Can I call you ‘Lady of the stage’ or would you prefer the title of ‘all-rounder of the performing arts’?
Just call me Lola, but anything that sounds funny I really like.
How do you feel those compliments when they say them on the street?
Good, because I’m normal. I know that popularity brings people closer and I’m a bit like the second-neighbor. For people I am someone close, someone who has always existed, especially since I started on television. Television has that, two days after you go out you are already known by everyone even if they don’t know your name. In the theater, on the other hand, you have to spend years to be known.
What is Lola Herrera hooked on?
To the theater and sometimes to the chocolates. I am passionately hooked to the mechanism of my work, to what it means to use the imagination, to use my head to walk through a character, to transmit it… It is a ritual that I really like.
divine vice of theaterin which he has only been six decades, is he still learning?
You always learn, because you also don’t work alone, there is an exchange. As soon as one gets up, things arise to learn from, if not, what a paralysis.
Paralysis, crisis, recession… Do you notice precariousness near you, in the sector in which you work?
Of course, there are many people without work. The profession has become immense and there is not for everyone. I know many colleagues who are having a seriously bad time. What happens is that in this job you don’t know when the phone is going to ring, and that can lead you to despair. In this profession there is hope until it is exhausted.
What do you admire about your travel companions, about two ethnic actresses such as Lola Baldrich and Ana Labordeta?
All. They are phenomenal actresses and unbeatable partners. There is harmony and understanding within work, and outside of it there is also a way of seeing things that unites us a lot.
What are you discovering through a play like addicted?
The use of technologies, I am informing myself and finding out what can be done through them. I stay glued to the programs or documentaries that talk about wiretapping or that they have us all under control. This function has a lot to do with what they can do with us, with what the great world powers can claim, faceless but pulling the strings from somewhere, and who are undoubtedly the owners of our lives.
Do we cross our arms or rebel?
You have to be rebellious, you don’t have to settle. To conform is to die. You have to find the best way to fight, I don’t know what it is. We must not remain indifferent, but protest once we have made an analysis of the situation of each one. Not everyone suits the same people. Everyone has to vote conscientiously, not frivolously, not because they like you. You have to take the step in the direction you want to take it.
Spain is already in the pre-campaign. Is he doing well?
Well, I wear it sometimes out of drowsiness or boredom and other times out of curiosity. They are the same things, the same phrases, you know what they are going to tell you… It’s a bit boring but it’s necessary. I would insist a lot on how important it is to vote, and not everyone takes it that way.
addicted It is a work that stands up against the digital dictatorship. Has the theater made you freer?
Theater makes you freer, because when you’re up there you’re telling a story, nobody rules your mind. I think that theater is a weapon that is rarely used, a very interesting platform for people to think about, it helps to talk about the things that matter to all of us.
Reference for many and for many. He feminism split hurts?
Yes, I don’t understand it, in any way, just as the separation from the left also hurts me. It hurts my soul that they never reach an agreement at all, when they are not one, they are another. It seems stupid, irresponsible to me, no matter how much idealism one has.
Does it bother you that they ask you in each interview what encourages you to continue on stage after you are over 80?
Not that it bothers me, it shocks me. I often feel like a Methuselah. I am with my five senses, I feel perfectly well developing my work. Why is it so hard for people to think I’m still here? I’m still here because it’s what I like to do the most and I can do it. Not everyone is so lucky, first by profession and then by age. I have good genes. I haven’t inherited millions from my family, but I did inherit some fabulous genes. I am there giving the best that I have, communicating with the people who go to the theater.
The last times she came to Palma, she did it alone, with Five hours with Mario, a character he played for more than four decades. Some say that loneliness has a bad reputation, can it also be enjoyable?
I really enjoy solitude, because it has never been imposed. There will be moments in my life that I have felt a little alone but they have been moments, sensations. I know how to be very good with myself. I’ve learned it along the way and I think it’s one of the most important things I’ve ever learned. Being well with one gives you peace of mind. There are many people completely desperate with loneliness. At my age, I’m fine, with loneliness, facing the end… I’m taking the normal steps that one takes when one is 87 years old. In a few days I will be 88. I will follow the path as far as it goes.