2023-06-17 09:33:05
Javier Cámara (Albelda de Iregua, La Rioja, 1967) confesses that he has never been good at castings due to nerves. It is hard for him to imagine coming from one of the most established actors in the Spanish audiovisual industry, who has worked with Almodóvar and in international productions such as ‘Narcos’ and ‘The young Pope’. Last year he fulfilled one of his dreams, starring in a ‘thriller’, and now he has the opportunity to delve into new intrigues with the second season of the series. ‘Rapa’available in Movistar Plus+.
In the new episodes his character, Tomás, is more deteriorated by ALS. How did he prepare it?
We had several talks with two doctors who handle cases in A Coruña. It was very hard because it is a terrible disease. It makes me ashamed to talk about it because one tries to do it well knowing that there are many families that are suffering from this problem.
Tomás no longer teaches at the institute and now it seems that the investigation of the cases is the only thing that gives meaning to his life.
His reality is his illness and, through his caustic humor and his bad mood, he continues to touch Maite’s balls [Mónica López]. Now more deeply because she has a lot of free time and, above all, she wants to forget about her reality and live other fantasies. Fantasies that are terrible for other people, because they are about murders, but that he lives them as if they were stories to write the book that he never wrote.
The relationship of Tomás and Maite (Mónica López), the civil guard, continues to be the most curious. They are friends, they fight constantly and at first you wondered if they would end up together or not.
Monica and I are very happy with this relationship. They are a couple over 50 years old who have no interest in getting involved or living a love story. He, from his bad host and his special humor, helps Maite to see things from the outside. She gets more emotionally involved. It is good for Tomás to have someone like Maite, with that love and empathy, even if he doesn’t tell her. They are building a very special friendship that we don’t normally see in the series.
In this season, Tomás and Maite investigate two separate cases.
Yes, in the first season there was only one case but in this one there are two and that gives it a lot of dynamism. The cases go in parallel and they have meetings at home where they share things, although Maite hides information. And with that priority that she gives Tomás to time, it seems that he is a sword of Damocles and that is why she wants to solve everything as soon as possible. What I liked the most about this season was the military part of the arsenal, that area of Ferrol unknown even to the people of Ferrol. Precisely where I did not shoot!
“I’m not very good at ‘castings'”
Is it difficult for you to see yourself on the screen?
It’s hard for me, but I watch the episodes because of the interviews and because I haven’t seen the director’s point of view. This season, I didn’t film the entire part of Maite’s case, so now I see a series that I hadn’t seen filming. I spend my scenes a little faster, with that man so unbearable.
Do you dislike Thomas?
No. I don’t like myself a little because I’ve seen myself so many times… (laughs) After so many years you get used to it and you’re less critical of yourself.
Do you get nervous in the ‘castings’?
Everyone gets nervous at the ‘castings’. But since now they are not face-to-face and you send a tape, it no longer happens to me. I’m not very good at castings.
It’s hard to believe with his resume.
The first ‘casting’ I did I didn’t even know it was a ‘casting’. It was for the series ‘Oh sir, sir’. They started asking me questions while they were doing my makeup and I started making up the character right there. I imagine that they were a little desperate and that they saw me with the face of a priest, the role that I had to play.
Your father was a farmer and you had to follow the saga. But he went to Madrid to be an actor.
I was not clear that I wanted to be an actor. What was clear to me is that I wanted to leave my town because I felt constrained there. I passed the tests to enter the School of Dramatic Art but the first months I didn’t know what I was doing there. Then I did see that it was what I liked. But I also didn’t know if I wanted to be an actor, an errand boy or an usher, something I’ve been working on.
Until ‘Oh sir, sir’ and ‘Seven lives’ changed everything.
In ‘Oh sir, sir’ was the first time I saw a camera. Pajares took me by the arm, placed me where I should be, and told me where to look. He gave me a ‘master’. He also changed it ‘Torrente’ a year before. He gave me the assurance that I had been in a movie that had been enormously successful. Santiago Segura had a lot of trouble convincing the producer for me to be in ‘Torrente’. They didn’t like me because they considered me a theater actor. The ‘Siete vidas’ thing was a more personal success because there were 90 episodes. It was doing theater on a television set and all of us who were there gave us a lot of confidence.
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