Movie theater

The Madrid actor stars in the thriller 'Black Beach', in which he stands out for speaking in English and reveals himself as an unexpected action hero

That

Raúl Arévalo

(Móstoles, Madrid, 1979) is someone restless, no one doubts it.

Since he appeared in the

Compañeros

series

almost 20 years ago, he has never stopped participating in films (

Azuloscurocasinegro

,

Cousins

,

The minimal island

,

The plan

) of various genres and budgets, without leaving aside the short films (

The light of my first star

,

Pichis

or

El barco pirata

), the theater (it is now at Madrid's Teatro Pavón-Kamikaze with

Traición

, until October 4) and the series (

El tiempo entre costuras

,

Velvet

).

Not forgetting

Tarde para la ira

, his debut as a feature filmmaker,

which was awarded in 2017 with the Goya Awards for Best Film, Original Screenplay, New Director (for Arévalo) and Supporting Actor (Manolo Solo).

Now,

Arevalo is uncovered as an unexpected action hero in

Black Beach

,

a thriller in which he plays a senior executive from a large consulting firm who travels to Africa in search of a promotion in his company.

Carlos (Arévalo) is a cold negotiator who must mediate in a kidnapping whose consequences go beyond his expectations and that will make him reconnect with a stage in his past that he believed closed.

In this film directed by Esteban Crespo (

Amar

) in which Candela Peña, Melina Matthews and Paulina García participate, the interpreter from Madrid has

several dialogues in English that, according to his confession, have forced him to make an effort in a language that he does not master.

Candela Peña plays a friend of the protagonist who plays a crucial role in his adventure.

Did you enjoy shooting the Jason Bourne action sequences you see in

Black Beach

? It was all a lot of fun to do.

But it has also given me to think about Hollywood actors, like Tom Cruise.

People who usually have a lot of sequences of this type and I think they are 20 times better prepared than me.

It is very hard to do something like that.

Above all, because you have to be almost an athlete to be almost full for 11 hours of work in a row that took me.

Come on, I had to stop and drink some water because there was a lot of humidity in the environment or my calf was loaded, I suppose it refers to the sequence in which his character runs, there are shots, a helicopter is chasing him ... And how good it is!

(laughs) When I saw everything already assembled, I congratulated the director on the action part of

Black Beach

.

I flipped a lot.

How can it not be if real helicopters appear alongside others created by computer.

And the best thing is that this mixture has been good.

And I'm not telling you the other things that are not known about that sequence. What is not known? That one part was shot in Ghana, another that has to do with cars in the Canary Islands and another in Toledo.

Doing that and making it look like the same place is for clapping.

Olé for those responsible for the technical area!

Carlos (Arévalo) is a senior executive who must travel to Africa to solve a kidnapping.

In this film it is more than evident the denunciation of showing the influence that many men have in our day to day with elegant manners and good suits but who are bastards and move the world at will. this movie.

I think it's clearer than water!

(laughs).

What interests me the most here at the script level is that, through action and political suspense, you find that you don't get fully involved with something until you are close to it.

That, which seems obvious, is explained when you see what happens in Africa on the news.

Another question is to go there to see it.

It's interesting that my character is a high-class guy, who makes a lot of money and has his life sorted out.

But he goes to Africa and, without revealing anything key, something happens to him that makes him get involved ... My character is still just another pawn in a gigantic company.

Black Beach

gives rise to many reflections ... Sometimes I wonder how people who make decisions will do when they involve human lives.

It seems impossible to me.

Come on, I don't know how they'll sleep ... If the rest of us do a little bitch on a friend and we can't sleep, I don't know how someone who, to win a billion, doesn't care if hundreds of people die.

I am amazed by the ability of human beings to look the other way in order to achieve their personal good. How has it been working with Melina Matthews, your partner in real life? Very good.

We met years ago on the set of

Negotiator

, by Borja Cobeaga.

He had a very short sequence in which he played his boyfriend.

And only that until, a year later, we began our relationship.

I admire her very much.

But I guess it's normal as part of falling in love.

It was easy to shoot with her because Melina knows how to separate her character from real life very well when she leaves filming. How is she getting along with English?

Her character has several conversations in that language ... Well, I'll be very honest: wrong.

English is my pending subject.

It is true that Melina Matthews has helped me a lot and that I have had to learn the phrases phonetically.

But I have a trauma with English.

I don't know if I would consider a big job for that circumstance ... but I have!

My friends laugh at me when they see me speaking English in the trailer.

Since you know I don't speak it ...

The film includes several action scenes that were shot in part in Ghana.

How is your second project as director going?

Any news about it? At the script level it is very advanced.

But with what we are living I have stopped a bit until I see when the situation normalizes and how I can find financing.

Now everything is very complicated. Did you see a lot of movies and series during confinement? I think that, as has happened to many, I have gone through phases.

At first I saw things in a positive way;

then negative and back to positive.

And yes I have seen a lot.

Classics that he had not discovered or did not remember well.

I have realized that I had not evaluated

François Truffaut's

The Four Hundred Hits

well enough

, that now I have it as my reference film.

And I have seen a lot of Hitchcock, Cassavetes, Kubrick ... What a catalog they have at Filmin. Is there anything that has been taken on a personal level from Africa after being there? Everything.

What you smell, feel and know there marks you.

One of the sites that struck me the most I discovered was on the outskirts of Accra, in Ghana.

There is the great technological graveyard of Africa.

There is tons of garbage piled up and all that can be seen are broken computers, cell phones, printers and videos of rats and children playing.

It is impressive and you even have to wear a mask.

And I didn't come across anyone over 45.

It is the strongest thing that I have seen in my life.

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