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WHO. Born in Barcelona 53 years ago, he has been a sculptor and advertising man, has searched for precious stones in Nepal and designed jewelry in India and 18 years ago he settled in China for love. WHAT. His first roles as an actor were in commercials, but in 2018 he made the leap to the Chinese patriotic film industry. He will soon release a film about Karl Marx, where he plays the chief of the Prussian political police.

In Spain he has sold organic Ayurvedic incense and worked in his father's printing press. He has also performed in the street and made bronze and wood sculptures. He has designed silver jewelry in India and then sold it in Japan. He was in Nepal looking for precious stones. He has made clothes in Thailand and furniture in Bali. And now he plays a villain in Chinese movies.

His friends joke that he is the new Spanish Marco Polo. He was born in Barcelona in 1971 as Iván de Gracia. But for many years neither he, nor those who follow him in his adventures in the East, identify him by that name. His artistic nickname has been superimposed before and behind the credits: Van de Grac.

"I'm an adventurer. Fighting a lot, I've done everything. But now I would like to return to Spain and continue my acting career there." So says the globetrotter from Asia who has been away from his land for more than three decades, although in the last 18 years he has not moved from China. Like so many others before him, he landed in Hong Kong for love – for a woman and the charms of the rampant post-colonial environment – and then moved to the great global factory, of clothing and opportunities, which is Guangzhou, better known in the West as Canton.

"I spent 12 years there making bags that I then sent to Barcelona. Business was going well, but I am an artist, and I had the thorn in my side of one day being able to return to my origins. First I entered the world of advertising starring in some commercials. And in 2018 I got the opportunity to make the leap to cinema," says Van de Grac.

He made his big screen debut as the leader of a terrorist group in one of those ultra-patriotic films that the Chinese love so much, where the bad guys are always the Westerners (or the Japanese). Ocean Rescue, as the film is called, is still on the biggest billboard in the world. "Like the United States, which since the Vietnam War has often used Hollywood as its war propaganda platform, in China they do more of the same, but without disguising it. They understand art as one more element to form and educate society in their own way," he explains.

Van de Grac hit the ball on television playing an American general at the head of peace negotiations during the Korean War. The series, Crossing the Yalu River, has been one of the biggest ratings successes in recent years. The Catalan has recorded another series speaking in Spanish in the role of an Argentine policeman and is now going to release a film about Karl Marx in which he plays the head of the Prussian political police.

"

I am a kind of pre-Hitler, the baddest of the bad guys. It is an ambitious Chinese production, but with the entire cast made up of Western actors. I hope it succeeds, that it can make the leap to the platforms and be my springboard for me to get a role in Spain, "says this sculptor and dancer, who put on the suit of entrepreneur to end up becoming an actor.

He left behind his business adventures in India, Japan, Thailand, Nepal and Indonesia. Although he still has a business ace up his sleeve: he has set up a film and television company with which he hopes to pave the way for Spanish producers to shoot in China.

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