Iñako Díaz-Guerra
Updated Wednesday, March 6, 2024-02:07
Newspaper archive.
All Chimpún interviews by Iñako Díaz-Guerra
Adriana Torrebejano.
"I have never felt harassed by a lesbian director; however, by directors, quite a few times"
Marta Etura.
"Here everyone talks about the extreme right and no one talks about the extreme left. Both exist and they are equally dangerous"
Jorge Sanz
orders a green tea.
At that moment he could finish this interview.
The actor whose legendary list of excesses and chaos, of success and ruin, of alcohol and drugs, of sex and fame, has been documented in detail for 35 years is sitting on a terrace in Torrelodones, where he lives, watching the people go by and the life with a bushy gray beard that hides the old gallant.
He premieres
Por tus muerte
, with José Mota, in which he plays an old rocker who finds himself, as he has done so many times, faced with the opportunity to resurrect his career.
"My mother is very angry with my beard, she says she makes me 15 years old, but that's the 15 kilos I have left over," he laughs.
And he adds: "I don't care, I'm fucking sick. I've stopped drinking, smoking, I'm still alive... Everything has turned out well."
Jorge (Madrid, 1969) orders another green tea.
At that moment the interview begins.
I have the feeling that all the movies you make are about Jorge Sanz. I have that same feeling.
What is the movie about?
About a guy who, taking his child to school one day, gets into trouble and triggers a chaotic story to try to put his life back in order.
What has been 30 years of my life, come on. This time seems like the good one, you've been working hard for a few years now and have a stable life. I've had several resurgences already, both moral and economic, and I'm relatively used to it.
You come and go but, although sometimes the breaks are too long, paradise for an actor is to stay there.
Go and come back.
People rediscover you and it's great.
Serrat says that when he released
Mediterráneo
everyone adored him and told him he was amazing, but when everyone was singing the song, even the children at the school festivals, people finished off
Mediterráneo
's balls .
They forgot about her and, years later, she liked it again.
It is cyclical.
When that happens as an actor, what you have to do is be calm, wait, not chase after fame, do in a small way what you used to do in a big way and you'll see how, suddenly, you'll come back.
Sometimes it has taken years, but people have always rediscovered me and each time it has happened they have found a better actor, with more weight.
You are no longer Conan
's child
, they learn your name and you are now Jorge Sanz, an actor.
More interviews Chimpún
Hugo Silva.
"There are a lot of nervous and afraid abusers right now, that's very good"
Editor: IÑAKO DÍAZ-GUERRA
"There are a lot of nervous and afraid abusers right now, that's very good"
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"
The thing is that the whole of Spain learned your name when you were a child. Yes,
Valentina 's kid
.
And then all that 80s heartthrob stuff, etc.
But I like myself more now, as a person and as an actor.
I like how I am, I like how my movies turn out, I like the life I lead.
I feel like dressing up as a Roman less and less, but I really like my job and I enjoy it more than ever, more than when I was at the top.
Now I squeeze a lot more out of each job, before I had so much that sometimes I didn't give importance to what I had in hand.
When something happens to me now, even if it's a small secondary one, he enjoyed it a lot.
We have grown older...There were doubts that you would grow up...Man, of course, even I doubted.
But damn, now I'm the fucking grandpa in the movies, man.
We didn't see that coming. The myth around you... All legend. Which one are we talking about?
About excess, waste or women? Whatever you're going to tell me.
I'm going to deny everything to you. It's not going to work. Ya, I've worked for it. Are you tired of talking about all that, of that fame following you? No.
They are the consequences of the life I chose to lead.
Fame is awesome and anyone who says no is an idiot.
Being able to go through this life being famous and, furthermore, being the handsome one and not the funny fat one or the scatterbrained one, is great.
Having gone through this life as Jorge Sanz is amazing, it is a blessing.
But he is also a very big monster and sometimes he surpasses you, your character overwhelms you and he finishes you off if you let him.
I have been close to leaving him many times, but little by little you learn to handle it, you begin to control the situations that fame creates for you and it is great.
What has fame taken away from me?
It hasn't taken anything away from me, it has allowed me to live the life of a whore.
It almost killed me, okay, but if you survive it's awesome. How close was it to killing you? Well, wow, it's just... I now see interviews from when I was 20 or 25 years old and I was an asshole.
But deep asshole.
I remember some very long years in which my days had 26 hours, I worked, went out, consumed, drank, lived... I don't know.
It almost killed me, yes, but on the other hand I have squeezed out life like few people and I am very proud, very satisfied and very grateful for having done so.
It was fun. Because it ended well. Of course, it's easier to talk that way.
The other day I asked a friend who had had a misfortune what I could do for him and he replied: "Stay alive, Jorge, stay alive."
I don't know, I haven't seen myself sooo close to death either.
I've had my scares and my trips to hell like a lot of people, man, but I feel like I always had some control.
Although it is a personal feeling, I also tell you.
You have to ask my family and friends to see what they say, especially those who left me money [laughs]. You said that Antonio Resines and Santiago Segura were supporting you for years. That's how it is.
The problem with money is not having it and I have had it, but I have spent it and, when I stopped finding work, it was screwed.
But that's already the past.
I already have few needs,
I have the house paid for, the kids are grown up and my life is made up, man.
I still have a good part of the second half of the game left, but it's going to be a great game for me because I ended up very tired from the first half and now I know how to calmly face what's left. Are you really not doing anything anymore? No, no , zero.
I can't for health reasons and by law. By law? There are a couple of judges who are very interested in this issue of my nightlife.
I can't go into details, but now that I'm good I'm sure they'll forget. You've already been out for several lives, anyway. Yes, and to go out halfway, it's better not to go out.
My father competed with horses and when he stopped competing at the highest level, he never rode again.
I asked him why and he told me: "After being in the elite, I don't see the fun in it anymore."
Carlitos Larrañaga told me something similar when we played poker with the civil guards and other neighbors around here: "I have spent millions on one hand and playing with you for 50 euros a night doesn't satisfy me at all."
The same thing happens to me at night, going out to have a beer doesn't give me anything, it doesn't give me the adrenaline that going out gave me before.
Now other things fill me. Which ones? This life I'm leading.
I live quietly at home, I go out for a walk around the town, my partner, I am very stable and enjoying the children a lot, I am going to be a grandfather now for the second time... I am a grandfather, man!
I!
Grandfather!
I will have other times and I will go to other cities, filming will take place and a thousand things will come, but right now I am calm, serene and happy.
Grandfather!
I will have other times and I will go to other cities, filming will take place and a thousand things will come, but right now I am calm, serene and happy.
Grandfather!
I will have other times and I will go to other cities, filming will take place and a thousand things will come, but right now I am calm, serene and happy.
Jorge Sanz, a ring, a mirror and a beard.Ángel Navarrete
You know Spanish cinema of the last 40 years like no one else.
How widespread has the culture of abuse and machismo been? Completely installed.
I started working at the time of the exposure and I have seen terrible things. The screwed thing is that now I realize that I myself have come to normalize this type of things.
All this that is happening seems great to me, it is making us evolve as a society.
I am the first who has seen this type of abuse or insults and I have not known how to react.
Now, fortunately, these are behaviors that bother me, they are unacceptable and I hope that, just as I have evolved, the entire industry will evolve.
It is great for us to break the silence on these situations. There are those who say that cinema is being criminalized. Of course it is criminalized, but it is deserved.
For decades very screwed attitudes towards women have been favored, we have all let them pass and now we have to face it.
I notice an obvious evolution in the filming as I notice it everywhere and in ourselves, but to complete that evolution we must face everything that has been done wrong, not deny or hide it. The other recent conflict in cinema...It is Great about cinema, there is always some movement.
They would have to thank us for that. I was going to ask you about Vox, its presence at the Goya and the eternal controversy with subsidies for Spanish cinema. Yes, the right has been having this tantrum for years and still does not understand that Spanish cinema is
El Cid
, but above all they are small stories of marginalized and suffering people.
So, it's normal for us to be left-wing because we're up to our necks in that sauce, but to me it seems like a hell of a step forward that people from Vox went to the Goya this year, even if it was to mess around with the subsidies.
It is magnificent that Vox, the most subsidized people in this country, come to criticize some poor devils who do what we can for the culture of this country.
But I'm telling you, I think it's great that they came and I hope the next thing is that they go to the movies more, because in the movies you have to be quiet for a long time and that makes you think.
It is good for all of us and even more so for them. How do you approach this second half of the game? I am doing very cool work.
Coincidentally, now I have received two pieces of paper that have been really cool, but I have done them to put out fires.
For a long time I have had this feeling that I get characters that are an impossible mess or that, as has been the case with these, another actor fails and they need an emergency substitute.
And you know what?
I like it, if they come to me for something it will be. Doesn't it hurt your ego? Not anymore.
I arrive, turn off the fire, touch the key and then I do a somersault and land on my feet.
Then I say, "Fuck, I smelled my balls."
It's a great feeling.
Much less responsibility, much less work and watching the bulls from the sidelines.
I have been on the front line for many years, in the professional, personal and social trenches, and now I enjoy being in the administration handing out games.
I have become a midfielder and I know where the ball has to go and at what time.
My personal feeling is that I am a better actor, although I would have to ask those who work with me. Do you see a change in how the industry views you? It's been a while and, above all, at the production level.
They don't lie to me anymore.
Historically this has been a profession of hustlers and bandits, with great honor.
It's part of the charm, but when you don't know, people trick you: "No, man, don't worry, the money will come."
Getting money for a film sometimes borders on illegality and I have always enjoyed illegality.