Iñako Díaz-Guerra
Updated Tuesday, January 30, 2024-21:31
Newspaper archive. All Chimpún interviews by Iñako Díaz-Guerra
Malu. "I've been under the spotlight so much these years that now I feel like I'm walking naked on a desert island"
Although the character that catapulted him to skyrocketing fame (12.5 million followers on Instagram, Zara campaigns, covers for dancing with Dua Lipa...), Ander from
Elite
, was a sensitive and kind boy,
Arón Piper
(Berlin, 1997) he keeps getting tough, sullen and/or scoundrel roles.
So is the hustler who stars in
The Mail
, by Daniel Calparsoro (already in theaters), but the truth is that, face to face, the actor raised in Barcelona and Asturias has more of Ander than anything else. He is shy, somewhat elusive and his upbringing does not hide that interviews are not his preferred habitat, but when he relaxes he shows what he is: a young star seeking balance in the chaos that surrounds him.
Your character in the film is a kid who has outgrown the life he leads. Do you see yourself reflected? Yes, really yes, what happens is that he has an ambition that has nothing to do with me, a stronger and more material ambition. I would know how to be without anything and I would know how to find a life again if I stopped having the success that I am having, but, damn, I dedicate myself to what I like and that is fundamental. It is a gift and luck that not everyone has. In that I totally agree with my character: I fight for what I want to do and for what I want to be both now and in the future. When did you discover that this was what you wanted to do and be? Since I was very little I have had it clear. All human beings act constantly, one goes to buy bread and acts, talks to an acquaintance and acts... Always and with everything. It's okay, life is like that, very few people are authentic, real and faithful to how they feel at all times. We all play the same game and there are people who hide their emotions more. For that reason I have always liked getting into other lives. Furthermore, empathy is also one of my strong points, I think, and it is essential if you want to dedicate yourself to acting because without it you will not inhabit a character, you will only imitate.
More interviews Chimpún
Miguel Herran.
"I didn't like the life I had and I abandoned everything. I left my girlfriend and my friends, I changed my phone number and disappeared"
Editor: IÑAKO DÍAZ-GUERRA
"I didn't like the life I had and I abandoned everything. I left my girlfriend and my friends, I changed my phone number and disappeared"
Macarena García.
"It would be easier to find me in an ayahuasca ritual than in a church"
Editor: IÑAKO DÍAZ-GUERRA
"It would be easier to find me in an ayahuasca ritual than in a church"
Is getting into the skin of others your way of not showing who you are and what you feel? Yes. In many ways it is like that, like hiding in plain sight and keeping your space clean of eyes. But they look at you. We have been here for a quarter of an hour and it is constant. It is true and when there are many people around it is complicated, normality becomes impossible. That's why I try to avoid it and, unless necessary, I'm not going to take a walk along Gran Vía because I know what's out there. You look for your tools to live like this, it is very important to have a good circle of friends and thank God I have it. They were there before fame, they have been there during and they will be there if one day it disappears, just like my family. You have to have those priorities clear. A few days ago I was talking about it with the psychologist and I thought: "If right now they take away everything I have professionally, all the fame or money, what would be left?" And what remains, those relationships, is what is really important and what must be taken care of during this whole crazy process. Despite everything, you manage to go out with a certain normality of drinks like any 26-year-old person. You have a reputation as a party animal...Yes, yes I do that. I try to do the same things I did before, more hidden or more covered with clothing, but do the same as any normal person. And the reputation of being a party animal, and I know I have it, is because I don't hide like most famous people do. They hide in private rooms, enter through back doors and do a thousand tricks to avoid being seen. This is something I want to clarify, it's not that I'm more of a party animal, it's that I don't hide. If to go out for a drink I have to go through all those movements, I don't even go out. What a pain It's not worth it, you stay at home watching a movie. Exactly. I had a great time at house parties, but if now my colleagues tell me to go to the Amusement Park, I'll go; If they tell me to go to a concert or a festival, I go, if they tell me to go out tonight in Malasaña, I go too and, what's more, I go by Metro. I'll find a way, but I'll do it. I try to cover myself, obviously, because what really makes me uncomfortable is feeling watched. I know that it is inevitable, a direct consequence of my work, but I avoid it as much as possible. And when you don't achieve it? I don't like it, but I accept it and I don't overact. The issue of fame must be measured because you can protect your personal space and your personality, but the more you hide, the more intrigue you cause and the more attentive people are. Look at Keanu Reeves, who by making everything normal has managed to get people to take it as if it were nothing and leave him alone. It depends on the life you want to lead. What life do you want to lead? I want to continue dedicating myself to what I like, which is art in general. For now it is these two disciplines, acting and music, but who knows if tomorrow... I see myself writing and directing, that's one hundred percent. I am also quite good at drawing and I would like to try the fine arts. I love architecture...Everything that is art is a vehicle of expression and I know that it is what I am worth and what I was born for. That's clear to me. I would like to see myself with my good house in the countryside and my good penthouse in a good city, to be able to combine both worlds: dedicate myself to what I like professionally and, also, freely to what I like in my personal life.
If we see a mirror, we take a photo. This time with Arón Piper.SERGIO ENRIQUEZ-NISTAL
Miguel Herrán told me last week that the guy from your generation that everyone wants to get laid is you. Greetings to Miguel, who wants to get clean [laughs]. Do you feel that sex symbol thing? Yes, I do, I would be lying to you if I told you no. It doesn't mean that this is the case in all cases, far from it, but I do realize that I generate a sexual attraction. I don't really know why it is, I imagine it will be a combination of factors and I am sure that my 'Elite' character has done a lot, but, yes, it is something that is there. Does it affect you when you meet new people? Of course yes. That's one of the most screwed things about this famous life for me. Keep in mind that you will prejudge any person you know. For better or worse, the first time you sit down with her you already have an idea formed. If we are having something and I tell you that my cousin from Móstoles is coming, there is nothing in your head and until he arrives and you talk to him you do not believe your ideas and your judgments. That doesn't happen with a famous person, there are a lot of prejudices. If I tell you that Rafa Nadal is coming, you'll think that I'm a fucking master or that you're into regulin. How do you like him if you've never spoken? That is very difficult when it comes to finding new friends and when it comes to finding love. Many times you smell it, you sense the interests and you see it coming that they want to use you, but there are people who are very good at hiding things and you get unpleasant surprises. This creates a general distrust of the rest of the world. There are many headlines about your troubled adolescence and your problems with drugs. How much is real and how much
is clickbait
?I love that you, as a journalist, recognize that those headlines are looking for what they are looking for. You have to be very careful because today, and even more so with the networks, there are many people who only read headlines and that idea stays with you forever. It seems that Arón Piper was lying on the street and was an addict, when that is not even remotely true. I said that at that time I didn't have a future and it's true, but like many young people in this society don't, not because my circumstances were bad. I come from a humble, but normal family, not a bad environment for a kid. I was just at a very lost point in my life and I don't know where that would have ended, but thank God that's it. I'm here. Some adolescences have been more complicated, others less and each one lives it how they live it. I didn't experience anything strange or extreme. That business around my life annoys me a lot, to be honest. It's the trap of your profession: if you succeed it's almost inevitable and if it doesn't happen it means you're not doing well. It's like that. When I was little I didn't dream of being famous, it's not my goal. What I want is to dedicate myself to what I like and this is a direct consequence that creates a separation that is not cool at all between people whose jobs do not imply fame and those who do. I think that from both sides we see the other as if they were different and did not live in your world. It's a difficult thing to manage. It is a situation in which your mental health is in great danger. You have to train it the same or more than you train your body in the gym, because our life, our situation is not normal, it is exceptional and you have to know how to handle it. Being very young, too. Of course, you start to become famous at 20 years old and you're still growing, you're a mini-adult. It's hard. With fame you get a lot of stimuli, a lot of friendships, a lot of women or men, it depends on what your sexuality is... You get infinite external temptations that, if you are not anchored well to the ground and have a rope to tie you to in the form of real friends and family, you can easily go off the deep end because you confuse reality. It is very difficult for fame not to change you, but in reality it is a change that does not come from you. What do you mean? One does not change with fame, others change and that is what later, directly or indirectly, changes you. It makes you change because everything is so strange that it ends up affecting you. But the first thing that changes is your environment: suddenly everyone knows you, looks at you, treats you and judges you differently. So you have to see a way to deal with that. For me, for example, being nice, pleasant and a good person, always having a smile for everyone, is exhausting. Very exhausting because it's not who I am. There are people who go with a much greater love for life, but it costs me much more. I'm not an asshole, but I'm not always in that super-sociable, friendly mood.I feel terrible sometimes for giving a bad answer because they have come in too directly or interrupted an important conversation or whatever. So, I feel bad, should I feel bad or not? The answer is not so clear, I think. Is it worth it or not? For me it is... for now. I live from what I like, it allows me to dedicate myself to other disciplines within the art world such as music and the economic factor is also very important in this society in which we live. It's like that. We live in a capitalist world in which having money gives you a certain security in life. Those three things outweigh the bad, what I'm not sure about is that I'm going to see it like this for many years.