Few people should enjoy a move like her. “I love it, I’m happy, it’s like a cleaning in which you leave things behind; The environment changes and so do you ”, she explains to the Magazine, in a break from her domestic activity. Miriam Giovanelli was born in Rome to an Italian father and a Spanish mother and lives in Madrid with her husband, the architect Xabier Ortega, and her children, Renata, 3, and Lorenzo, 2.
Popular for the Velvet series, which accompanied her for a few years, in her latest work she plays Bellísima, a porn actress (in spite of herself) in the Nacho series, who dives into adult cinema and the figure of its star Nacho Vidal. An “intense and demanding” role, she says, some of whose sequences took them to Eivissa. She awaits a new shoot outside of Spain when she returns from her vacation along the coast of Alicante and Donostia, the land of her husband.
What has the Nacho series brought you?
It has forced me to work very intensely. I’ve had sexually charged characters before, but not with such a range of emotions. My nude here is emotional, not physical. Bellísima goes from euphoria to depression, behind the camera she lives hell. This role has undoubtedly made me grow as an actress and also reflect on certain issues.
For example?
I was raised by a generation that did not talk about sex, that felt modesty (I remember that if they kissed in a movie my mother changed the channel) and I will have to educate my children, from a generation overexposed to sex like never before. This series is useful to see where we come from. When I was young, when I liked a boy and he ignored me or annoyed me, they would tell me: “It’s because he likes you and he makes himself interesting.” Treating oneself badly has been eroticized and romanticized.
When did you decide that you would be an actress?
I started doing odd jobs at the age of 12, at 17 I made my debut with Miguel
And it already stayed.
I was thinking of going back to Italy, but I fell in love here, got married, had children… and here I am.
What do you aspire to in your career?
I would like to be one of the actresses who works! (laughs). I think you can get something out of all the characters. I aspire to have roles that make me learn, ask myself questions. It is what makes me fall in love with this job, and the more lives I can live, the luckier I will feel. My work ambition is to be able to tell very different stories. But I am very ambitious personally. I want to enjoy my family, my friends. A balance between work and private life. in that I am.
Does the fact that your partner is not an actor help?
I have never had partners in the sector. I do have friends, but I socialize more off set. I go to work to work. My friends are 15 years old, one of them introduced me to my husband. He is a sensitive man and as an architect he also has a creative side. We understand each other very well.
What defines it?
I think that my defect is also my virtue. I can be very constant to hammer you with the best…and also with the worst! (laughs). I am very organized and practical. When I’m not working I organize myself very well to be able to do many things, like study something that interests me.
What would you change about your character?
I have realized that self-demand harms me. Doing yoga I discovered how bad I talk to myself: when I don’t get a posture I talk to myself horrible, I don’t tolerate frustration as well as I thought.
How do you manage it?
I was lucky that my mother has been a very advanced person: she instilled therapy in me since I was a preteen, before I had a conflict to work on. This is how I learned to organize my ideas, to express what I felt. When I had a problem, I already had that habit. Today I do therapy punctually, when I need it, to manage specific issues, you see, everything is very practical.
He said that the masculinity of the nineties was toxic. And what do you think of the current one?
I may live in a bubble, but I think we have evolved. I see straight friends leave certain chats because they’re terrified of it. I am lucky to live with men who take care of their children like women. I no longer feel like I’m living in American Pie, like I was 17 years old.
In her networks she alluded to her difficulty in being a mother…
Yes, I always wanted to be a mother. And it cost me a lot. I was diagnosed with infertility. In the end I was able to fulfill that wish.
What has changed you?
I am honest with you, above all, in my logistical capacity. My hours seem to last longer. At ten I have already made breakfast, I have taken the children to school, I have trained… Spectacular.
Do you feel pressure for image reasons?
I have never been overwhelmed by outside opinion about myself. I have no physical references, I have always been interested in other things. With my pregnancies I gained 30 kilos and then I did worry, but because of my back pain. That was when sport came into my life. And with it nutrition. To be strong, that my body responds to me. Now I train daily and I feel super good. It took me two years to get hooked, before I went to the gym like someone who goes to the slaughterhouse. But I was constant and there came a day when my body really asked me to train. It is my best achievement. Everything else, having children, for example, I wanted… but not sports, never.
How is it related to fashion?
I love it as an artistic manifestation, but every day I look for comfort. Although now I understand that it is possible to combine both things, to express yourself with your dress, even the way you combine colors speaks of you.
Do you follow the policy? Are you going to vote?
Everything is really political, also our way of living and relating. I’m going to vote, yes, but disappointed. Not only because of the politicians, but because there is energy in the streets, a climate of belligerence, rage and intransigence… I think that all opinions must be respected, as long as they are based on fundamental rights, of course.
