An indie muse since its inception, the label has impregnated this Madrid native of Buenos Aires parents with a special aura, due to her selective trajectory and that suggestive way of living the characters and giving them authenticity. He faced the first at only 15 years old and has no longer doubted that this is his natural environment. He has shown it with praised works in cinema: such as the shocking Magical girl (Goya 2015), Obaba, El niño, Contratiempo, Oro, Petra or El reino, in theater and on television, with Águila roja or the recent El desorden que dejas. In late 2022, she made an impact on the big screen as investigator Alice Gould in God’s Crooked Lines.
Soon his daughter was born, whose name he prefers not to reveal, and to whom he has dedicated himself completely in his first ten months of life. The 39-year-old actress lives in Madrid, next to the Retiro, “a wonderful green lung that I go to every day with my little one.” When we talk to her, she is recovering from a virus that has left her “somewhat limping” and goes to Portugal on vacation with her family and some of her friends.
It premieres a curious film, The girls are fine, with a script and direction by Itsaso Arana. Several actresses spend a week in the countryside to rehearse a play and there they address topics such as friendship, work, love or death. Lennie, Arana herself and Irene Escolar, among others, embody characters that have a lot of themselves, since the script is born from interviews with them. In addition, she is considering new projects and preparing her first post-maternity shoot.
Back to work soon…
Yes, since I had the girl my body has asked me to take some time. It gives me a thing to get away from her. I start with a dramatic comedy. And I’m seeing how I organize next year, I have things that I like in Brazil and Argentina and I don’t know how to do it.
Argentina is his second homeland.
Yes, I was born in Madrid, but I spent my early childhood in Buenos Aires. My parents also live here, but my family, big and the kind you want to see, is there. I miss them, now they are coming to meet the fat lady.
In Las chicas están bien, Bárbara, her alter ego, affirms: “Whoever has love has everything”. Does she share it?
Oops, I don’t know! I, unfortunately, have a kind of chronic dissatisfaction. I do believe that love is essential and more now. Because a baby demands such a level of efficiency that either you bet on love or you say: But what is this? This delivery and sacrifice for someone is crazy! Very strong, really.
Is it as you imagined? Is it beyond you?
If someone says that parenting does not overwhelm them sometimes, I will not believe them or it will seem irresponsible to me. It beats me, but I’m happy and landing. A baby’s first year is such a level of nuke in the lives of those around us that it has to be accommodated.
Before her motherhood, she faced a delicate situation: creating a bond with the daughters of her partner, Diego Postigo, at a very difficult time. Dora and June (12 and 5 years old) had lost their mother, Bimba Bosé. How did you build that relationship?
It’s a bit the same, love… Trying not to be invasive, accompanying, feeling that you help, protect as much as you can and want. It has been very intense, in such a tough situation being so small. And I think that it caught me at a time when it made sense in my life, because if not, so much effort would not have been possible for me. I am proud to have contributed to his life. Now they are older. Dora already lives alone, she comes to eat, to see the dwarf. June, the middle one, still feels like my puppy, somehow I raised her. In general, it’s okay to give them some independence, that they can be and be with you however they can and want. We tend to expect more than what is due, how much love they have to give you, how much you should give. Ah, calm down! It’s good to have relative expectations. As far as one can and that’s it. Not wanting to be the model that we have always been sold.
How is your career going?
For many years, I have very persistently searched for things that I felt were worthwhile, that had to do with my personal journey as an actress. And that energy is returned to you, the projects that come later have to do with that search of yours.
Have you made risky choices?
Yes, I have said no to things that have been super hits. I have jumped into the pool, fear has not accompanied me in my work, in other factors of life, yes. At first I did have moments of vertigo. But since I felt a little safe, I said to myself: now, instinct. And I have made contradictory choices for others but for me they have made sense.
An atypical career?
Probably. Auteur cinema, with Isaki Lacuesta, Carlos Vermut, Jaime Rosales, Salazar… I have been lucky enough to be able to step on both fields. Making films like El niño or Los renglones torcidos de Dios. I am quite omnivorous in this sense.
What character would not accept?
Right now I don’t have the body nor the desire, nor the energy, to get into a disturbed mind, in evil, pain, torture. I have said no to certain things because I don’t see myself being able to put my body there. And I’ve posted it long before! Now I feel like light, fun, fragility, love…
How has being a mother changed you?
I still don’t have the perspective to know. I am in the whirlpool of the first year, which has changed me in a transcendent way. I am not in the world the same as ten months ago, it is clear, but I still do not know how to explain which essential pieces have been disrupted.
What is your best virtue?
I am persevering, I would say that it is a virtue. Worker.
What would she change about herself?
I would like to be less demanding with myself and in general, and not give importance to almost anything other than the three or four things that have it.
What can’t you stand about others?
Above all, lies and violence.
They have called her intense, mysterious… What do you identify with as an actress?
Oops, how difficult to say about yourself. I want to think that I cling to a certain nudity, I seek that there is truth in what I do, that it is committed. And that there is something that I do not let see, I think that a certain mystery is not bad, without a box in the story. That you ask yourself questions. I as a spectator like it.
What encourages you in low moments?
Music, literature and cinema. They are big topics, but they save me.
Does having an Argentine psychoanalyst mother help?
(Laughs) Yes, a lot. But my mother tries to keep a certain hygienic distance from me in that sense. She is there whenever I need her and she is a very intelligent woman who I always listen to, but when I have wanted to do therapy I have looked for another professional, I would be incompatible with her.
How is it taken care of?
I do sports, with a personal trainer. I will be active again in September, because my whole body aches. I eat very well, varied, little red meat. And I have my beauty routines and non-invasive treatments. I have not touched my face nor do I intend to.
What is your relationship with fashion?
It amuses me as part of the job. I have some stylists who are like family, with whom I have always looked for my style, for promotional days. In my life I am more basic, very practical. I could go with a uniform that I like every day without problem.
What worries you most about what is happening today?
I read the press and I see that the world of 30, 40 years ago, not only has not improved, but the problems continue and have multiplied. The drama of the refugees, the migrations, hurts me especially. I come from a family of immigrants, my father has been a political refugee and I know that feeling uprooted is hard. Added to the wars, famines, shipwrecks… All of this makes my blood boil.
At the age of 15, she shot her first film, animated by Jonás Trueba, her first boyfriend. Chance or early vocation?
I was studying theater at school and it was a mixture of chance and destiny. They chose me to do More pain than glory and, from there, I dared to think that I wanted to study Dramatic Art. And I’ve never had any doubts.
Less doubts than in life?
That’s right, but not because I believe that there will always be work, but because when it has not arisen, I have generated it, I have produced my plays, I have called people. There is an impulse that I feel very clear, like a pump that it is in me, within the uncertainty, to which I have already become accustomed. You have to serve for this. If you want a quieter life, don’t dedicate yourself to art.
Have you gotten where you wanted?
No no. The other day I was with Gonzalo Suárez, with whom I am going to shoot a piece and who, at 89 years old, says: “It’s just, damn it, I haven’t done half of the things I want to do.” The same thing happens to me, there are a lot of things that I haven’t even smelled yet.
Who do you dream of working with?
I would like an Italian director to call me, a Taiwanese… work in different places. It would seem wonderful to me. Now it is difficult, in my life, but everything will come. The American industry makes me lazy, I don’t think they do so many appetizing things. There are always two movies or three series a year that you say wow!, but to get in there…they themselves are horrified! Let’s see, if it comes up, I wouldn’t say no, but it’s not a dream or an obsession.
If we talked in a few years, what wish would you like to have fulfilled?
Having written a piece that I have in mind. And verify that it is possible to film and be a present mother. Reconciling has always been a problem for the world’s comedians. Cinema is a kind of temporary kidnapping of your life. It worries me, but previous generations have done it, so I can do it too.
