In 2018, Sandra Bullock blindfolded herself faced a post-apocalyptic future in which a mysterious supernatural presence was driving a large part of society to suicide in Blind, a film directed by Susanne Bier. The success of the film has pushed the streaming platform to now sign the brothers Álex and David Pastor to take the reins of a spin-off that places the story in a deserted Barcelona where Mario Casas tries to survive that devastating annihilation alongside his daughter and also allying himself with other survivors, played by Lola Dueñas, Michelle Jenner, Patrick Criado, Gonzalo de Castro, the Mexican Diego Calva or the British Georgina Campbell.
The film has landed on Netflix after its massive premiere at the Tivoli theater on June 29, it goes beyond the interesting foray into science fiction of the Pastors in Infected (2009) and the panic in the form of a mysterious disease that threatened the Ciudad Condal a decade ago in Los últimas días.
The film surprises with the level of special effects and the display of a ghostly city surrounded by voices that invite you to remove your blindfolds and see what lies ahead. “When entering the digital world, the film grows a lot, especially outdoors, and I had the opportunity to see destroyed streets as we see in the film”, he tells in conversation with La Vanguardia, who has shot his latest films in Barcelona and much of his directorial debut, My Solitude Has Wings, which hits theaters in August. “Barcelona is in my veins. I lived here from the age of four to 18, I have my grandmother and many friends in this city and it is true that I always end up recording here. I love coming.”
The actor was amazed by Bullock’s tape and, when he received the script, he did not hesitate to get fully involved in the project: “It was a gift and I was very attracted to the character of Sebastián, a family man who is walking through these streets of Post-apocalyptic Barcelona with her daughter. And, above all, when we go back to the past and gradually discover things about him, those shadows, those lights and nuances that he carries, that emotion and everything that has happened to him. I was interested to find out why he behaves this way.
Casas speaks wonders of the two girls who appear in the film, Alejandra Howard, his daughter in fiction, and the German Naila Schuberth, a little girl who is looking for her mother and who is protected by the woman played by Campbell. “I clung to that light, that energy that they gave off because they give purity and that reaches the public.” The Goya winner for You Will Not Kill admits that he wears out the emotional part more than the physical part of the performance. And that it is not easy to disconnect from the role once the directors shout “cut!”. “I was in the same clothes for four months. But I was taking a shower, huh? It’s something I like to do when I shoot and from the first moment it helps me to be in character and not get out of it. He also helps out on the team. Just like growing a beard and long hair. I like to compose from the physical ”, he points out.
He is also happy with the multicultural cast that Bird Box Barcelona boasts. “It was a very interesting mix and the feeling was that we were all immersed in a project that excited us”. Casas speaks English and German very well in the film. “German is the most complicated thing there is and it scared me. I rehearsed the scenes I had a lot, I had a coach and Nayla took care of me and she told me “Gut, gut!”. I was interested in her understanding me because she is the one who had to understand me and that reassured me a lot. Because it was not only phonetics, but transmitting emotion”. The actor believes that in a situation as surreal as the one presented in the film “it is difficult to guess how people would act”, although he dares to venture that “there would be a lot of selfishness, that people would look out for themselves, to survive, and there would also be whoever looks out for others, that pearl that is always there taking care of others”.
It is an opinion shared by Georgina Campbell, who is working for the first time in Spain. “She had already come to Barcelona on vacation before and she really wanted to return,” says the actress, winner of the 2015 Bafta award for best television performer for Murdered by my boyfriend. She plays Claire, a “very empathic and optimistic” psychiatrist. The Briton praises Bullock’s performance in the original film and stresses that on filming “we had bandages in which you could see a little bit and others in which you couldn’t see anything, and what you were trying to do was not be too clumsy”. remember between laughs.
Diego Calva, known for his role in Babylon, was interested in “exploring the horror genre” and says that “it has been a lot of fun working with the Pastors. I think they are suspense geniuses.” His role is that of Octavio, “someone completely practical who only thinks about surviving, and I like to think that he is like a Mexican migrant who was suddenly caught by the apocalypse.”
