There are horses that, according to María Hervás (Madrid, 37 years old), gallop inside us. Wild horses that do not stop easily, not even in the face of the force of reason or political correctness. Both in her professional and media career, the actress, producer and playwright confesses that she has let them run free regardless of the unpleasantness they might bring her. “I have made it a political decision not to restrict myself. It is my commitment as an artist,” she says.
On this non-negotiable and highly personal freedom he has built one of the most unique careers in the industry, reconciling some of the most memorable roles on the recent theatre scene. (Iphigenia in Vallecas, Pack) and commercial success in the audiovisual (Alpha males, The village). Determined to double every bet she makes, Hervás has now made her dream of adapting The Second Woman, by Nat Randall and Anna Breckon, who will put her on stage for 24 hours to repeat the same scene 100 times with 100 partners different. An “epic” experience that will be performed for the first time on July 6th within the framework of the Greek Festival from Barcelona, and then will travel to Seville and Madrid, with the aim of exposing the mechanisms of gender power to the public.
I suppose that to last 24 hours on stage you need physical and mental stamina. Were you looking to test yourself?
I don’t know what it takes, I haven’t spent a second thinking about it… [ríe]As I am a particularly thoughtful and conscientious person, I set myself challenges of a more impulsive and daring nature to compensate for so much reason. As I often have to go to TV for 12 hours to film things that don’t always motivate me, but that pay the bills, I reserve the most extraordinary experiences for the theatre. It is my temple, that platonic love that you always think about, even if you are with another person.
Do you feel more fulfilled on stage than when you achieve great success in audiovisual media?
That’s how I feel, although I will be more objective as the years go by. Until now, the projects I have done in the theatre have been more challenging on an interpretive level: multifaceted, complex characters, with a very powerful social commitment and which I have often created myself. People don’t stop you to ask for a photo because you look so cute in the series, but to tell you that something has changed in them. Pack, Following the La Manada trial, we have opened many consciences… and ours, first and foremost. It is satisfying to feel that your actions have an impact on your fellow citizens.
TV is something else…
I feel that the older I get, the more I try to make my happiness not depend on work. I try to link it to a life attitude, not to an artistic action. It doesn’t matter if I have to film a shitty scene, I’m going to try to do the great work of my life. It would be necessary for schools to teach us this commitment to one’s own happiness. Happiness must be exercised, it doesn’t depend on something we never manage to have.
She breaks away from the archetype of an actress who starts out on stage and works her way up to conquer the big screen. Why does she always return to the theatre?
First of all, I love the kind of life that it forces you to have: I do whatever I want in the morning and then I go to do my show. On the other hand, the high emotions that theatre gives you are not given to you by anything else. I have never taken drugs, but it is as if they gave you a shot of the most concentrated elixir of life that there is every day. That is addictive, man. On top of that, you work with people you like, it is a community act that can change things and people applaud you. The bad thing is that you cannot live off theatre… if not, just wait for me, they had me on TV a lot, you know?
Is the Maria who was on stage five years ago very different? Iphigenia in Vallecas of the one that premieres The Second Woman?
I don’t know. Because of my ideology, because of my paradigm of worldview, I have to say that I am different. In fact, I would see it as a failure to tell you that I am the same. I change all the time, even after this conversation. There are things that I like more about myself than before and others less, but I do keep the same passion for the job I do. I still maintain that.
And what do you like least about your current reality?
I’m becoming more professional in every aspect. Everything is more organized, more compartmentalized. There’s little room for improvisation. Sometimes I watch movies that remind me of when I was younger, in my early twenties, and I wonder at what point I started sacrificing those levels of well-being, of simplicity, of enjoyment, of connection with friends and late-night conversations, in order to be the person expected of me both professionally and personally. Everything is now more designed.
Are you then fulfilling what was expected of you?
Honestly, I’ve more than accomplished that. I could pat myself on the back and say, “Girl, you did well. Now go live and stop all that nonsense.” What my parents, who are really cool people, wanted for me is for me to be happy and do well in whatever I do. The tasks I have left to do are, first, to validate myself on all levels, to not have to wait for someone’s gaze to know who I am; and, second, to be even more punk than I already am at my core, without being afraid of the losses that this might bring.
He describes his encounter with 100 different masculinities as “epic” The Second Woman. Isn’t the number intimidating?
I have a very good relationship with masculinities. Not with all of them, just as I don’t have a great relationship with all femininities. In February there were some very controversial statements on my part. [”Hay un ambiente muy crispado en el que se está convirtiendo todo en una lucha de la mujer contra el hombre”, alegó] I could have spared myself… or maybe not, because sometimes things come from places we don’t know where they come from. What I wanted to say is that feminism, in its theoretical definition, is the liberation of all human beings. Obviously, we first have to liberate those who have been most subjugated throughout history: both women and other marginalized, oppressed and less normative sectors. But, ultimately, feminism also comes to liberate men from the patriarchal yoke.
In what sense?
For example: whether they can cry or not, whether they have to be the ones to provide… Since I was little I have been aware that men are victims of the same patriarchy as I am. I also speak from the luck of having an extraordinarily feminist father. He cooks, cleans, goes to the market, he has even ironed my thongs… He has always taught me about equality and freedom. He has made me have a very friendly relationship with men. I am aware that sometimes I can generalize from there and that some women may find that frivolous.
Did the controversy change your thinking in any way?
Absolutely. If you push me, I’m more radical in my leftist thoughts now. It’s funny because a lot of people who didn’t know me at all until I came along Alpha males He associated me with an extremely conservative and reactionary way of thinking. I was sent to the fachosphere for statements taken out of context, when I am the complete opposite: I come from a family of workers and my parents were very left-wing. Every day, studying philosophy, I become more committed to my ideas. They are not the same, they are changing, but they have not gone to a more focused or moderate place.
What do you think was your mistake?
Talking with levels of subtlety in thought more appropriate for someone you talk to for a long time and who has the same training as you. What happened was super hard for me, I suffered a lot. It was the first time I received hateAnd I don’t care about hate, they’ve messed with me before for being thin, but it’s harder when they attack something so heavy like identity. That’s when I understood that I had to work on self-validation: “Is this attacking you because you also think you’re becoming an asshole or because you’re scared that others will think that?” No, I don’t have any debate, I know that I’m not becoming an asshole. The people who love me and know me know what I am. I got scared and told myself that I wouldn’t talk so much or in such a free way, but two days later I was saying something else that was also misinterpreted.
It will be released in theaters on August 9th Rubble body. How do you manage the duality of being a dramatic actress in the theatre and, on the big screen, doing mostly comedies?
It came about like this. I have no conflict with being a comedy actress, humour has an extraordinary political function: it relieves tension, relaxes and lightens the burden of life. Humour saves me from therapy, although I pay for a lot of other therapy. But, to be honest, the cinema that interests me and that I consume is auteur cinema. Cinema that speaks of another type of narrative that is not necessarily the normative one, that has more to do with metaphor, subtlety and poetry. My great pending task is to be able to tell those other stories. If I have to do it behind the camera, writing or directing it, so be it.
You confessed to me earlier that the last thing you did today before arriving on set was reading. Can you tell me what?
A feminist essay by a philosophy professor named Victoria Camps. I combine it with the last chapter of Karl [de Marie Ottavi]the biography of Karl Lagerfeld. I saw a documentary about him and he seemed like a very interesting guy, who represents vitalism, in the most Nietzschean sense of the word. I read every day. I also always eat fruit for breakfast, I train, I get some sun and, if I can, I have a beer with my father, who lives across the street.
Do you consider yourself a bit of a neighborhood person?
A lot. I was born in Ronda de Segovia and I bought a penthouse there. I spent my whole life looking up thinking: “Who the hell has the money to live in those spaces?” It was almost symbolic to buy it on the street where I grew up. But now, for the first time, I feel that those roots are too much for me. I live on the same street where I played for the first time, where I had my first boyfriend and had my first kiss, where I got drunk as a teenager… I am feeling that concentration of first times more like a burden than an impulse. I want to move house.
EQUIPMENT
Styling Beatriz Machado
Makeup and hairdressing Rebeca T. Figueroa (Another Agency) for Dior Beauty and Authentic Beauty Concept
Set design Irene Luna
Production Cristina Serrano
Photography assistant Marcos Jimenez
Styling Assistant: Diego Serna
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