One thinks of Carmen Machi (Madrid, 1963) and is surprised that he had never participated in a production by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, the authors of the Paquita Salas and Veneno series. “I was familiar with it, because we all know each other, and there was a mutual desire to work together”, explains the actress who won a Goya for Ocho apellidos vascos. Therefore, when they called him to see if he wanted to participate in La Mesías, which Movistar Plus premieres today, his answer was: “Where do I sign?”.
Machi is the matriarch Montserrat, a role she shares with Ana Rujas and Lola Dueñas: “They told me that the character had different ages and that mine would be the one of the current era. From there, they sent me the scripts and they blew my mind in a way you can’t even imagine.” Montserrat is an aimless woman, a mother too young, who finds faith when she locks herself in a farmhouse with a man (Albert Pla) who sees the light in her. Then he begins to dialogue with God to manipulate those around him, with the mission of saving the world through music and children that he does not send to school or let go out on the street. As adults, the children are played by Roger Casamajor, Macarena García and the singer Amaia Romero, for whom he has only good words: “Amaia’s work is not surprising, she is a person with stratospheric sensitivity and artistic quality because of his youth. He has an exquisite palate.”
“He is a fictional character, but there are many people like that: manipulative, selfish, self-centered. You can understand her: she’s afraid of being left alone, she’s afraid she won’t have anyone to manipulate,” she argues. Calvo and Ambrossi never forced her to imitate Rujas and Dueñas. They offered him to see the material filmed by his colleagues and gave him freedom. “La Montserrat is very different in each stage, but there was the feeling that we were playing the same character. The viewer is very smart and he doesn’t need us to be alike in everything either”, he defends.
With La Mesías, the Javis settled in Catalonia, to shoot from Santa Susanna to Girona, to narrate a story about the perversion of faith, toxic motherhood and childhood traumas, they even use for the imaginary reputation of Montserrat as a place linked to UFOs. This implies a peculiar communion with Catalan talent such as Roger Casamajor, Albert Pla, Biel Rossell, Irene Balmes, Nora Navas, Monts Plans and Francesca Piñón.
“La Mesías doesn’t resemble anything they’ve done, but they always have a link with their work”, says Machi. She herself had trouble understanding what Calvo and Ambrossi’s secret was, but she understood it when she filmed there: “They have an incredible culture. They have a very rich, very creative universe that goes further. They have a level of enjoyment that sets them apart. They are very clear about what they want to explain and how far they want to explain it. And, above all, they get to the end. They don’t stay half-hearted.”
With such a prestigious career that he has built, he admits that he has never been on a filming set with such generosity and rigor. “If I hadn’t worked on La Mesías, I would have missed out on something extraordinary,” says the actress, who has two films pending release: Tratamos demasiado bien a las mujeres, with Luis Tosar, and Día de caza, with Rossy de Palma and Blanca Portillo, with whom he met fame at 7 vidas.
