It is rare to see Tristán Ulloa doubt, but he doubts a lot during the filming in Ávila of ‘El Centro’, the mysterious original series from Movistar Plus+ in collaboration with Fonte Films. He looks at his brother David, the director of the fiction, at the production companies… and at his cell phone, to try to respond without getting into trouble. He doesn’t know what to say and what not to say, he hesitates, he’s nervous. «You want me to play a character of a… What do you say in these cases? Sorry, he is a communication boss, of a large communication group, and he wants me to work from normality, from absolute normality. I just don’t know if I should read anything. Excuse me, but… Sorry, I’m not very clear about certain things. After a quick consultation on his cell phone, he takes off and, yes, he takes off. Finally, he reveals that his character is called Adaro, who has great power and is capable of reconciling family life and work. Someone, says, “normal”, and even more: “Information is power. We can think of more than one name in our country that could be my character. He is a guy who is worth more for what he remains silent than for what he says. And, surely, there are many people afraid of what he might say. He has very powerful friendships and ties, in all areas. Not only in Spain, also abroad. And he becomes a cornerstone, a key character. We have clear references. “There is no need to say names either,” reveals the actor, dressed in dark tones, with a shirt and jacket, already hiding the plastic glasses that he used minutes before for the scene in which he must verify that a payment is made correctly for someone who ends up arrested. . 12:23 p.m. “Stop, Police!” is heard after the obligatory “rolling”, and six Geos appear in the impressive swamp house near the Calas de Guisando in which two decisive scenes from ‘El Centro’ take place during a single day. ‘. They come out from the terrace, from the door, from some stairs… suddenly, they are everywhere, surrounding the trio carrying out the enigmatic exchange. Tristán Ulloa, sitting on the living room sofa in front of a computer, does not get up, but the other two do. And they stop them. “I can’t tell you much because it is a key scene in the development of the plot,” says director Ulloa. Related News standard No The most intimate portrait of Leiva, a real comedy, the new thing from Sorogoyen and the director of ‘Cinco Lobitos’, Movistar’s big bets for 2025 Lucía CabanelasLittle is known about the series ‘El Centro’ and less is discovered during the exclusive visit that ABC makes to the filming of the last of its six episodes in the Avila town. As Domingo Corral, content director of Movistar Plus+, revealed in a meeting attended by this newspaper, it is “a thriller that delves into the reality of the Spanish spies of the CNI, who agree to open up for the first time.” Carla Pérez de Albéniz, producer of Fonte Films, fuels the mystery in this regard: “What I can say is that it is not part of the CNI.” In addition to the protagonists Tristán Ulloa and Juan Diego Botto, actors such as Elena Martín, Israel Elejalde, Elisabet Casanovas, Nacho Sánchez and Clara Segura do appear in the cast. The director is David Ulloa (‘The Snow Girl’) and the creator, David Moreno (‘Fariña’). Also that the objective of fiction, far from the usual James Bond, Jason Bourne and other epic agents that the United Kingdom and Hollywood export, was to land the unknown national spies in the real world because, as the creator of ‘El Centro’ says , “it is not every day that an atomic bomb is about to explode.” «We wanted to tell an espionage story with people and faces from here, with real, or realistic characters, who have to do with our reality and not with that of another type of international spy. The intelligence services are not shootings all the time, explosions, which is what we are used to seeing. “We wanted to tell our own mythology without getting carried away by the clichés that we carry,” says the screenwriter. 12:29 p.m. David Ulloa gives instructions to the actors. He asks that the cell phone held by Peter Caine (played by Brendan McNamee) be visible to the camera and that his fingers not cover the screen, green as a chroma key. “Rolling,” they announce. And, again, “stop, Police!”. The Spanish spies in this series that will premiere in 2025 can wear a trench coat, or not, wear a suit, work in the office or in the field, in an operation: very high budgets or overwhelming technology. What we tell through them is that they have other values and other ways to counteract American, Russian and other power. They are much less invasive than them and what they do is take care of their sources, listen to them, win them over step by step, have a lot of patience and, well, keep an eye on them,” he says. And they are, above all, “normal people,” he insists. “There are action scenes, it is a thriller, but the game was about being able to naturalize it as much as possible,” concludes David Ulloa. Many secretsHe refuses to reveal if he has spoken to any spy, if he has been able to see any CNI agent in action. “I can neither confirm nor deny having had contact with them,” he says, enigmatic. But insistence is a bad friend of lies if they are not well tied. In the end, he says: «What I have learned by observing them and from what they have told me is that they are constantly advising them psychologically to have a certain balance and not accumulate inside all that that they keep silent and cover up. Because really, from their names to their professions, they hide them from practically everyone. Only the nucleus closest to them can know something about what they do, but they don’t even tell them what they are doing inside. “You have to have a very good head to have enough balance to not skid.” And he continues: «That vocation they have has surprised me a lot. And that grief when they suffer a loss or that frustration they have when faced with things that do not go as they wanted or due to the image they can project towards others. Isabel Permuy/Fonte Films/ M+The director is not the only one to become entangled in that confidentiality surrounding ‘El Centro’, which will travel to more than 130 locations and will end in the Dominican Republic in February. «I knew very little about the CNI. The most knowledge I had on the subject is from the eight who died in Iraq. The moment when I read the most about the CNI was that. It was a very terrible thing, but I really knew very little about how the CNI worked. Now I know a little more. And, the more you know, the more your perspective on it changes,” acknowledges Juan Diego Botto, who recently arrived on set. After eating, he will finally record with Tristán Ulloa. Of course, nothing can be said about that scene. Yes about his character, Vicente, alias Michelin, in charge of investigating a complex international plot that has tentacles in Spain. «There has been a murder and we are aware that they are here, of an imminent action that is going to be carried out. My character has been doing this for many years, he is very obsessive, very meticulous, he really likes his work. Anyone who saw him would not suspect that he is dedicated to what he is dedicated to,” he clarifies. 12:32 p.m. Someone says, on the air: “I need a Geo here.” A woman tells another Geo how to push the door without it getting stuck. Meanwhile, in the center of the room, where the negotiations table is, an operative says: “Concentration, everyone stay still. Pictures… action! And the scene begins. As in a western, the three actors look at each other. First to one side, then to the other. Then, everyone to Tristán Ulloa, who says in English something like this: «The transfer is already done. “You just need to get the money.” And, once again, the Geos enter: “Stop, Police.”Movistar Plus+/Fonte Films’El Centro’, beyond the mystery, arises from the need to make a point of one’s own. «We have almost no tradition. When a Spanish spy comes out, it is always a figure in the background, dressed in black and such, but we never know what his name is or what he is like, or if he has a family, how he relates… We wanted to flesh it out,” says Moreno. «The monopoly of American cinema and television has already disappeared. We have made police officers, teachers… we were missing a series of spies. Sometimes we give up too soon when it comes to mastering the story. This is a way of taking the bull by the horns and saying, well, there is also a Spanish spy and he is different from what we know. And it’s nice to talk about our own singularities, right? You think about what a CNI agent is like and it generates a lot of interest, a lot of curiosity. That’s great material for fiction,” agrees Botto. But, as its creator says, “it’s a spy series, you can’t know everything.” Just one thing: “Nothing is one hundred percent real but everything is totally plausible.” We will continue investigating.
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