In conversation with La República during the prelude to the Platino 2021 awards ceremony, Argentine actor Rodrigo de la Serna tells how difficult it was to shoot La casa de papel during the pandemic. In addition, from a critical and compassionate point of view, he analyzes Palermo, his character in the series that premiered the second part of its fifth and final season in December.
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Your colleagues from La casa de papel, Itziar Ituño (Lisbon) and Darko Peric (Helsinki), have said that you are a ‘dulce de leche’ and a ‘balsam’ in the cast. What are they referring to? Are you the joker of the group?
(Laughs) Well, I have to admit that all the fellow cast members love each other very much. It was a very intense shoot, very hard, which required a lot of physical and mental demand, it was a war… it was filming a war for ten months behind closed doors. You came out of the shoot and there was a war outside, because that’s what the pandemic was, we all saw it that way. But one feels very lucky to be able to work on what you like and between takes and takes I loved to boost my morale and also to others. We all did. Humor is something that always saves us.
What part of Palermo’s personality do you not agree with and what part do you agree with?
I don’t agree with the way he got into the group in season three. There is a feeling that the end justifies the means, that the plan that is created in itself justified all kinds of outrages and authoritarian measures in Palermo, and I did not agree with that. No matter how damaged your soul or your heart or your spirit is, you have to have a little empathy. Obviously, Palermo is a very damaged man, who knows what mother he had because of that misogyny that he has and that it is something very pathetic. I do not share that. But I do share the rest. He is a very sensitive person, very hurt, you can understand him too, poor boy.
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Certainly, he has loved Berlin (Pedro Alonso) very much and has not been reciprocated. Do you think it was important that his story and the issue of homosexuality were touched on in the series? What do you think about that?
I think that yes, it is something that is no longer so uncomfortable to talk about. Love between two people of the same sex is something that luckily can be discussed without taboos or complexes. But Palermo had the complexes, I believe that he did not fully allow himself his condition and somewhere that hurt him. And misogyny also has to do with not recognizing his female motor and that hurt a lot too. And I do think it was important to touch on these issues in the series like so many others.
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