Trying to explain Belén Rueda (Madrid, 1965) and her career is a complex task because almost everything happened to her when she shouldn't: fame, Goya, peak work... Because now, 58 years old, an age still considered profitable for many actresses, the projects are accumulating. The last one is called El grito de las mariposas, a review of the life of the Mirabal Sisters, murdered by the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic and has led her to the transoceanic adventure with Disney+.
How do you feel when you discover the story of these women? My first impression was one of disbelief that something like this happened and we don't know it. And then anger because not so long ago that dictatorship ended, in 1961, and many have not yet left that hell. Not only women, the people in general were subjugated for 30 years by the regime. But I am interested in not placing these women in the position of heroines, because it seems that they are not human, that admiration distances you from them. And they were human, they were afraid of the Trujillo regime and dichotomies as if they could have families in the middle of their struggle. It is important to take the heroines off the pedestal, to turn them into humans so that, if at any time you have something to fight for, you do not see it impossible. Their story is little known, do you think because they were women? We know the history of many reprisals by regimes that are men. Those of women are harder for us to see. And it's a shame because the International Day of Non-Violence has been recognized since 1999 by them. We lack curiosity, which is the basis of culture.Are the problems of many women in the world still similar? It has changed a lot, but not enough. Equality is yet to be achieved, we are not equal yet. When there is a crisis or war, women's rights are the most attacked and the last on the list of priorities. In the current crisis, are women attacked more? Look at the case of Iran, a certain part of society always sees the changes with great fear and the way to dominate us is disinformation, attacking those who demand certain rights. The graphic novel Persepolis explains very easily how rights are lost from one day to the next in an advanced society. We are not asking for something that makes society not work, we are asking for it to function better, a common good. It took me years to do a series with a cinematographer. Didn't women want to be? No, they had not been given the credibility or opportunity for that position. It is a moment of transition, which will take a long time, in which priority must be given to women. There are many attacks on parity, but we must give a push for more. It's like young people looking for work and asking for experience, it's the same problem. Women are very supported in certain positions and it is good for there to be role models. I understand that you are in favour of the quota system in that case. Yes, I am in favour even if it is manipulated. We will have to give priority to women so that there is normality because if you do not give it we will never reach equality and we will have shortcomings. With the entry of women, has the work environment in your sector also changed? I have seen behavior towards women that I would never have seen with a man, however clumsy he was. I have seen with my own eyes a cinematographer, with the power they have, say that I wanted a shot and that the director made another because he found it more interesting, without consulting. Since when is something done without first consulting it? And it wasn't with bad intentions, but I haven't seen it with a man. When you look at your beginnings in this world, what do you feel? It is very beastly and to give it a positive point I think that nothing is impossible because I have overcome many barriers. First I was a stewardess, I lived in Alicante without the communication of now, I did not know anyone in the sector and I thought I was not going to get out of there. LI presented programs and my dream was to be an actress and I started studying having daughters. In my time you couldn't make movies from television because you were a minor actress. With 40 years they offer me Mar Adentro, when at that age as a woman you do not work and you have to duplicate efforts. At first a lot, the barriers are put by others and you believe them. I have gone home many nights wanting to cry because they called me an intruder. There is always talk of the age barrier in women, but you do not stop working. Why? It has not happened to me for whatever reason, but I have seen it around me and I have heard very unpleasant comments. And I have confronted myself because it did not seem fair, it was much crueler with women than with men. That if he is older, that if he has gained weight, that if he does not have time for his children ... All of that is taken into account when they are going to choose an actress for a role. Have the roles you are offered changed with age? They have evolved because the voice of mothers is now very interesting. They are fashions, but there are already many movies and series where the protagonists are not young. Being a mother is no longer counted as an isolated thing, it is a tsunami that surrounds everything. I am a mother, but not only a mother, I am a woman, hardworking, quarrelsome and with my needs. I remember as a child, and I'm from '65, my sister used to say that when she grew up she wanted to be a mother as a profession. Imagine what we had in our heads, as if it were a way of life. There is a recent sentence of a divorced woman who asks her husband for an amount of money for the years taking care of their children and without the option of economic independence. It has come out in favor of her and I think it is good because being a mother is a job that is not paid. And you would not have to pay because you do it because you want to, but if it does not allow you to develop other things, it is different. Some women decide to be just a mother, but I have educated my daughters not to be the case. You decide if you want to give up your time, but not let a man decide. Yes, but I decided because I was doing well here and I didn't want to go with my daughters. You have to be realistic, if I had needed it to feed them I would have done it like so many people who are in jobs that they do not like, but they do it to raise their family. What happens is that they always ask me if I have regretted it and I can tell you that I have a wonderful relationship with my daughters. When they got older, I told them I was going to travel and they knew how to get ahead and they are two independent women. I understand that he does not regret anything, time does not go back and I have a different relationship with my daughters. But I think it's unfair to have to talk about whether I regret it because a man doesn't even think about it. And how do you get your daughter to follow in your footsteps? As I can because when you are a mother you do not get an instruction book. She's looking for her own identity, but she's still my daughter and her father's [producer Daniel Ecija]. At first I tried not to talk much so that she would make her own way, but it is inevitable. For her she has things in favor and others against because it seems that the level of professionalism that I have with 58 years is demanded.
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