THE SPANISH ACTRESS, ONE OF THE GREATEST NAMES IN CINEMA IN FRANCE, SPAIN AND THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT, SHARED ANECDOTES OF HER CAREER WITH THE SPECTATORS IN HUESCA
AFTER 45 YEARS WITHOUT SETTING FOOT ON STAGE IN SPAIN, SHE RETURNS THIS SUMMER TO STAR IN THE PLAY MEDUSA AT THE MÉRIDA ROMAN THEATER
Actress Victoria Abril, winner of two Silver Shells, a Golden Bear, and a Goya, among other awards, has celebrated her 50-year career at the 52nd edition of the Huesca International Film Festival. The festival pays tribute to her professional life in cinema with the Luis Buñuel Award. “The Luis Buñuel Award is a recognition of my career, just as I celebrate my Golden Jubilee. I deserve it; it’s been 50 years, and I am grateful and emotional. My mentor Vicente Aranda used to say that awards are the beginning of the end, but having reached 50 years of my career, we cannot say that I am at my peak,” she said.
In a crowded meeting with the public held at the central López Allué square in the capital, which exceeded 300 attendees, the actress and singer had a conversation with writer and filmmaker Luis Alegre. She appeared approachable, fun, and playful. “I’m in Huesca; it’s my Golden Jubilee and my return to Spain after being away for 45 years. That’s something unforgettable,” she emphasized, also adding, “I hope that those who are not familiar with the Huesca Festival start to know it, respect it, and promote it more.”
Victoria Abril spoke about her beginnings when she wanted to be a classical dancer, but the conditions and norms of the time would have led her to be an office secretary. It was through her ballet teacher that she insecurely joined the cast of Obsession (1975), directed by Francisco Lara Polop, followed by Robin and Marian that same year by Richard Lester, the Italian And They Called Him Robin Hood (1976) by Tonino Ricci, and La bien Plantada (1976) by Ramón Gómez Redondo.
“My fifth movie was Change of Sex by Vicente Aranda, and until then I wasn’t interested in being an actress, I just didn’t want to be a secretary. It was with Vicente, my mentor, my guide, the pillar of my ‘triple A,’ that I realized I was meant for acting. I left my ballet shoes and didn’t pick them up again until two years ago for a play where I started dancing en pointe,” she explained to the audience.
She also spoke about the other two filmmakers that make up her ‘triple A’: Agustín Díaz Yañez, with whom she filmed Nobody Will Speak of Us When We’re Dead and Don’t Tempt Me, among others, and Pedro Almodóvar, who directed her in Law of Desire, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, Kika,” and High Heels. All the directors have contributed to my career, but I would give a bit of the Palme d’Or to my loyal ‘triple A’: without Vicente Aranda, with whom I made 13 films, I would still be a secretary, and if he hadn’t died, we would have continued until the end; with Almodóvar, I made three films in five years in my thirties, a time during which I also had two children, which is important to highlight because it’s not just about filming, but also the travelling one has to make around the world promoting at festivals; and with Agustín Díaz Yañez, with whom I worked from age 25 to 45, I finally won the Goya,” she declared
The Spanish actress, who has over a hundred critically and popularly acclaimed works in film, theater and television to her credit, has revealed that it is precisely in her 40s that filmmakers, “not my triple A,” but cinema itself, “abandon you like deodorants.” From this period, she highlights Sin noticias de Dios, a work of which she was very proud, she performed two songs and then produced music albums with which she spent six years traveling the world. “Cinema had saved my life, and it’s true, but the lockdown was the happiest time of my life, music is the Esperanto that everyone understands.”
After also talking about her time in the theater, the actress has highlighted that “success and glory do not teach you anything, they are good for the ego but you have to be careful, because otherwise, we lose our heads; the only thing you learn from are failures, and although many times we are thinking about what we want, it is very important to know what we do not want and that is why failures are very important, they teach you where you do not want to go back to.”
The honoree of the Luis Buñuel Award at the 52nd edition of the Huesca International Film Festival has announced, excitedly, her return to the Spanish stages this summer, at the Mérida Roman Theater, which she called “the Olympus Mecca”, with the super production Medusa, under the direction of José María del Castillo and accompanied by other outstanding talents such as Adrián Lastra (Perseus) or Mariola Fuentes (Athena), as well as the debut as an actress of the also singer Ruth Lorenzo.
This reformulation of the classic myth about the dreaded monster of antiquity with snake hair and a petrifying gaze is a multidisciplinary staging with 30 people on stage and can be seen from July 31 to August 11 at the famous festival of the Extremaduran city of Mérida. After this, the work will go through the Sagunto Festival (August 17 and 18) and the Niebla Festival in Huelva (August 24). “This production is already attracting a lot of interest from other cities that do not have such large theaters but with which we are thinking of making a smaller adaptation and I am going to suggest that it can be in the Teatro Olimpia de Huesca,” she concluded.