“There have been times when I thought it was useless for this”, acknowledges the actress, who opens in theaters this Friday ‘Josefina’
Emma Suárez (Madrid, 1964) lives a renewed phase of her career since Pedro Almodóvar wanted her as his ‘Julieta’ five years ago. In ‘Josefina’, Javier Marco’s debut feature, she plays a woman who takes care of her husband, who is bedridden due to paralysis, and visits a son imprisoned in jail. There, one of the guards (Roberto Álamo) will invent that he is the father of an inmate, the Josefina of the title, to establish contact with her. The film hits theaters this Friday.
-What does it feel like in a jail?
-I had already shot ‘Hours of light’, with Alberto San Juan, based on a real case. I was in prison in Picassent and in El Dueso. The first impression you have when you are in contact with the inmates is that of shock. You think: how many good people are inside the prison and how many bad people are outside… You think about the injustice in which we often live. How many people are in jail for unexpected situations, as is the case of the son of the protagonist of ‘Josefina’. It is not counted in the film, but you understand that he is imprisoned by an accident, by a random issue. It is not a quinqui.
-How do you get into the life of someone who has a bedridden husband and a son in prison?
-It’s something we come across every day. If you go on the subway, you can imagine that any stranger leads a similar life. Berta carries a great burden and takes over her day to day, she doesn’t have time for herself. Accept the circumstances of her life like a champion. He does not victimize himself, and in that sense he has a lot of dignity. I like that dignity and that the film does not indulge in drama. The characters are used to loneliness and live it with acceptance. I think the vast majority of people feel that way. Many of us feel alone in certain situations, I see myself reflected in my character’s nuances. As a woman who pulls forward with her children, with work, the insecurity of knowing if a project is coming, being bald and not making it to the end of the month …
-Excuse me for committing adultery for that need for affection?
-It’s not that I’m sorry, it’s that I understand it perfectly. Perhaps he would not understand otherwise. When the opportunity presents itself, seize it. At first, it was difficult for me to accept that this woman, with the strength she has, did not hit the table. I was wondering why she hasn’t gone off and left her husband. His strength is that he endures, his benevolence makes him not abandon him.
-He has already had a few films with first-time directors. What do they see in you?
-I don’t know, honestly. I like my work, regardless of whether it is a first film or the work of an established director. There is always a risk in this trade, which is independent of the experience of the director. The important thing is that there is a good story to tell and that, as far as possible, I can understand myself with the director. The actors are instruments to tell the stories of the scriptwriters. It is essential for me to have harmony and dialogue, that I can confidently ask the director and work as a team.
-Paraphrasing the title of the film by Gracia Querejeta in which you starred, you are not invisible to film and television in recent times.
-Well, I don’t know what to tell you, here one becomes invisible overnight. After working for so many years, I know that this is a long-distance race that goes through many stages. Sometimes you have a good streak and other times, a bad one. I am a vocational actress and at this point in life I do it with all the love in the world, I could not retire. But there have been many times when I have not had a job. There were no projects. Insecurity is part of this job, you don’t know if they will call you back. And then you think that maybe you are not good for this, that I do not like what I should like. The sensible thing would be to dedicate yourself to something else to survive, and yet you end up causing projects to come out. We are born for this and it is inevitable to continue dedicating ourselves to it.
Emma Suárez and Roberto Álamo in ‘Josefina’.
-Act since she was a child. Have you understood why you wanted to be an actress?
-From the age of 14. I did not want to be an actress, I am part of this casually. My father was reading the newspaper one day and saw the ad looking for a 13-18 year old girl. And that’s how my experience in cinema began. At first I felt like an intruder, because I did not belong to any family clan nor had I studied acting. My trade has been done working. There are still times to this day when I feel like an intruder… The good thing about this job is that you are always learning. Every character is your first time playing it, and that’s wonderful. But the fear is constant, the uncertainty of not knowing if it will look good. We work with sensitivity, our instruments are emotions. And that is vulnerable.
“There are still times to this day when I feel like an intruder”
“Before, the only women on the set were the makeup artist, the hairdresser and the script”
-Won two Goyas in the same edition. Do you consider yourself a star of Spanish cinema?
-I do not believe in that. I am a person who lives very in contact with reality. I like the street, I live my life like any other person. I need reality to interpret my characters. It is true that on the red carpet an enchantment is required of us that is also part of our profession. I live all of this as a game, but what I really like is the meticulous work of unraveling a text, shooting as a team. Find hidden emotions and empathize with the human being.
Emma Suárez between Roberto Álamo and Miguel Bernardeau, protagonists of ‘Josefina’.
-Do you think #MeToo was necessary in Spanish cinema or have we not had a Harvey Weinstein?
-I believe that revolutions, as far as possible peaceful, are necessary. There are still many things to change. There are many women who suffer mistreatment, abuse and harassment. It is important to have the necessary instruments to speak. This revolution is caused because at some point the silence had to explode. Many times I hear: why didn’t you say it before? When you are bullied, you are blocked. You are unable to understand and assimilate what just happened to you. It takes time for one to dare to deal with a terrible experience from the past.
-A filming is no longer the same as it was in the 90s.
No, fortunately. Before, the only women on set were the makeup artist, the hairdresser, and the script. Now in the teams there are women in all trades. There are very good producers, directors, technicians … That is necessary to live in an equal society.
-It has been filming in Bilbao for several months ‘Intimacy’, an ambitious Netflix series.
-We start in May and finish in October, eight episodes that will be seen next year. It is a series of women who talk about abuse. The protagonists are Itziar Ituño, Patricia López Arnáiz, Ana Wagener and Verónica Echegui, I do a collaboration. It was shot entirely in Bilbao, a city with which I have fallen in love since I discovered it years ago, in the middle of the flood, doing theater. A city completely transformed: before it was gray and now the sun rises every day, I don’t know how you did it.
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