Natalia Oriro She doesn’t look exhausted, and it’s the last day of shooting almost deadthe film directed by the actor Fernan Miraswhich sees her as the protagonist together with Diego Velázquez, together with a cast in which Paola Barrientos, Ariel Staltari, Alberto Ajaka and Violeta Urtizberea stand out.
The film will tell the story of María (Oreiro) and Javi (Velázquez), lifelong close friends, separated for some time when he went to live in Montevideo. A call will cause the return to Buenos Aires. She has only one month left to live and she asks her friend to come with her to try to make sense of everything that is happening.
One of the huge studios that Non-Stop hosts, in the town of Munro, is the setting for a fictitious Christmas Eve dinner party. In the large living room with armchairs, where the action takes place, there is a white bookcase and an atmospheric Christmas tree. On one side, the huge window lets in the reflection of artificial sunlight. The heat outside is unbearable, but the illusion of cinema manages to make us believe that the atmosphere of the celebrations has been brought forward by a few weeks.
Under the watchful eye and instructions of Fernán Mirás, Oreiro tries with the boy Filippo Carrozza. The communication between the two is immediate and after the improvisation comes the revision of the lines of dialogue, before filming. We have to see everything through the glass of one of the heavy airtight doors, as there isn’t much time when working with children. You only have a certain number of hours to shoot and it requires absolute concentration.
The climate is intense and feverish, even if silence prevails. Rodrigo Vila, producer and adapter of the version together with Beatriz Carbajales, is attentive to the smallest details. Light and sound are adjusted while, under the watchful eye of art director Pepe Uría, some ornaments that are part of the scenography are moved to obtain the harmony of colors that the circumstance requires. The makeup artist retouches faces so that brightness doesn’t overwhelm the image. The assistant’s voice is heard: “Silence! Action!”
After the scene, in a nearby garden populated by linden trees and jasmine plants, the actors and the reporter sit down on concrete benches, in the midst of that heady scent, trying to isolate themselves from the chatter that surrounds them.
-What is your opinion on Fernán after five weeks of shooting?
– Oreiro: I love! I’m in love with Fernán and he knows it…
-You look: I didn’t know, I didn’t know…
– Oreiro: Well, I’m confessing to you. I love his energy, the way he works, the sensitivity he has. She is a very sensitive person. When I moved to Buenos Aires in ’94, I saw the Tanguito sign everywhere (fierce tango) and I was finally lucky enough to work with him on the film clock.
He had just been released The weight of the law, his first film as a director, and I loved it. At that moment I asked him please that when he did the second one he would let me know to do anything because he wanted to be there. So I put some pressure on him to call me and here we are. We were going to film it a year ago, but only now have we managed to do it.
-How was working with an actor-director?
– Oreiro: It’s the first time this has happened to me and it’s different. There is something on my part to let go, which is very difficult for me in all my work. I did it with him, because he asks me about things from the show, from the interpreter. He speaks to me with his language and I trust him. I’m crazy about the monitor, I watch to see how the scene turned out because it’s hard for me not to control. It’s one of the things I have to work on more, because I feel that not being able to give up goes against my interpretation.
-Is it difficult to jump into the abyss without a net?
– Oreiro: The actor’s game is to try, because that’s where the unexpected arises, but I have a hard time trusting me not to make fun of myself. I did it more of an asshole and now, over the years, I control myself a lot more. I try first and go with an already closed proposal.
-You look: It’s like I want to know a lot of things as soon as possible…
– Oreiro: It happened as we were running out for the day and I asked him if we could try the next day. I need to know what’s going to happen, so I’m just left to prepare it. The insecurity is mine, but with him I felt very safe because he is a great actor and from his interpretation she sees through his eyes what he wants to ask me. So it’s all his fault, it’s his responsibility… (laughs)
-You look: Oh look! We already know if he goes to the vegetable garden (he laughs).
-What attracted you to the script?
– Oreiro: It’s a comedy about life and simple, everyday issues like death, love, friendship. In the same scene you can cry and laugh at the same time, and he does. They are such tragic situations that being so tragic you start laughing.
-What is your opinion of Natalia?
-You look: On the one hand I know her career and always thought she was a great comedienne, on the other hand I see that she has been trying more things in the last ten years to not be comfortable. She is the most sincere there is. She can tell you if a scene looks like crap or she can be honest and say she doesn’t know if she can do what you’re asking.
Before the movie where we worked together as actors, we had done a chapter for Ankle boots, a series of Thirteen and we feel very comfortable. During rehearsals she was very obsessive, but at the time of acting she let herself go and was very relaxed, or that day she was very drugged… (they both laugh out loud)
-When you act, do you think like a director?
-You look: No, I think about what I have to do and I like not having to decide anything there, except what I have to do. I see that the director suffers because they whisper in his ear and there are a thousand things he has to do, and for me it’s like a vacation.
The good weather between Oreiro and Mirás is reflected during the photo session for clarion in the immense garden of the studios. The afternoon calms the rhythm of the day and they both pose for the camera, relaxed and in the midst of jokes and jokes.
Was Oreiro the first option?
-You look: Yes. When the script was adapted, I told Rodrigo (Vila) and Bea (Carbajales) that I had worked with Natalia and would like to see if she wanted to participate. I called her from a trip I was on…
– Oreiro: Without reading it, I said, yes I do.
-You look: Then he started to get scared, because he thought maybe it was shit… (laughs)
– Oreiro: No!
-You look: I’ve worked all my life with actors and I always feel like it’s a co-op where we’ve decided that today it’s my turn to direct. It’s a role, I feel that this forces me to play it.
– Oreiro: It is that our work is a cooperative because it is a team. It’s something collective, we can’t work alone and the director has a great responsibility.
-You look: My fantasy, when I propose something to an actor, is to find out what he most wants to do. I’m thinking about it now when I say it. As an actor, when someone offers me something that interests me, everything plays in my favor, my availability and my unconscious partner and it’s easy. There’s a lot about going fishing in a round… The good round was already done, but let’s do another one and play a bit and see what happens. Also, having a fucking cast, I felt very confident.
-What was the most difficult scene?
-You look: Christmas dinner…
– Oreiro: Sixteen pages of the script!
-You look: It’s a long scene, very acting, where there’s nothing weird with the camera. They alone act in a very comic register generated by a series of confusions. We were all afraid to reach that moment. He was going through the sixteen pages of the script with each of the actors present, and then the dialogue with the different reactions would have to be edited.
– Oreiro: He does a lot of takes, not of the scene but a lot of alternate shots.
-Were there five weeks of shooting, two in Montevideo?
-You look: Yes, it was difficult there because of the language… Everything slowed down a bit (laughs).
– Oreiro: In most of my jobs I have a coach, not here, it was Fernán. For example, in Eve (Santa Evita) had two, one for acting and the other for voice work.
The film was supposed to be shot last year, but Mirás’ health problem delayed the start. In those days, in October, I was acting in the theatre Art, along with Pablo Echarri and Mike Amigorena. He began to feel pain and dizziness and had to undergo surgery for a brain aneurysm. At the age of 52, and despite a poor prognosis, he was discharged twenty days later.
Source: Clarin
