He has just displayed his name, as he already did with his career. Victoria, formerly Vicky, continues to celebrate the successes that came from her when Sorogoyen put the camera lens on her and she received awards and nominations for the series Antiriots. This audiovisual trajectory has been consolidated again with Reina Roja: almost four million viewers on Prime Video. But Victoria Luengo (Palma de Mallorca, 1990) does not leave the stage even with that. Especially when she receives projects that represent a major challenge, such as Prima Facie, the multi-award-winning work by Suzie Miller for which she has accumulated awards (Union of Actors and Actresses, Talía and nomination for the Max).
In this dizzying monologue, actress and character launch a cry against certain behaviors. Should we believe a priori in a woman who says she is a victim of violence? And continue betting on traditional justice methods? An unbeatable lawyer, at the peak of her career, is sexually assaulted and will have to face what she believes in most to find justice. Starting next May 29, at the Teatre Poliorama in Barcelona.
How do you keep your feet off the ground?
I’m lucky enough to be pretty aware of when I’m leaving. The times that I have noticed that I was overwhelmed by an excess of importance towards myself, I have not liked it and I have immediately done something to change it, telling a friend, a psychologist or whoever. It’s what helps me not go there.
To the psychologist… Has the profession required therapy?
I have needed it all my life, but not because of the profession, but because it is easier for me to live with that help.
Now, is Victoria better than Vicky?
My decision is not so much about what I want people to call me, but rather what I want to call myself. I have realized, at 34 years old, that women use diminutives a lot and I don’t feel like it! My full name is Victoria. I love Vicky for my private life, but, in my professional firm, I wanted to change it now in case it was too late.
Many actresses claim to find characters in the theater that cinema or television does not offer them. This is not your case… Is yours pure vice?
I just can’t imagine not getting on stage ever again! There is something about theater that generates an adrenaline rush in me, an emotion that I don’t feel in audiovisuals. The theater generates “painful taste” in me, which I call it, because there is a part that I don’t like because I have a bad time. The stage scares me more, yes, but, at the same time, it gives me something that the set doesn’t give me.
Is Prima Facie one of the most demanding jobs of your career?
The most demanding of all, without a doubt. It has been very difficult and, to this day, it continues to be so. A major challenge that has brought me the same amount of fear and love. It’s very strange, because there are other theater performances that I feel like I’ve done, but here I feel like I’m in it all the time. All the love that is received in return is so great that it gives me the drive to continue doing it.
Is not making things easy an attitude towards life?
Maybe! I have more respect for the things that scare me in life, but at work I am very brave because I feel that it doesn’t matter if I do it wrong. The only one who loses is me. I remember a lot about the Prima Facie decision. When I got the monologue, I thought, “What if it doesn’t come out well? What if I disappoint? What if I have a bad time?” It was all fears, but imagine what I would have missed!
The woman or the actress? Which one was stronger in the decision to accept this project?
I think it was both equally, although the one who intervened first was the woman. Then, the actress thought that it would be very good for my career, that it was a challenge and that I had to do it. I wanted to do a monologue, but I thought it would come to me later, not at 33 years old. Let’s say the woman convinced the actress.
One in three women is a victim of violence in the world. How do we solve this?
Changing education, I think is the only way. The people who make the laws, who judge the laws, who fight against the laws are people educated in a patriarchal and sexist system. Until education is changed, the people working to change the laws are not going to be any different.
Away from the stage, what issues do you discuss?
With many! The thing is that a while ago I made the decision that I didn’t want to constantly politicize myself in public. I think I am an actress committed enough to my values ??to express them through art. Many people ask me these days “what do you think of Ramón Paso?” And I tell them “go watch my monologue, that’s what I think.” For me, art and theater are also politics and I believe that I have the ability, the luck and the privilege of being able to take on projects that teach the things that matter to me politically. I also do it through many other things: my clothes, my way of putting on makeup, the way I show myself to you…
What values ??sustain you?
The most important thing for me is kindness, the good people around me bring me peace. I am very unoriginal when it comes to asking for birthday wishes, I always ask for the same thing: to be at peace with things. I also like purity, honesty, vehemence… I try to be honest and good, but I am human and sometimes I make mistakes. Of course, I am not twisted or a person who has a lot of double-mindedness.
And a professional dream?
Working with people who are no longer here, like with Agnès Varda, but that is impossible. Maybe it would be to write at some point. Sometimes, I have a slightly self-conscious feeling of not being the one who can generate the story I want to tell. Then I think that actors that I admire with all my heart don’t do that and that as an actress I am already a creator. But I would like, like a child splashing in a puddle, to try to see what happens.
