Norma Duval: "I left the cinema because they wanted me to show my boobs"

The famous 'vedette' participates in 'El Desafío', Antena 3's extreme test contest. Norma Duval affirms that she has dominated her artistic career and that the biggest setbacks have come from her personal life.

How did you get into the madness of 'The Challenge'? It's the best thing I've ever done.

I am a very enterprising person and I like to experiment and do different things.

Doing 'The Challenge' at 30 is not the same as at 65. At my age, it is a real challenge for my ability and my will. What has been the most difficult challenge? The day my mother died.

I buried her in the cemetery and went to do the test with María Pombo.

We had to walk at a height of five meters with our eyes closed on a kind of catwalk.

I didn't tell anyone on the team because I didn't want to upset them.

It was terrible. Well, it takes a lot of strength not to fail the test. I was very happy that María won because she is a sweetheart.

I was content not to fall.

That day I had taken a pill to calm down and I did twice as much time as she did.

She had dizziness and was fatal.

Add that I have vertigo and fear of the dark.

Confess, who is the most fussy partner? None!

I swear! Isn't there a fight with anyone? They tell us why we have so much compadreo.

We compete with very good vibes.

There is neither a tightness nor a bad vibe or a bad word.

I think I will never do a program like it again in my life because that environment is difficult to find again. In real life, what has been your biggest challenge? Uff!

My personal life.

I have dominated my artistic life from minute zero and I have not had any problems.

But, when my sister died, I fell into the abyss.

I stayed with two 11-year-old girls, whose father also died.

I have also experienced a disease like that of my 13-year-old mother with Alzheimer's. That must be very hard. It was a challenge to attend to her at home every day.

My work for me has been fun.

But, in my personal life, the challenges have been very hard. You made half the jury cry with the tribute to your sister.

How do you learn to live when a loved one is missing? It's very complicated.

It is a wound that never closes.

I have handled my mother's death much better than my sister's.

My mother passed away when she was almost 90 years old and she had already made a life.

But my sister died at the age of 46, she had two daughters and a great desire to live.

For me, what happened to my sister has been like losing a son. You have replaced Bárbara Rey in this contest, just as it happened when you replaced her as a star at the Lido.

Parallel lives? No, but coincidences of life yes.

I wanted to do 'El Desafío' since I saw the first program, but they didn't take me.

It was fate. What were those times as the leading star at the Folies Bergère like? Impressive.

For me it was wonderful.

I am very enjoyable.

Life is only lived once.

Then, in 1988, they came to Spain and asked me to come back.

But I already had a very organized life with two children, I was building my houses in La Moraleja and Mallorca, I had my company set up and I considered that things should not be repeated. What has been the most surreal thing that has happened to you in the stage? Everything.

At a gala it started to rain and the lighting system hit sparks everywhere.

On the way out, I bumped into a wire and almost got electrocuted.

It left me with a leg injury for a long time. Have you always been a rebellious woman? I'm rebellious,

for what did the song say? Because the world has made me like this. Yes, I am a rebel with a cause. Your father gave you the choice between a dressmaker or a hairdresser.

I didn't like to study.

He gave me a choice between those two options that he considered very decent.

I told him that he didn't want to be a dressmaker: "I was born to be sewn, not to sew," I told him.

And he told me that it was superb.

So I took a course and my father placed me in a hair salon, but I lasted a month. And what did you tell your father? That he wasn't going to do it.

So, my mother told me that if he wanted to be an artist, she was going to help me.

And she took me to the Miss Spain contest that Ámparo Muñoz won and Valerio Lazarov saw me.

That's how I got a contract to work. What have you been a pioneer in? I started with Lazarov, who was a great modernity for the time.

From there,

I got into the magazine world and transitioned into more international shows.

The vedette has not died but she has been transformed.

Even Chanel, who goes to Eurovision, does some musical numbers along the lines of what I did.

Today all the singers dance, wear transparencies and the sexiest costumes you can imagine. I hadn't noticed, but it's true. They are the vedettes of today.

What are the Victoria's Secret Angels wearing in their collections?

The feathers and the rhinestone bikinis worn by the vedettes.

Are the singers dressed as singers?

How's Rosalia doing?

She is the new star for me.

She is wonderful and I love her.

How do Madonna, Beyoncé and Jennifer Lopez dress?

Is being a sexual myth at one time a pride or a slab? I have never been aware of it.

Now when I see photos from when I was at the Folies and I think: "But what a body I had! What a barbarity!".

I see it today, but I was not aware of anything.

My mind was not on being a sexual myth or being the most beautiful, but on fighting and working. I remember that the tailor Humberto Cornejo told me that the woman with the most perfect measurements he had dressed, including international stars It was you. When I told my father that I wanted to be an artist and he had no choice but to accept it, he told me: "Look, if you're going to dedicate yourself to this, at least be number one. To stay in the way you stay at home eating lentils".

So, my mentality was to be number one. You were the queen of uncovering, a stage that is now much reviled. I quickly cut that time.

What did it mean at the time and what would you say to those who criticize it now? Only those of us who have lived through it can talk about the Transition.

We were all there: Ana Belén, Concha Velasco, María José Cantudo, Bárbara Rey and Norma Duval.

It was a physical liberation, but also an intellectual one.

Then came many more things: the abortion law, divorce... We supported all those laws because we were women ahead of our time.

We were corseted and, suddenly, the corset was opened. Do you regret any scene? Something should not have been done.

Today I would have rejected her.

But each thing has its time and its circumstances.

You can hardly say 30 years later.

I rolled

María José Cantudo, Bárbara Rey and Norma Duval.

She was a physical liberation, but also an intellectual one.

Then came many more things: the abortion law, divorce... We supported all those laws because we were women ahead of our time.

We were corseted and, suddenly, the corset was opened. Do you regret any scene? Something should not have been done.

Today I would have rejected her.

But each thing has its time and its circumstances.

You can hardly say 30 years later.

I rolled

María José Cantudo, Bárbara Rey and Norma Duval.

She was a physical liberation, but also an intellectual one.

Then came many more things: the abortion law, divorce... We supported all those laws because we were women ahead of our time.

We were corseted and, suddenly, the corset was opened. Do you regret any scene? Something should not have been done.

Today I would have rejected her.

But each thing has its time and its circumstances.

You can hardly say 30 years later.

I rolled

Do you regret any scene? Something shouldn't have been done.

Today he would have rejected her.

But each thing has its time and its circumstances.

You can hardly say 30 years later.

I rolled

Do you regret any scene? Something shouldn't have been done.

Today he would have rejected her.

But each thing has its time and its circumstances.

You can hardly say 30 years later.

I rolled

which was a film that brought gender violence and machismo to the fore.

It was a dramatic story of a woman abused by her husband, but they wanted her to show her boobs.Yes?It was a dramatic role on a very sensitive subject and on top of that you had to show her boobs.

That completely unsettled me and I left the cinema.

Then Bigas Luna called me to make

and I was meeting with him, but when I read the script I said: "I don't do this with two children. This is pure eroticism!" So you left the cinema because you didn't want to shoot those scenes. that, at any point in the film, you had to show.

Gracita Morales was not required to do that.

So I said: "It's over. I have my company, I'm going to do my show and that's how I work for myself." Have you suffered despotic directors? I experienced a moment of tremendous sexual harassment on Spanish Television with a director.

I left the office beating him up like that.

I am not going to say who he is because he is already dead.

It has never happened to me again nor have I had to go through a similar situation again.

Valerio Lazarov treated me like a daughter.

And the directors of the Folies also helped me a lot.

At the age of 21, I put on my first show.

It was clear to me that I was going to be my own businesswoman.

He did and undid.

She was the one she hired. Ana Rosa complained that she had felt her machismo as a businesswoman and that she had been ignored.

Has it happened to you? No.

They hired me because I was interested.

I have not suffered that. Have you had the recognition you deserve? I think so.

I am happy and grateful.

I consider myself a privileged and lucky person.

Even if I'm very bad after a divorce or a separation, something always appears that makes me excited about life. You were Aznar's muse, would you be Feijóo's muse? I don't define myself as a muse.

I'm free and I don't have a party card.

I defended Aznar's candidacy because I considered that Spain at that time needed a change.

Felipe had his moment and did very well, but a change was needed.

I have never had a coffee with Aznar in my life. You confessed on the Bertín program that no Socialist City Council ever hired you again. Never again.

The only person who hired me after that was Jordi García Candau, from RTVE, who valued my talent more than my political thoughts.

He was a dedicated socialist and I will always be grateful to him.

I had some tremendous problems to work in the Cultural Center of the Villa de Madrid.

And that was businesswoman.

The city of Madrid did not give me a penny.

But there was a politician with white hair who never became mayor, what is his name?

Rafael Simancas caused a tremendous scandal for me saying that how Norma Duval could act in the Cultural Center of the Villa.

And at City Hall they told him that I had the same right as everyone else.

Simancas tried at all costs to prevent me from getting on stage.

I find it terrible.

Culture does not belong to any political party. Has gossip media embittered your existence? They hurt me a lot when I divorced my first husband.

It was the time of television and they found a gold mine with me until I went to court and I was able to defend myself.

Eight years passed until those two very important television networks were condemned and they cannot attack my honor again, as stated in the Supreme Court ruling.

All those who were part of this plot were condemned.

I didn't wish them on anyone for eight years. They attacked you. All because I got divorced and fell in love with someone else.

I hadn't killed or robbed anyone or taken my money out of Spain or falsified any document.

except that,

the press has always helped and supported me. You sang 40 to Javier Sardá and told him that in 'Crónicas Marcianas' they riddled you. I told the truth.

I am a very sincere person.

I am transparent and genuine.

I have no bend.

I don't like fake people and I told him the truth.

He apologized and I accepted his apology.Did your love life overshadow your professional life?With my second marriage, I decided to retire.

I wanted to live that relationship intensely.

I don't regret it at all.

That then you realize that this really is not your life?

Well, that's it.

You go back to your old life.

Nobody puts a dagger in your chest.

You do it because you want, for love.

I have a magnificent relationship of friendship and affection with him. What things do you no longer want to fight against? Against cynical and toxic people.

Can't.

But I keep fighting against everything.

Would you throw that shoe at Jimmy Giménez Arnau again? No Choreographer Bob Fosse used to say that he was a collector of injustices, that he had a trunk full.

Have many been committed with you? Yes, of course.

I don't like to present myself as a victim, but of course there have been injustices.

But I take the positive side out of everything. You were complaining the other day that you wanted to say goodbye to Carmen Sevilla, but that they wouldn't let you. I deeply respect when the person closest to you doesn't want you to see someone, even if they were part Of your family.

What I do not understand is that a person whom I have treated as if he were my family, with whom I have lived and even hired him. Are you referring to the son of Carmen Sevilla? I am not going to name names.

I texted him seven years ago and said, "Look, it's Christmas and we have our moms the same.

I have met very interesting people and I have traveled halfway around the world.

Giving thanks for what you have is what gives you happiness.

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