Jesús Calleja: "I disobeyed Ana Botín because in my program I command"

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The adventurer has given the bell to take the banker Ana Patricia Botín as a guest to Planeta Calleja . Jesús Calleja confesses that he is a village boy who cannot live in a city and that his magic is to generate good vibes and empathy.

I've been chasing you for months to interview you. Where do you come from and where are you going? I come from running the Dakar in Saudi Arabia and I'm going to Africa, where we started filming Planeta Calleja . And I will not stop. Every month I take a few planes. But you do it for pleasure, don't you? No, for work. I suppose work is a pleasure for you. One day I decided to focus my life. I lived 16 years in The Himalayas being a high mountain guide. Nepalese are the happiest uncles I've ever met in my life. They know very well to optimize the time. How do you do it? I added the hours of the day: eight hours you sleep, eight hours you work and another eight you dedicate yourself to leisure ... If you are not happy at work, you have half of your life fucked and you must do the impossible for change it It is hard and difficult. I have known how to change jobs many times. You were a hairdresser. I have been a hairdresser, antenist, mechanic, I used to sell second-hand cars ... I have worked in many places, but I had no problem disappearing when things were going well for me. When I worked at the hairdresser, we became, without being petulant, the most famous hairdresser in León. We gave time for 15 or 20 days to cut the hair. Was it yours? Mine and my brother. When we were in the top, which is to have fame in a small city and we were doing very well economically, I decided to leave. I didn't like that life anymore. I was looking to travel and know, which is the leitmotif of my life. Now, I am in a place where I can travel even further and, in addition, I have the incentive of being able to tell it, because I love to communicate. In the end, after many jobs, I managed to find the one I really liked. What did the ladies tell you at the hairdresser? You had plenty of time to be with the client, she relaxed and started telling you things without you asking her. Without realizing it, hairdressers tend to be great confessors because they offer a change of appearance for good. Well, when they make a bad cut you want to die. You hate him. Have you done any damage? Yes, of course, some damage we have always done. But I realized that it generated a lot of empathy and that may be my little magic. I have real empathy, it is not sought. When I fly, I go to the townspeople, I get there and I connect very easily with them. I am a village boy and I live in my village. I don't have a house in Madrid because I can't live in a city. Neither in this nor in any. I have to be in the field. How did you start on TV? I haven't had any sponsors to get on TV. I'm from León, a boy from a town. The television is very selective and you are only if what you do works and you give an audience. If not, you disappear. We realized that the formula of counting things in a natural way worked. I am not a professional presenter nor am I an actor; but a rare species on television. I am a communicator who transmits with passion. What do you discover from celebrities when you take them out of their comfort zone? I like to discover the person, not the character. We already know the character. I want the true person to emerge in the program. For example, Ana Botín has many detractors because, perhaps, she was not known. What surprised you most about Ana Botín? I liked her very much. It really was sincere and we saw that not everything had been rosy. He is also a person, with the things that could have hurt him in life. Sometimes, it is prejudged. How do you think of making the world's most powerful woman wait more than half an hour? Well, very simple: because I am like that. If one day I decide to be late, because I am a blanket, she is in my program. I don't care who it is. That day I was wrong at the time we had stayed. Of course, for her it was like: "How do you dare?" But, it's also very good because I said, "Look, I've dared." It is a way of telling her that she too is earthly. Maybe you are the only Spaniard who has dared to do it. Look, I don't know. I can only tell you that I discovered the person and that there was no strategy of any kind. And we saw that he had had problems in life like everyone and some strangers, who have been able to surprise us. You are a bit like Bertin, that celebrities are sincere with you rather than with a journalist. We don't look anything like that! Bertin was in my program and is the only guest who didn't want to make me the challenge. I wanted to climb him via a via ferrata. I can also think of everything! Sometimes, you are quite reckless. Never has anyone in my team ever had an accident either in the shootings or in my guide's life. I am obsessed with security. I always have plan A, B and C. Well Pedro Sánchez spent the time climbing with you to a peak. One thing is that he is impacted by that situation and another, that he is not perfectly controlled with zero risk. Did you get Sanchez to take off his mask? When bipartisanship disappeared, politicians began to reinvent themselves. Pedro Sánchez was the one who started with a call to Jorge Javier in Save me . He was the catalyst for politicians to open up to other programs and become more humanized. That Sanchez came to Calleja was a revolution. It was also Zapatero when he was president, yes, but it was another context. We are both from León, we lived in the same house and we met all childhood. Zapatero was because we were neighbors. The change that politicians showed themselves as people was with Pedro Sánchez. Then, everyone came: Soraya, Albert Rivera ... And Pablo Iglesias? For some reason, we tried many times, but he didn't want to come. Moreover, I never got him to answer me personally. I, the guests, always call them in person. But Paul had a series of circles and it was impossible to access him. Well, he's supposed to go otherwise, right? Don't ask me why, but I always asked to talk to him and they never let me access him. What character has surprised you the most? They have all surprised me, but sometimes I am more surprised by the humblest people I meet in the villages with Volando Voy , anonymous people who are true superheroes. That impacts me. I have cried a lot more in 'Flying Voy' than in Planeta Calleja . And I say that I have cried because there are times that you don't see on TV, but there are stories that I have to retire because they impact me. I am quite crying. And why don't you show those tears? Because it embarrasses me. I am very sensitive. When have you had more fear on the mountain? Climb the northwest face of the Lhotse, 8,516 meters, with a single sherpa. It was quite shocking because you are literally playing life. There is a percentage of chances that you will not come back. But the most difficult moment of my life was going down to the deepest chasm in the earth, the Krúbera-Voronya cave and that we were trapped for 10 days and we thought we would never leave. Were you 10 days trapped? Terrible rains came when we were down and we were blocked. The rescue team could not go down and we were considered missing. And 10 days later we got out by our own means. There are characters who have been scared in your program. José Coronado got angry and said that he had hated you a lot. It was the moment we went from Extreme Challenge to Planet Calleja . I did not know how to measure. Although I lowered the adventure, we had it at a very high level. And it was outrageous for him. Getting a sedentary person in the middle of winter to walk to a lost city of the Himalayas seemed very attractive, but I didn't realize it was very hard. We had to learn to dose the adventures for the guests. Who have you disobeyed? Ana Patricia Botín. I am quite disobedient. When they want to force things on me, even if they are right, I overflow by nature. I have always done what I wanted. When I have to adapt to the team and the program, sometimes I get that rebellion that I've had since I was a kid. In fact, in that program with Botín, I said: "It's my program, here I command." Do not believe that I was silent. In general, we are afraid of changes, because we associate everything with money. It is that if I change, maybe what I earn now, I do not earn it later, or I have a mortgage ... Without realizing it we become slaves of mortgages and credits. Do not get into obligations that corner you. Sometimes it is more important to reflect on what I want to do in life, which takes a while. Sometimes I lock myself at home, turn off the phone and dedicate myself to thinking about what the next step is going to be. Is adventure a profitable business? No. I had a Pyrrhic guide salary in the Himalayas. Maybe he would charge 1,000 euros for a month of work walking and climbing mountains. I don't know anyone who has won a pasture with adventure. Now you're Calleja, a television star. I have a job that combines many things. It is not easy to do this. Having a lot of equipment and very talented demands an important financial outlay. In the end, you have to choose. Earn money or do a good job? In my case, I prefer to make a great program and put all the resources I can to make the program very good. What would you say to those who deny climate change? All life has been denialists, to whom History has never usually holds a good place. Climate change is evidence that no longer has any doubt. Scientists provide proven empirical data. Why does Greta Thunberg arouse so much criticism? Whenever there is someone who breaks molds, she is greatly loved or hated. I see that a fragile-looking girl with an incontestable speech cornered Trump himself and that his only defense was a mockery, I loved it. Where Greta goes eclipses the rest of the leaders. And she flies the flag that we are burning our home. And more reason can not have. What is the failure of the one you have learned the most? On the mountain you learn to fail a lot. You plan to make a top, you don't get it and you bounce back home. When I have a failure, I return with the lesson learned. There are mountains that have cost me to climb three or four times. Are you a believer? Yes, but I don't know what. Everyone has a tendency to hold on to something because he is afraid of death. I have taken hold that there has to be something. I can't imagine heaven or hell where the good or the bad go. The soul is our self that cannot die. Who would you reincarnate? Host! In Calleja again.

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