Macarena Garcia

.

Madrid, 1988. Actress.

She assures that she is in the process of growing up, but the truth is that she is already tremendously mature.

She returns to be the protagonist in the second season of

Paraíso,

on Movistar.

You are the adult in a youth series, life has fallen on us.

TRUE?

What the hell has happened?

(laughs).

You don't realize it and, suddenly, that's it, you're older.

I always say that I've been in the profession for 10 years and the other day a friend already told me: "You've been 16, pretty."

And I: "Really? It can't be."

But it is and it is good that it is so and I get adult roles, although, yes, it is curious to discover you one day being the veteran.

The other day I turned 34 and life moves on.


The series talks about adolescence, that time when everything that happens seems to us the most important thing in the world.

With this being an adult, have you lost that?

Has cynicism already invaded you?

I try not, but it's a bit unavoidable.

On the other hand, it is also a break because living everything with such intensity is very nice, very pure and you remember it with nostalgia: first loves, first brushes with friends... Everything is great drama and has a lot of beauty, but living the whole life like that has to be exhausting.

It's also not bad to discover that everything can be a little smoother, although I still care too much about things.

I'm still a little bit caught up in my girl and I'm learning to do the opposite exercise: that not everything affects me so much.

I take it all very seriously.


What kind of things?


Sometimes I have an exaggerated self-demand and a point of great insecurity that makes me suffer a lot.

At times I can be afraid of judgment.

And in this profession in which, inevitably, you are very exposed, you have to learn to manage it.

I've been in therapy for a while trying not to make myself suffer and limit myself, to start feeling powerful, calm with myself and with my life, loving myself, not wanting to be someone else.

Accept who I am.


Did you want to be in another skin?

Not as such, because I am aware of being privileged and how lucky I am, but sometimes insecurities are so great that they make you not feel comfortable in your skin and that is the worst thing that can happen to you.

Facing this is also part of growing up and getting older: all these things are smoothed out, they are worked on and you get closer to being comfortable in your body, which in the end is the path of life and that's what I'm on.

Where did you and your brother (Javier Ambrossi) get your vocation from?

You had no family history.

Not at all, our parents worked on things that had nothing to do with it.

What we did have at home was a great fondness for music and I started in the profession through musicals, maybe something could come from there, but it is true that our education was not linked to art at all, we have not had it close no way and it's a bit of a mystery where our thing was born from.

I started first, but when I was very young I left it and my brother, suddenly, became very interested in acting, reading, dramaturgy and he passed it on to me.

A kind of synergy was created between the two, a connection of interests and a mutual impulse that has led us to this place that was ours.

I can't imagine us anywhere else.

It's funny that we both have it so ingrained without having a clue where it comes from.


Is there brotherly competition?


Nothing, nothing really.

It is really a relationship based on the most absolute love of brothers, on admiration and on the desire that the other does well.

And, moreover, more every day.

Every day there is more purity and more happiness at the success of the other.

We are increasingly connected.

I feel immense pride to see him become an icon, especially knowing the difficulties he had.

I lived this whole process hand in hand with him and seeing how he has achieved things with so much work, so much passion and so many difficulties is a joy that I cannot explain to you.

Everything good that happens to them is little.


Did you ever consider being something other than an actress?


I did not have time.

I'm starting to think about it now.

So much time later, I begin to think that it was still not bad to have a plan B. Because it is true that I started in a very privileged way, in very special projects, the first film I made was

Snow White

, everything went more or less smoothly and I was very, very, lucky.

And I still am, but now there are moments of hiatus, times when people believe that you are working a lot and in reality you spend months without working at anything and dizziness appears.

There I do fantasize about the idea of ​​doing other things, but I can't because there is nothing that convinces me in the same way that art and acting convince me.


How do you live with that job uncertainty?


I recently read an interview with Ingrid García-Jonsson in which she talked about these moments of doubt and fear and I felt very identified with her.

It is nice to read a colleague speak with such sincerity about a profession that has its beautiful fruits and its not so beautiful points.


Ingrid said that she often looks at the account and sees that the money is running out, does it happen to you too?


I've been working for many years and that hasn't happened to me, but I totally share what you said about fears on an emotional and self-esteem level.

All those doubts, the periods without work, the need to occupy my days, have a routine and interact with others.

From the outside, people don't realize it and many times they tell me that I don't stop working when, in reality, I've been unemployed for months.

You're supposed to learn to enjoy those times of pause, but I still haven't.

I suffer and I get scared because I don't know if I'm going to be an actress again, if they're going to call me again.

All these fears are unavoidable in this profession.


What time are you at now?


Now in a very good one, because I am going to shoot a project that makes me very excited, but I have spent several months of facing being at home with nothing to do and, when you are a restless ass like me, you eat your head a lot.

I can't complain, because I've been working for many years and I'm fully aware of my luck, but that doesn't mean that at certain times you have difficulties and doubts.


You won the Goya with your first film, 'Blancanieves', but then you haven't done much cinema.

Why?

It has not been my choice.

I like nothing more than making movies, I am passionate about seeing it, consuming it and making it, but the path has not led me there.

I try to choose projects based on the scripts that excite me and, perhaps, I have received more interesting proposals for series, but I would love to do more, without a doubt.

I especially enjoy it.

How do you deal with the attention that your sentimental life arouses?


Phew... Well, you learn to live with it, but it's hard for me to understand.

And it bothers me because, in addition, it is linked to being a woman: the person with whom I have always been related did not happen to him.

I am in a

photocall

and all of a sudden I get pelted with personal and sentimental questions, but the other person who was involved in this was never asked.

Why?

It has to do with a macho system, of course.

There is a part that depends on our characters: maybe he said no emphatically, while I have more difficulty daring to say no, being assertive and getting serious.

And that also has to do with machismo because since we were little we are educated to be nice and not cause tense situations.

There is something, as a woman, that has been frowned upon all my life and that now I am discovering and facing it.

In addition, I have never sold any of this nor can I be less interested in showing my personal life.

Every day I am less connected with everything that has to do with my physique, with projecting that image of me.

What I like,

really, it's acting.

Spot.

You talk about the physique, which is another complicated point for actresses.

Have you felt objectified, with the pressure of always having to be great?


Yes Yes of course.

When preparing for a red carpet I get nervous that I can't explain to you and it's because you know you're going to be judged for every detail of your look, your makeup... But you're in the game, right?

You enter because you are part of this society and because, personally, I am not yet as advanced as I would like.

Also, I am a person who has great insecurity, wants to suffer as little as possible and, hell, I also like sometimes to feel pretty and play with it.

This physical thing is complicated because there is a part that pressures you from the outside and another that is your own decision.

I am working a lot on this topic and every day I am more aware of the decisions I make, why I make them and the projects and advertisements I do.

I am more and more in control of myself

but suddenly you find yourself affected because time begins to pass and you see yourself change.

It is an interesting internal conflict and it makes you grow.

And there is another obvious point: doing fashion and beauty campaigns is an important source of income for actresses in this profession, as we were talking about, so unstable.


Yes, it is as is.

There is a part that has to do with that, which goes a little hand in hand with this profession.

In my case, to a certain extent, I have been making some decisions based on what they are income and there are times when you don't have any work as an actress and you say: "Well, now I'm going to accept this because it suits me and it gives me tranquility".

But every day I try more to feel good about what I do, that it has to do with me, that it is coherent with who I am and with the moment I am in.

That it doesn't make me suffer, because sometimes I have done things with which I have found myself suffering because I feel that, deep down, they have nothing to do with me.

It is part of growing up, beginning to listen to you and knowing what is good for you, what you want to tell, what you want to show,

where you want to focus your path and the vision you have of the world.

I am in this moment.

Speaking of which, you have just presented a collection of clothing for festivals.

Can you still go to festivals?


Man, sure, and I do.

I have refused to stop doing things that I feel like for what can be generated and I don't have that kind of fame that causes uncomfortable situations.

People tend to approach me in a respectful, pleasant and quite caring way.

The other day I went to the San Isidro festivities so happy and I danced like anyone else in the middle.

Suddenly they ask you for a photo or you see someone taking a video of you with your two-litre Tinto de Verano and you say: "Please, no."

But, in general, I am very playful and I really like dancing and this type of popular party plans.

You can find me out there often.

There are more and more women directors and screenwriters, do you notice a change in the roles that come to you?


Yes I am noticing it.

It is obvious that there is still a long way to go, but it is true that in the scripts that I am receiving I notice a change, I notice that the characters have more consistency, they are active women, quite a few female protagonists in whom their gaze is counted.

There are more and more women writers with a super interesting look who tell stories that represent us and make us feel identified.

This is happening.

Even so, the numbers draw a lot of attention and they have to put us on alert because the percentages are still very uneven, but it is appreciated that there are more and more powerful projects that are close to what I see in the women around me .

This is exciting, it is valued and we have to continue there.

We can not stop.

Are you optimistic about it?


Well, I think there is a lot, a lot, a lot to do;

more than we think.

Sometimes there is a mirage and it seems that much progress is being made, but suddenly you realize that not so much.

I think now we have to talk a lot about feminism, although sometimes I think: "

Wow

, I get asked a lot about it and I'm discovering a lot of things at the moment. I'm learning, I'm getting information, I'm improving myself too."

But it is interesting that men continue to be talked about and asked, not just women.

That we talk about it and mobilize until the world is a fairer place so that the next generations no longer even have to speak because there is already equality.

But there is still to be done.

Much.


And at work?

Has the treatment of actresses improved?


It is true that I believe that almost all those cases of harassment and abuse that were reported happened more in previous generations.

I have been lucky that as an actress nothing remarkable has happened to me that I can tell you, beyond the day-to-day things that we all know.

As a woman, it's another matter: I don't even know how many times they've touched my ass, I don't know how many times they've chased me down the street... This is something that happens constantly.


The terrible thing is that you count it as something almost normal.


Of course.

But we have been used to this all our lives.

I remember going to school when I was little in my uniform and suddenly, at 8 in the morning, a man would lift my skirt and touch my ass.

And the scare that this supposes is tremendous, I went to school trembling and for weeks my father was accompanying me just in case.

And, now older, this type of situation in clubs and bars has happened to all of us thousands of times.

In the shootings you already breathe respect, we are all already aware of how the scene is going, but of course as a woman I have lived through all this.

We all live it every day.



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