• Interview Chimpún Iván Ferreiro: "I don't have to apologize all day, but a lot of songs and attitudes of mine were a fucking disaster"
  • Cine Santiago Segura: "Some call me señoro, fascist and pollavieja and the others, disgusting red. Let's see if we clarify ourselves"
  • Comedians Ángel Martín: "I'm not interested in politics at all, it has become shit"

José Sacristán became the legend he was destined to be and his inseparable Andrés Pajares came to win a Goya, but Fernando Esteso (Zaragoza, 1945) nobody gave him the opportunity to remove the label of star of the uncovering. The same films, from Los bingueros to Pepito Piscinas, which made him the highest grossing actor in the 70s and 80s, condemned him to labor oblivion as an icon of an uncomfortable time of Spanish cinema. Everyone knows him, but no one called him. Until Agustí Villaronga, who died after finishing filming, offered him a leading role in the recently released Loli Tormenta. "It's a shame that the only director who has trusted me in 30 years has died," Esteso laments from his home in Valencia.

This round was owed to you. I am very happy, living wonderful things with this film. I'm visiting the first swords of radio and television, appearing in the newspapers... But you know what excites me the most? Every time I enter a newsroom I am greeted with applause, everyone stands up to give me a standing ovation... That shows that, despite being away for so long, I am very recognized by the public. People haven't forgotten me. Do you feel that it vindicates you, that it gives you the reason that you deserved more opportunities? Yes, yes. It is a satisfaction because during all this time that I have not been in the media or on the screens, I have been on the street. That is a thermometer of truth indicative of all the affection that people have for me and that they have inherited from father to son. With my characters and white humor, I became that guest at the houses who has no need to ring the bell because he always has the door open. Did you have a hard time when no one was calling you? Well, I've worn it with sportsmanship, but I've been really hunchbacked when no one gave me work. I thought, "What about the older actors? I'm an experienced older gentleman who has learned to make movies and it turns out that the grandfather in the movies is a 45-year-old actor wearing makeup." That made me angry. Most of the producers today are the television networks and they have to strengthen their cadre of actors, I imagine. Besides, I also think that sometimes I've had a clash not generational, but professional. I was called to make an appearance in an episode of a series and I tried to work in my style, as I always have. Maybe reconvert the dialogue to make it more digestible, more spontaneous, more natural... Maybe that produced a clash with younger actors and, well, I said, "I'll wait until there are mature actors so I can step in."

Find out more

IN SHIRT OF ELEVEN RODS (XVII).

Fernando Esteso: "He was innocent, he made fun of the man and he was a feminist. And there were no herds."

  • Editor: JAVIER CID

Fernando Esteso: "He was innocent, he made fun of the man and he was a feminist. And there were no herds."

Cinema.

Fernando Esteso and the 40 years of 'Los bingueros': "Everything that Pajares and I played was a success"

  • Writing: JORGE BENÍTEZ
  • Writing: ALBERTO DI LOLLI (PHOTOS) Valencia

Fernando Esteso and the 40 years of 'Los bingueros': "Everything that Pajares and I played was a success"Has the way of being an actor changed so much? Not for me. I really like cinema, I have learned to move on the set without marks because the best brand there is is light. When you notice that the camera has light, it is already coming for you. And I really like colleagues who talk calmly, who think about the whole and do not place themselves in a specific place to have a better shot. There are many things I love about cinema and... Who can I talk to about this? Well, I don't know. Before I talked about it with Mariano Ozores, who is my fetish director. An incredible, charming being, who taught me so many things without saying anything to me. What I did was put myself behind his back and look through him to see what he saw. And then, suddenly, Agustí appears, who was already very sick and I felt very honored to be an heir in his will, but I have not been lucky enough to enjoy this all these years. Have you been punished for representing a cinema that no one seems to be proud of? I do feel proud. It is funny that now so many people pretend that the uncovering did not exist or despise it when it has been a food that has supplied Spanish cinema for many years, because those films were seen by the whole of Spain and have given a lot of money to the industry. Money that has helped produce many films that people don't see, but get Academy Awards. What was the uncovering like from within? Is the bad image fair? No, no, no. It is that there is no such bad image, at least in people. It's what I told you before, I go through the newsrooms, they applaud me and everyone recognizes me that they have seen those films. Those who in public reviled them have seen them and put them on their children. They can't say no because they would lie. In fact, the cinema of Mariano Ozores, even with unveiling, is studied in film academies and is studied because he is a director who has made 160 or 180 films and through his objective have passed all the great figures of Spanish comedy, who over the years have become the most important tragicomic and dramatic actors in the country. That school was priceless. It is the usual debate, few things endure to be valued with the gaze of 40 years later. The truth is that I prefer that look to the one now. It was healthier, because nowadays there are also nudes all the time, but almost all bloody, almost all with violence. We had no violence in word or deed. Nothing, we were just two rogues who could do anything, but they always went to bed dressed. Man, you were dressed, but women were naked. That squeaks... Well, it's what people wanted to see then, but if they hadn't laughed they wouldn't have gone to the movies. The success of these films was because they had Pajares and Esteso, directed by Mariano Ozores and his trusted block: Antonio Ozores, Juanito Navarro, Esperanza Roy, Florinda Chico, Luis Barbero... Number of secondary actors who were the repera. That's why they succeeded, not because of the nudes. Something would influence, Fernando. In addition, there was nothing wrong with those nudity either, it was not a macho cinema. Spain has always been a feminist country. For example, how many powers are there? Let's say that economic power, religious power, political power, media power... Ok, for all these powers are defeated by the power of the bedroom. My mother, as a woman catches you, she has caught you forever. And so happy. At least in my time, because now it seems that that has become old and you have to be changing all day, have children on one side and on the other. I believe that Father's Day cannot be celebrated now because who can celebrate it in seven different houses at once? Complicated, complicated [laughs]. Do you long for that Spain? Well, I only know that you toured Spain town by town and there was not a poster of politicians stuck on the walls, only those of Raphael, Joan Manuel Serrat, Lola Flores, Miguel Ríos, Perales, Mari Carmen and her dolls and even Fernando Esteso were hung. Posters were put up to announce parties. Now I see nothing but posters of politicians everywhere. Politics has become a daily spectacle and they have a very bad script. It is very easy to guess what is going to happen tomorrow, because the only thing that matters to them is that it is fatter than what has happened today. The politician wakes up and says: "You're going to find out today, because I'm going to say such barbarity that you're going to forget right now the bullshit I said yesterday." They are the new actors, but they are not funny. That's the bad thing, they don't have any grace, and the work they represent benefits no one. I don't see you very excited about the political landscape. No, but nothing happens, we can do a survey to see who is convinced. Nobody. They have fed us up. How did you manage to remain so famous while half gone? Very easy, very easy. If you are famous, you will only be a famous time, but if you jump the step that leads from famous to endearing, my friend, that is eternal. It is only achieved without entering the rag, being a normal person and, above all, giving a lot of truth, a lot of affection and loving your profession very much even when she does not love you.

  • Saragossa
  • Valence
  • Actors
  • Films
  • Final Interview

According to The Trust Project criteria

Learn more