“In this case, no one knows what really happened. “I’m not going to be the one to make trials,” says Candela Peña about The Asunta Case, her latest work that will be released on Netflix next Friday. The six-episode miniseries is produced by Bambú Producciones with Ramón Campos at the helm, who already released a true crime film about the case directed by Elías León Siminiani in 2017. The Catalan actress plays Rosario Porto, who together with Alfonso Basterra reported on September 21, 2013 that her daughter had disappeared. Asunta’s body was found hours later next to a road outside Santiago de Compostela. The police investigation soon revealed evidence that pointed to the parents as possible perpetrators of the crime. In 2015 they were sentenced to 18 years in prison for murder.
How did you come to this fiction?
They offered me the role of the civil guard that accompanies Rosario in the first instance. I read it and I liked it but I asked the producer who played Rosario. He replied that I couldn’t be because I didn’t fit in, that they saw me as bigger than Rosario. And notice that I am small. I asked for three weeks to prepare well because I was doing a play. And I passed the test.
He lost a few kilos.
Yes, because we have very different bodies. Rosario was very petite and she didn’t have any breasts. And part of her defense was that a woman who does not even weigh 45 kilos, it was not possible for her to have moved a 38 kilo body and left it on the ground without dragging it. I lost as much weight as possible to give truth to that part of the trial.
What were the main challenges when becoming Rosario Porto?
Above all, try to understand it and not fall into judgment. Furthermore, in this marriage I saw the difference between being a ‘bad father’ and ‘a bad mother’ and how they are judged differently, so I also wanted to build a frame of that family, so that people could understand what they did or They stopped doing it without any intention of clarifying anything because it is a case that everyone knows how it ended. And what interested and motivated me most, above all, was being able to build together with Tristán Ulloa (Alfonso Basterra) the most intimate moments of that family that never appeared in the press or were made public. And finally, I was also interested in addressing a topic like mental health.
To what extent have you come to understand Rosario?
As much as I could. In the sense that she and Alfonso were convicted based on indications and evidence but they always maintained that they were innocent. In sequence 3 of chapter 1, these parents are going to report the disappearance of their daughter. Tristán and I had to decide with what force these parents arrive at the police station because they are really reporting that their daughter has disappeared. Because I defend the truth from them. I am not a judge on this series.
What has it been like working with Tristan?
I could never have had a better partner to play Alfonso Basterra. With him, I have felt the same support as if my name was Thelma, I looked to the right and Louise was there and I said ‘shall we jump down the Colorado canyon? And Tristán shook my hand and told me let’s go for it.
What conclusion have you reached about what this couple was like?
Rosario was fertile but decided to adopt because she had a disease, lupus that was caused by the sun and pregnancy. I believe that the issue of adopting her was Alfonso’s initiative so that she would not fall ill because he was extremely careful about Rosario, he would say that he was even sickly.
She states that the series has led her to reflect on nature and human complexity. What does it refer to?
Well, all people are much more than the worst act we have ever done in our lives. Each person is a book of which you only see the covers and if someone takes the trouble to read everything inside, you can even understand the cruelest person in the world. I don’t want to judge or defend anyone. A story has been told here and what I would like is for people not to be left alone with the enormous media trial of the series and to get closer to these people and the internal war that inhabited their marriage.
In Santiago de Compostela he received insults during filming from people who criticized that he was going to get paid to defend Rosario’s position.
It’s a small anecdote and it bothered me that they made it so big in the press. Because in Santiago de Compostela I only received love and generosity. I mentioned it as an example to show that vicarious violence is not the same if it is carried out by a father as if it is carried out by the mother. Furthermore, there are people who find it terrible that these stories are told and I cannot manage people’s taste there.
Is Rosario one of the characters you have played that you are most satisfied with?
My satisfaction with the characters is not only making them but, as in the theater, until the audience sees it, the circle is not closed. Until the day it is released I will not know to what extent I am satisfied. Yes, I am happy to have played the character of a 43-year-old woman with this complexity and the spectacular team I have had that has helped me.
The series will be seen in 190 countries. Would you like to see job opportunities outside of Spain?
Well, if it comes to me from Pablo Larraín from Chile, it would be a dream. It’s nice when a job to which you have dedicated 10 months of your life can have more reach by working with such a large platform. I am also worried about how this case will be received, because here people have it in mind because it happened 10 years ago, but in Croatia, for example, we do not know how they will receive it. It makes me somewhat curious.
