Berto Romero ventures into a very peculiar genre in The Other Side, the new series that arrives this Thursday on Movistar Plus. In a mix of horror and comedy, the actor plays Nacho Nieto, a journalist specializing in the paranormal, who is going through his worst professional and personal moment. After a failed suicide attempt, he returns to life accompanied by the ghost of his mentor, Dr. Estrada (Andreu Buenafuente), a mythical communicator of the mystery who has already passed away. At that moment, a case of paranormal phenomena crosses his path in which Gorka Romero (Nacho Vigalondo) will end up involved, who is now the leading figure in mystery journalism.
What has led you to The Other Side and that foray into terror?
Nothing more than the will to do something different, which is an engine that always moves me. In this job, the most interesting thing is the creative learning process that one has and repeating the same thing again takes you to a more boring place. I wanted to take more risks. And as for the theme, horror and paranormal phenomena is a genre that has always caught my attention. I wanted to give myself the gift of making a fiction that I would want to consume as a viewer.
How would you define your tone?
My intention has been to balance comedy and horror as much as possible. That the two genders were looking each other in the face. With which we arrive at a very peculiar tone because neither comedy nor horror work particularly well. It may seem like a failure but we carry it as a flag for the tone of the series, because it is true that you are not going to throw yourself on the floor laughing nor are you going to go to sleep scared. That mix leads us to a tone of half-rotten comedy that I think is the discovery of the series.
Have you prepared in any way for the more dramatic scenes such as the suicide attempt?
We comedians do nothing different from any other actor or actress other than interpreting what is written on the paper in the most realistic way possible. When you are simulating a suicide or any other drama you do it in the most realistic way. Just like when you do comedy. What happens is that some, as in my case, produce a feeling of hilarity in the viewer. What we have done is confront characters like mine or Andreu Buenafuena’s with objectively sinister and terrifying situations to cause this train crash.
Are you curious to see how the public will receive this registry change?
A lot. It has been a series conceived and thought for the public to enjoy. It is intended to be an open series, not difficult to consume nor with a bizarre discourse. We have already screened it at some festivals and the public has connected very well.
A collateral theme that is explored is the midlife crisis?
It is a crisis not so focused on specific age but rather it explores a crisis of masculinity for a generation like mine that lives in what I call a happy patriarchy, where it seemed that everyone was very happy to meet each other, to say hello. , give two kisses and a slap on the ass. Those of us who are born having those fathers and mothers have to deconstruct ourselves to build ourselves into something that we still don’t know exactly where it is going.
Is Jiménez del Oso in any way present in the series?
The two poles of Dr. Estrada are the great communicator of the seventies and eighties in Spain, who was Jiménez del Oso, and the great communicator that exists now, who is Iker Jiménez. I was born in ’74 and Jiménez del Oso was that mythical figure comparable to Chico Ibáñez Serrador or Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente. Icons that marked an entire era and, obviously, the reference is there.
