Along with
Pepón Nieto
,
Carmen Machi (Madrid 1963)
stars in the film that opens this Friday and that all Spanish must see before going on vacation (in summer, it is understood).
Optical effect,
by
Juan Cavestany
, refutes from tourism to mortadella through the very concept of identity.
We are dissatisfied beings and now, with the pandemic and its restrictions, more.
It is the latest achievement of an actress who, together with
Nathalie Poza and Carolina Yuste,
and together with
Andrés Lima,
have made
Prostitution
the play of the year and the last argument of the current legislature.
QUESTION.
Right now, he is watching almost everything: he premieres a film, continues with the play
Prostitution
in the Naves de Matadero in Madrid and travels to Greece to start filming with Nelly Reguera.
ANSWER.
Yes, as soon as the play is finished on April 11, I fly to Athens on the 12th, which we shoot in a refugee camp.
Continuously.
Q.
What do you think is the
reason
that
Prostitution
has had the tickets sold out since practically its premiere before the confinement?
R.
It was already an incredible success at the beginning and after the confinement it was the same.
It has become a social phenomenon.
It's funny because it has generated so much expectation that people come to the theater with fear of being disappointed.
There is a lot of political coming too.
It is a gift for what it provokes.
P.
The data say that Spain is the country that consumes the most prostitution in Europe.
What does that say about us?
R.
What is saying about us now that the subject is discussed is that the presence of women in everything is already a fact.
And there is a fact that for me is very relevant.
When we started doing the show a year ago, the spectators entered the theater talking about prostitutes, now they talk about women.
The issue of prostitutes was treated as if it were an isolated problem and
now it is seen as a problem within what women live
.
It is a problem of the situation of women.
The voice that matters is that of the woman.
And that is there in many ways: with violence against women, due to policies that take into account the gender perspective ... It is all very much on everyone's lips.
The characters we play speak of the mistreatment they suffer, of the freedom to maintain their profession.
And all that encompasses them as women, not as whores.
I don't know if I can explain myself?
P.
Perfectly.
And what do the men who come to the play think?
R.
I also think they feel guilty.
They feel that their conscience is being removed, the conscience of citizens.
On the other hand, there is also male prostitution, but they, the fucking, do not suffer the stigma that women suffer.
In these moments you appreciate even more being an actress to be able to intervene in the debate that already exists in society.
Nothing like this had ever happened to me.
Or not so forcefully.
I think of when I
tried a fox
, by Miguel del Arco, curiously, it also has the word whore inside.
It was the story of a woman without a voice.
P.
Speaking of laminated voices, I think of Rocío Carrasco, how do you see what she has caused?
R.
I think it is a testimony of abuse at a time when women are being asked to be brave, to speak, to shout, to say.
So, everything that has happened, without putting myself to judge each other's motivations, is very positive.
It provokes the same thing as a theater function, but we are talking about a television and a network that everyone watches.
When you see things raw, you believe it.
And that is what Rocío Carrasco's testimony does.
P.
The place where it happened, unexpectedly, perhaps made it more relevant
R.
A very curious thing happened.
When she appeared, as she is a public figure, there were countless jokes in chats and that.
After all, everyone feels comfortable frivolying a public figure.
And suddenly, he hit you with an ax that you feel like an idiot.
It was an incredible blast.
I imagine it was something like the famous Meghan Markle interview.
You hear these characters who seem fictional because they are famous ... and when you see them in the flesh suffer, they disarm you.
You enter a very particular place.
P. I
spoke at the beginning of the expectations with which they enter to see your work.
The director of his latest film, Juan Cavestany, maintains that we live programmed by capitalism to consume non-stop, to be permanently dissatisfied.
That's what
Optical Effect is about.
Do you agree with the sentence?
R.
I fight because it is not like that.
The pandemic has led us to this in a very pronounced way because life has suddenly become a permanent dissatisfaction.
But you can't get carried away.
It must be clear that for the joys to be more joyful you have to take a stick from time to time.
You have to learn to suffer a little and then enjoy more.
Otherwise, everything is very boring.
But I feel like a very lucky woman who fortunately lives by what she wants to live.
P.
The pandemic speaks of travel, tourism ... Now that the restrictions prevent us, the film seems prophetic.
R.
It is all very strange.
The film was thought before all this happened and the Covid has made it take on a different meaning.
In fact, I didn't know I was doing a comedy.
Q.
Is comedy the most extreme way of naming tragedy?
R.
I have to say that I am not a comedy spectator.
Things don't thank me.
I think what is relevant, more than comedy, is humor.
Is not the same.
A drama can have humor and that's where I feel comfortable.
Comedy is something else.
Comedy tells you that you have to laugh out of your nose and that makes me very nervous.
It's the same when they tell me jokes.
I don't like it because it seems that they are forcing you to laugh because if you don't, the person who tells it is very bad.
I don't like "A comedy of" at all.
Buff, I tell myself, you have to laugh now.
And that conditions life a lot.
Even in the most extreme situations of pain there is humor.
Humor is the way to survive.
Q.
Do you regret having done a comedy then?
R.
Never.
On the contrary, I distinguish comedy very well because I have done very good comedy.
I would have to be an idiot to think there was something wrong with what happened to me.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
movie theater
theater
culture
CineMuere Quique San Francisco, mythical actor of the quinqui cinema
Culture Culture was the first vaccine: "Without a book or an album I would have gone completely crazy"
Five reasons not to miss Nomadland, an Oscar movie
See links of interest
Holidays 2021