Stéphanie Magnin: “When I learned to live with little, I lost my fear”

In 1994, Los Planetas debuted with the album Super 8, and this year, on their 30th anniversary, they are going on tour to celebrate. Coinciding with this moment, arrives Second prize, by Isaki Lacuesta (Between two waters), co-directed with Pol Rodríguez, Biznaga de Oro at the last Malaga Festival, a film that is not about Los Planetas, but about the legend of Los Planetas, in whose mythological and mysterious heart is May Oliver, the bassist of the original band that in the peak moment of the group decided to disappear. The film is about that and how, J. and Florent, those who stayed, built an album that would change the history of Spanish pop: A week in the engine of a bus (1998). It is about friendship and creation in that 20th century in which “things were very different”, as May says in the film played by Stéphanie Magnin (Málaga, 33 years old). For her, daughter of a French father and mother of Sicilian origin who moved to Fuengirola from Casablanca, this is her first relevant role in a project that was already in the media before its premiere, although in the last year her face and name had ceased to be unknown. thanks to his character in the daily series The modern (The 1). For Magnin things were also very different, because she was going to be a lawyer. Although in her childhood and adolescence her interpretation was always present in some way (Pablo Puyol was her teacher at her academy during her high school years); and The Planets, too. With this film many circles are closed and she hopes that many doors will open.

How and when does it arrive at Los Planetas? Because the band’s heyday seems very small.

Yes, but my mother is the youngest of all the siblings and I am the youngest of all my cousins ​​who live in Spain. My cousin Sandro is 14 years older than me and he was a big fan of Los Planetas, they even had friends in common. When I started going out at night, he welcomed me, they played Los Planetas on the guitar… He played me the music and he played me many songs from Los Planetas.

So when it comes Second prize…

I remembered that and I knew some songs, but above all when I remembered all that, I thought: “If they give me this role, my cousin Sandro is going to freak out.” [risas].

And has your cousin Sandro seen the film yet?

He came to the premiere in Malaga and liked it a lot. It’s the first time he sees me act, he told me that she didn’t think it was me, but May.

Were you able to talk to May to understand her and prepare?

Before we started filming I asked if I could talk to her and they told me better than not, and I never contacted her. Who am I to bother this person… if what she has done was preserve her privacy? But she started following me on Instagram and I wrote to her and she told me that she was very happy that she was working on the film and that she really liked what I conveyed to her. And after the movie premiered, she wrote to me and told me that J. had told her that she really liked how he had portrayed her, and that he really wanted to see it.

She was one of the few women in music then, did they ever talk about that very masculine environment?

The truth is that I didn’t have that conversation, neither with her, nor with the team. I imagine being surrounded by men and having to live in a masculine environment has an influence, but I think her decision to leave the band has nothing to do with that. I think it has to do with the fact that he is searching for his own life and his own journey, with expressing art from another place. She goes to university and starts studying poetry and literature to decide what trip she wants.

It is curious that, in his case, the journey has been the opposite.

Yes, but the other day my cousin told me: “You knew you wanted to be an actress since you were little.” In my mother’s family they are all very artists, they have worked in restoration [su abuelo tuvo la primera pizzería de la Costa del Sol]. But I hadn’t met any actors. I never thought you could make a living from this. And for my parents, who have owned a small business their entire lives. [de jardinería y arquitectura paisajística], and they have worked hard, it was very important that we have a career. My mother always told me that, since I had a lot of character, I should be a lawyer. So I studied Law. While on Erasmus in Italy I saw an advertisement to present a Stray Travelers type program, and they caught me. There I said to myself: “This is what I want.” I didn’t see myself as a lawyer, although I finished my degree. I started studying acting and in an advertising agency, I wanted to try for about a year, but things were coming up and I kept getting longer as they continued to come out.

I think when he was young, because of his name, he felt like he didn’t fit in. But in this world, the name and speaking four languages ​​(Spanish, Italian, French and English) will be an advantage. He already worked on The Crown, Do you want to go outside more?

It’s true that the name is difficult, you always have to give explanations, people have a hard time retaining it, I find it misspelled… One of next year’s resolutions is to move a little outside because working in another language opens up another imaginary. The difficult thing is to be seen, to knock cold…

At what moment did you see that you could make a living from acting?

Well, actually, there was a time when what I learned was to live with little. I lost my fear and said: “I will look for life no matter what, as long as I continue learning and this continues to fulfill me.” I have been a waitress and been doing microtheater at the same time and with those salaries I could make ends meet and be happy and calm.

Advantages of traveling by train (2019) was a leap in your career?

I came from microtheater and advertising, and to think that I was going to make a movie with Luis Tosar and all that team… but after that filming I spent almost two years without working, it coincided with the pandemic. But it allowed more directors of casting they knew me

Then it came little pig, and series like Revenge is mine and The modern, with which it has begun to be better known.

I am very happy with the moment I am living. Doing a daily series leaves little time, but it is nice to accompany people in the afternoons. I always want to keep moving forward.

Paraphrasing some of the Planets songs from the film… are you sure you can decide?

It is very difficult to reach that certainty, very few people reach it, perhaps Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, but reaching that point is very exceptional. I’m not sure and I don’t know if I will be.

But is it worth taking the risk?

Totally, I believe that it is better to be where you have to be, even if things don’t go well, than to be where you don’t have to be or don’t want to be, even if everything seems stable.

And as J. asks May in the film, are you doing what you wanted to do, are you where you wanted to be?

Yes, I am now where I want to be. And it is strong to be able to say
that because it is very difficult to get to that. And I realize what a privilege it is to be here because it costs a lot and because we are few and many times it has nothing to do with you, it has to do with luck, with being at the exact moment. I, for example, might not have been May two years ago or three years from now. I am where I want to be, but I always want to keep moving forward, the dream, the ambition, the curiosity will still be there.

Before it was your cousin’s group, now what do Los Planetas mean personally?

Now it has to do with me and with the entire filming and with my colleagues and with the entire experience that this film has been, which I think will mark me forever. The movie It’s about how an album is built and at the same time we were building a movie, it was a meta-universe all the time. Thanks to The Planets existing, I have been able to make this film, these people have marked the history of music and we have been able to make our own history.