• Awards The mastery of Susi Sánchez, second Goya in four years
  • Berlinale 'Five Little Wolves': against the myth of the perfect mother
  • Obituary Agustí Villaronga, the director of lyricism and cruelty, dies at age 69

How does it relate to your age? It seems that he brags about how old he is. Susi is not for Susana, but for María Asunción. Sanchez, on the other hand, is out of conviction, because yes, even out of stubbornness. After a lifetime as an actress, this 68-year-old Valencian who achieved her first leading role in the cinema with almost 60 lives what she does not hesitate to qualify as a happy, full old age and dedicated to her work, which is, she says, her life. And vice versa. Now he premieres Loli Tormenta, the film with which director Agustí Villaronga said goodbye to cinema and everything else. This is his first work after the Goya achieved by Cinco lobitos. And there are two. She says she feels recovered after a few days convalescing after a trip to Peru. "I hadn't stopped for a few months. Many times I am not aware of my limits and I broke. Now I feel like a young girl," says Susi, for Asunción, and Sánchez agrees with her, because yes.

He stars in a comedy full of light that is also the testament of a director. How do you experience this contradiction? Strangely. We all saw the deterioration of Agustí live. We didn't know when it was going to happen, but he looked pretty annoyed. I'm not sure how to explain it. On the one hand, I had the joy and privilege of meeting a genius of the stature of Agustí Villaronga but, on the other hand, I saw him suffer enormously. I was a spectator of his eagerness to make the film and at the same time of its collapse. I am convinced that his talent was above his pain.What do you think moved him to continue? You saw him on set and you didn't believe it. I arrived at the shoot and the first thing I did was apologize because I had had a very bad night. And five minutes later, he was completely surrendered and oblivious to the physical pain, which, on the other hand, was very evident. Was he aware that it was his goodbye? The first time we met, he told me about his illness and that was the only one. At work there was not a second of self-pity. He confessed to me that he had quit chemotherapy, with what that meant, because he wanted to make this film. I had to do it. In 2019 he received his first Goya and now the second. Does she feel like the fashionable actress? A little bit. In my neighborhood, people now stop me and say things to me. But, yes, I notice a lot of respect. The characters I do are so serious that they must think I'm a terrible person. In any case, I have to admit that it all started with La enfermedad del domingo, by Ramón Salazar. It was the greatest professional gift I've ever had in my life. It gives the impression that this belated recognition has a lot to do with a barrier that is broken... I would love it to be the beginning of a new visibility for the older woman. It strikes me that he can be a reference for many young people who could be his grandmother. I think they are interested in the way I work. On the other hand, I am not ambitious at all. I have never sought prestige or fame or money. I have settled for living from what is my passion. I recently received an anonymous message that touched my soul. He told me: "I do not know if you are aware that thanks to your work I have been able to fix and heal things of my living that I did not suspect that I could cure." You get a message like that and it's all paid.What do you think played against you in the past? Her height, openly acknowledging her lesbianism? Everything influences. Maybe it would have been different if I had been less blonde, shorter or less homosexual. They are things that condition, but they are things that also teach you. You learn from everything and the most valuable thing of all is to realize how important the difference is. There has to be everything: blond, brunette, tall, short, homosexual, bisexual people... It doesn't matter. And the important thing is that this variety is accepted by everyone.Is it true that it was left out of Thesis, of Amenábar, for being too tall? Yes and that I went with low shoes. He was sitting. He looked me up and down and said, "Oops, you're very tall!" She got up, stood next to me and explained that the protagonists, the ones they would play as my daughters, were much shorter than me. Did he have to hide his homosexuality in order to work? Was she rejected for it? Let's say that the rejection I have experienced has been provoked by my previous rejection. When I made it clear to some director that I didn't want to have a relationship beyond I work because I'm a lesbian, it bothered them and I was out of the quota. It's not exactly like Metoo, but almost. But I didn't care. When a person relates from that place to me, from that moment he loses all interest as a person and as a professional. I was a weird kid, very weird. I had hardly any friends, I didn't talk to anyone... Until I discovered interpretation. Then I realized that I wasn't weird, I was just an actress before I even knew it. I needed a way to express myself as a person through something and that was the work I've ended up doing all my life. It is rare the number of actors who confess to being shy... I found through acting, as I said, a way to express very intimate sensations. And that for me was a liberation. In normal life I have a hard time expressing myself, talking, opening up... And that's partly because we live in a society that squeezes a lot in a very harsh and very incoherent way. I get the impression that this society is set up so that we are controlled. But in my craft, in the theater, I found my place and the meaning of my life. What I enjoy most is giving life to a character who, indeed, is not like me, who is not shy. However, he has come to reject works because he did not identify ideologically with the characters; that is, because they were not like you. Totally. But, as a friend told me, I did it because I could afford it. There comes a time when you can no longer separate your life from your work. If I go a little further, that is the meaning of the work. That everything has become a diversion of red carpets, lights and colors has to do with another matter, with marketing. The commitment of an actor is to contribute something to this chaotic world we live in. And as far as my commitment to politics is concerned, it is to seek beauty. Yes, but I have rejected it. Or, better, I have always said that my political commitment is explicit in my work. The closest thing I make to politics is my collaboration in the Film Academy.Do you feel that you leave any pending subject that you will no longer approve, and pardon the simile? I would have loved to play Lady Macbeth. Or having played a mother in The Pelican, by August Strindberg. I don't know, I think about the past and I see that I was very afraid before. Not anymore, now I've overcome it. How does it relate to your age? It seems that he brags about her. Everyone carries that of age as they can. I just turned 68 in the hospital. It's years. I have ailments, but at the same time I feel more lucid, wiser, more tanquil. People seem to think they're never going to get older. And that just means you're going to die sooner. It bothers me that in this society old age is always associated with something useless and unpleasant to look at. Elsewhere, it is a privilege to be elderly. And I believe, from what I am concerned with and because I sincerely believe it, that it should be so. For my part, I am clear that I will be an actress until I die because that is my vital concern.

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