Manolo Cardona
enters through the door of Café Faraday, in the Chueca neighborhood, and a girl approaches to ask for an autograph. "Yeah right". And laughs. "It happens to me a lot lately." And laughs again. This is how the life of this Colombian actor has been transformed, who at 44 has known world fame thanks to Netflix and the Mexican
Who Killed Sara?
, the most watched non-English-language series in the history of Netflix and a consumer leader in 90 countries, from
Spain
to
France
through
Greece
and
Germany
. "I can't explain why it was successful, but I am very proud that Latin content is reaching globally."
In almost an hour sitting in front of his American cafe in the center of
Madrid
, where he will begin filming a new project, Cardona does not cease in his defense of Latin fiction. «We have many incredible stories to tell, we don't just make soap operas. Now we have opportunities because the platforms allow the local to become global, you no longer have to do a series in the United States for it to succeed in any country.
Because for years there are two "stereotypes", as he exposes, that have persecuted South American and Colombian fiction: drug trafficking and soap operas.
Cardona knows the world of soap operas well because there he forged the beginnings of his career until he
wanted to "take risks" and seek "new paths
.
"
"I have nothing against because I started there 20 years ago, but there came a point where I wanted to escape from the comfort mattress, I resigned from very important contracts, to find disruptive stories in film, theater or television."
BERNARDO DÍAZ
This is how he crossed his path
. Who killed Sara?
, whose second season Netflix premieres tomorrow around the world, and, with it, international success. “It is difficult to explain this because if it were a formula we would all follow it, but a good script, a good production and good actors and directors are key.
People want stories of mystery, love and tension in the style of Agatha Christie
. And all that is precisely what the series created by José Ignacio Valenzuela contributes where Cardona plays Álex Guzmán, a man who has spent 18 years in jail unfairly for the murder of his sister Sara and returns with a desire for revenge towards the Lazcano family, responsible for his time in prison.
Added to that, there is nothing like the miseries of a powerful family and an unexpected murder to hook viewers in front of their television or
tablet
. “Ambition, seeing such a powerful family collapse makes people identify. In addition, taboos are exposed that in South America have never been openly treated, such as human trafficking, homosexuality or femicide, which is a very powerful problem in Mexico, and that brings you closer to the viewer.
The opening of Latin America, where social movements such as feminism begin to gain strength, related through its fiction to the whole world.
«They are not central themes, but it is very important that they are there because people assimilate them as something natural.
We are showing that all kinds of stories can be told and, although South America is still a macho continent, this helps us to get out of the retrograde process of non-acceptance and that our governments need to understand that we are all the same regardless of color, taste or love that each one chooses ».
BERNARDO DÍAZ
This is not the only political position that Carmona exposes during the conversation. The situation in Colombia does not go unnoticed by those who feel it "very close" even thousands of kilometers away and with an ocean in between. “What I see hurts me a lot because
we have an insensitive and disconnected government, with a prosecutor and a pocket ombudsman
that they have my country on the brink of Civil War, "he explains about the Executive of Iván Duque and the protests in the streets of Colombian cities that have led to violent clashes. «I am a Colombian citizen and when I see these injustices I have to express myself. I agree with the protests, I do not share some acts of vandalism, but I will never agree that this justifies certain things that this Government is doing by going over the institutions.
While that tension does not cease, Cardona advances in his television career away from his continent and savoring success in Europe, where 12 years ago he landed through Spain with
Without tits, there is no paradise
.
"Here in Madrid I am free and happy, I am more alive than anywhere else, to be able to return after so many years is fortunate because they always give me a lot of affection."
But nothing comparable to what he has now experienced thanks to
Who Killed Sara?
and Netflix.
«I feel very grateful, but humbly I have known these kinds of moments in my country, I know how to identify them and put them in my place.
I am living a unique moment, but it is not alien to me, I have been working as an actor for 20 years and
this could end at any moment
».
Far from being over, now a second part awaits you.
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