She grew up studying piano and ballet, the daughter of a composer and conductor and a teacher and amateur painter. Aura Garrido (Madrid, 1989) chose to play her, although “you never know” if she could be carried away by another drive any day: “There are so many exciting professions!”, she affirms. For now, at 33 years old, she experiences them from fiction.
Since her debut in 2009 (Physics or Chemistry) she has played several women of character and ahead of her time: Amelia Folch in The Ministry of Time, the militiawoman among zombies in Malnazidos or the detective in A Private Matter. She, in addition to titles such as Stockholm, El dÃa de mañana or El inocento, she next to Mario Casas, with whom she is credited with a relationship since a paparazzi caught them together last summer. A question that she avoids answering: “I won’t say anything, I’m sorry. I have never talked about my personal life.”
Now he is shooting Invisible, which adapts the novel by Eloy Moreno, and has premiered the film Someone to take care of me: complex family relationships in a script by Elvira Lindo, who makes his directorial debut with Daniela Féjerman, and with Emma Suárez and Magüi Mira in the distribution.
How was the experience?
Lovely. Daniela and Elvira generated an atmosphere of familiarity and trust, of being at home. I admire them very much. About Elvira, what am I going to tell you: I am from the generation of Manolito Gafotas, I have grown up with his books.
The film deals with mother-child relationships, so complex.
One of the best things about movies is that both making them and watching them make you think. Something that has interested me in this story is the idea of ​​rediscovering your family. They are the people you know the most, but in their role as mother or grandmother, and in reality they are much more complex people and more experiences than what you see.
Suddenly you are an adult and you look at your mother differently, you see her as a woman…
Exact. And you feel that you don’t really know her thoroughly, that there is a large part of her that has nothing to do with me, that you want to discover and that generates another relationship. It is the process that my character lives, and I wanted to explore it precisely because due to age it touches me very closely.
There is also talk of the ego of the trade. How to manage envy and egos?
The external perception of this work is different from the internal one. It happens in all professions, but in this one it is amplified because it affects your whole life. The intermittence of the trade, the complexity of making a living from it, is very difficult to bear. You always live an external judgment. You don’t generate your work but rather they give it to you, and you live subject to rejection, often for reasons unrelated to whether you do it better or worse, but rather whether you fit in because of your physique or your age. All of this makes you vulnerable.
How do you handle the pressure of the networks? He is not a person who argues…
The mere fact of having a public profession exposes you, regardless of what you say. You become a person on whom others can project their own failures and it is something that goes beyond what you say, do or whatever you are. It has to do with what each one wants to project on you. This exposure is very complex to face.
How did you decide on this profession?
Well, I don’t know if I’ve decided either (laughs). Maybe tomorrow they won’t call me again or I decide to change my life. That uncertainty never goes away. And I think it’s positive, it keeps you connected to reality. I do this because I’m passionate about it, it amuses me and luckily I make a living from it. But I am not aware of having made that decision forever.
Do you have plan B? In his day he thought of studying medicine or anthropology…
I have no plan B (laughs). I have always liked many things. I said to myself: I am going to try the interpretation, to see what happens. It is what I liked the most. But there are so many fascinating professions, so many possible lives, to limit yourself…
This job is perfect for experiencing other lives.
Clear! Exact. I couldn’t have a profession that forced me to do the same thing every day, I couldn’t mentally. But I find it very difficult to reconcile private or social life with work. The feeling that you are not present. It is very absorbing: either all or nothing; when you work you turn and there is no room for more. You appear and disappear. The idea of ​​the profession from outside has nothing to do with reality. It idealizes a lot. But not only this profession. Many things are idealized, from relationships, for example, to things that we do not experience closely. We humans are like that, perhaps it is something inevitable.
How would it be defined?
No idea, I’m not a friend of definitions, it seems to limit you, label you, I don’t know how to identify myself with concepts, nor do I want to.
A virtue.
Because of the life I have chosen, it has made things easier for me to be flexible, adaptable to changes, to intermittence. And empathy, which although complex to manage, helps in my profession. I appreciate it more and more.
What would you like to change?
In many things! I would love to be more tidy, for example, as a concept. I am very scattered.
What causes mobilize it? Do you think that your generation claims little?
There are many causes that mobilize me. Today debates are opened that did not exist ten years ago. It is not that there was no talk of climate change or feminism, but that certain positions did not fit in the debate. This is very relevant. But you have to take action. Climate change is urgent to address. I wish I knew how to change things. We have a system that is very difficult to break. I do not know if it is due to lack of initiatives.
Feel like exploring behind the camera?
It is something that I consider. I like my profession in a broad sense, not just acting. I would like to explore other facets, such as production, for example, it seems to me a precious job, carrying out stories in which you believe.
How do you handle a bad review?
You don’t have to like everyone. Something beautiful about art is that it comes to each one in a different way. Facing criticism is difficult, but I like to know where I can improve. Then I will agree or not. There is another part of the criticism that is destructive, especially with the networks. An anger, an unnecessary hatred, that hurts. And you don’t know to what extent they didn’t like you or it’s that they project something of their own onto me. The debate on online bullying is basic, which comes to light.
Have you been harassed or threatened?
Yes, I received death threats at one point, for talking about feminism. If you have your own opinion and express it, things happen. Then for mental health I left Twitter. When you receive these attacks, you realize that it has nothing to do with what you have said, but that this anger goes far beyond your words. It still upsets me to remember all that, I prefer not to talk about it.
What is this moment in your life like?
I’m OK. There are things that consumed me before, anguished me and at 30 my priorities have changed, as has my perception of myself. I begin to notice more calm, acceptance. I feel that I have things clearer. I keep doubting, but I trust more in my criteria and my decisions, in what makes me different. I’m happy.
What do you turn to if you are discouraged?
It’s okay to be sad sometimes. I think there is an excess of message of positivity. Being positive pushes us to life, but a discourse has been generated that is sometimes out of reality. It is good to go through moments of discouragement, sadness, to live the process.