all the shots of a film with such a great emotional charge. And alone. I had never stopped to think how much a partner on stage deconstructs you. So I made the movie to test myself.
“I want to play bad, but it seems like they don’t see me”
The plot of Mía, escaping by hidden sea to escape a totalitarian regime, is fiction. But it is a story that, unfortunately, appears in the news daily.
Yes, the people who die every day at sea are terrible. But this movie is not about that. I already did ‘Mediterranean’, which was a social drama that talked about Open Arms, and ‘Nowhere’ is a dystopian reality. The totalitarian regime serves to put the character in context and understand what this girl is doing fleeing in the container.
Is your character the best example that we can draw strength and courage even if we didn’t even know we had them?
Yes, because I think I would die being there. Mia is in a very fragile moment because she carries a very great guilt. If it were up to her, she would quit in more than a moment. But her baby depends on her and that means she can’t give up and draws strength from where she doesn’t have it to fight all the time.
Was it easy for you to leave behind a character like this, with so much emotional charge, when they said ‘cut!’?
When I’m filming it is very easy for me to get out of character because being in that state of anguish, sadness and fear all the time is very tiring. So when they say ‘cut’ I leave happy and go home where, thank God, life is simpler. It is more difficult for me when the film ends, as I do have an emotional hangover for a while, as if it were a small duel for the character.
Was the character of Mía written for you?
I don’t think they wrote it especially for me. I did a test, a ‘zoom’ with the director and the producer, and they said yes.
How are the castings done?
I hate them deeply because there is something of that vulnerability and exposure that I have always had terrible because I get very nervous. I hadn’t done it in a while, but this year I made a couple and they said no. In some cases they have ghosted me.
Has done drama,’thriller‘, comedy, police action and comes from making ‘Easy’ and ‘A perfect story’, two very different series. What’s left to try?
I would love to do a ‘biopic’ of a rock star or something that had to do with music. I love love stories and I would like to make a more dramatic one or talk about relationships from another point of view, not from a romantic comedy. I haven’t played characters with bad morals either, I’m always pretty good and sweet. I want to play bad! I could do it, but they don’t seem to see it.
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