She is in Vancouver, he is in Palermo. They are separated by more than eleven thousand kilometers that disappear thanks to the magic of Zoom and are seen connected in a very personal way, as if they were having a coffee from the corner. Is this the chemistry that exists between Luisana Lopilato Y Juan Minujin in matrimillasthe movie of Netflixdirected by Sebastián De Caro, which opens this Wednesday December 7, transcends the screen.
They have a lot in common, as they admit.
Married with children for many years, they understand the proposition of this romantic comedy from the inside. Juan has been with the psychologist Laura de la Vega for 19 years, with whom he has two daughters (Amanda, 15, and Carmela, 12), Luisana met the Canadian artist Michael Bublé 14 years ago at a theater show at the Gran Rex: yes they were married in 2011 and have four children, Noah (9), Elías (6), Vida (4) and Cielo (4 months).
I can not wait to come back
They had worked together before Who loves hatesthe drama film with Guillermo Francella, from 2017, and the first thing they’ll say is that they wanted to come back…
– Luisana: After Who loves hates we had done a pilot that didn’t end up coming out, but I always wanted to work with Juan again. There’s no one who speaks ill of him, he’s a great actor and, above all, a good person.
But beyond all this, also as an actress being able to talk to him on set and ask him: “Hey, is it okay? What do you think of this scene…?”, She is very pretty. I like having a very good actor who helps you to improve.
-Juan: In the beginning, what interested me most about the project was the idea of working with Lu again. I felt that we could make a great comedy duo, that we could have a common sense of humor, and at the same time also balance a somewhat expressively, compensate each other with our respective things.
When we met in that previous experience, we got along great. Luisana is an extraordinary actress, a spectacular comedian, I had a lot of fun with her in conversations on the set in the previous film and I felt that she could fit the code of a romantic comedy very well. So it was.
-Do you feel that there is a little surprise in this couple? Because, Juan, you are considered a serious actor, even if you have done many comedies before, and Luisana the opposite, although you have also dabbled in drama and crime thrillers.
– Luisana: Do you know it’s been a long time since I laughed so much, that I didn’t like being on set so much? There were really long days of shooting and there was still a nice energy, zero drama, no problems, or at least if there were, I didn’t find out (laughs).
Yesterday I saw the film for the first time and I remembered scenes where we groped each other, even though it was four in the morning. I remembered those moments and laughed to myself.
-Juan: We shot many hours, we did several night shots and Luisana – who was already five months pregnant – was always in a good mood, always contributing something else to the scene.
– Weren’t there cravings that you had to contain, like Luisana’s imaginary husband?
-Juan: No! For this I tell you, Luisana, in addition to having a spectacular talent, has a level of work, professionalism and also human, in relationships with the team, in relationships with colleagues…
-Luisana: And how he ate! Tell the truth! All the time they gave me bills, milk, alfajores (laughs).
-Juan: That’s how they had it!
-What other things unite them?
– Luisana: Well… That I’m a very good person (laughs) No, seriously. Talking a lot with Juan on the set you realize that he is a very good person. He has a beautiful family, a wonderful wife and daughters. I don’t know them personally, yes for what he talks about.
He is a husband who is always there with his family, they are very important to him and that also identifies me, because family is also very important to me, they are my number one. We were on set and he was already planning with his daughters and his wife (Juan listens and smiles) “Where will they go, who cooks, what will they eat?” And I at the same time: “I will arrive at such an hour…”.
Family identifies us, we are both very, very familiar, right, Juan?
-Juan: Yes I agree. It seems to me that there is also something of that, of motherhood and fatherhood that I felt very close to Lu. And we also have something very similar and that is that we laugh at similar things, which also made communication much easier.
Give to receive
This is how the concept could be summarized matrimillasa system of exchanges, agreements and compensations, also known as matripuntos (from the Latin: “matri”, matrimonīum and “milla”, mille passus), which is none other than informally “negotiating” certain actions with the couple to access certain personal benefits.
An analogy, if you will, of the programs airlines offer frequent flyers that allow them to earn miles for flying. In this case it is not so simple because every single action can add or subtract points and on the basis of this it is determined who has the right ones to carry out the dreamed activity. In the United States the system dates back to 1951 and bears the name of “brownie points”, an imaginary social currency.
In matrimillas Belén (Lopilato) and Fede (Minujín) decide to face the crisis in their marriage by subscribing to an app that rewards the good things they do for each other to strengthen their coexistence, but their experience ends up being hellish because the obsession with earning points takes over.
-The two have formed “traditional” families and a solid love relationship: Juan 20 years old, Luisana 14, can you imagine what a matrimilla could agree with their partners today?
– Luisana: My generation has changed a lot, now men and women have the same roles. In my case there is no such thing as: “I do this to get this”. We talk a lot, we listen to each other, we say: “Well, you look for Noah and I’ll take the youngest to gymnastics”. And we divided the roles very well: today I cook, or you cook, and if we don’t want to cook, we order outside. There is more talk and more communication.
But what if I see myself identified in the film with some of the situations? Yes, of course, because they are everyday situations, easy to identify and which occur in the daily life of a couple who have been living together in a house for a long time.
-But would you dare to propose a system in which the advantage adds or subtracts?
– Luisana: Nerd. Not because this is a comedy and I think we agree, having fun with those things and laughing at those things. But in real life today it is impossible to be part of an application to add miles because there is a lot of communication, today we listen to each other more and understand each other more.
-Juan: I don’t, in principle I don’t think I would do the application thing. What Lu says is a bit too much, it seems to me that part of the joke of the film is that they fall into that trap, they fall into the trap of the commodification of the couple, of gestures, that they stop doing everything to do good for the other, and they do it to earn points and be able to exchange them for something else.
It’s part of the fun of the movie, how the characters become obsessed with them and end up playing against them and, without spoiling the movie, once it all falls apart, they meet again. Both Belén and Fede take a tour, each with their own, and meet to create a more adult relationship where she leaves him more space to do some things and he takes those spaces, those initiatives.
And above all, as Lu said, communication, which they can express more, which is the place where a relationship can take another step towards an adult relationship and be able to last, that lasting is neither better nor worse, right? there is good communication, yes.
– Luisana: And the great thing is that as actors you also start laughing at those things, like letting go, we find it funny and we put it into the characters also to laugh at those everyday situations that happen at home and as a couple.
-Taking into account your experiences of living together for so many years, is there a home marriage where this happens without being stipulated and has a happy ending?
– Luisana: And, a little, especially at night, when we’re already in the room, he says: “Can you bring me a glass of water?” And Mike has to go to the kitchen, it’s cold, he has to cross the icy corridor, and it’s snowing, and he says: “Okay, come on, I’ll get you some water”. And the next day maybe it’s, “No, look it up yourself.” And you go how to negotiate, or I have to pick up the kids from school and it’s so cold, it’s snowing, and I say, “Oh, I don’t want to go.” And he goes, and I do other things around there. It’s like negotiating naturally.
But the beauty of the film is that we laugh at those things and we amplify them, because there’s something quotidian like taking out the trash or who takes out the trash and who doesn’t, and you experience that on a day-to-day basis. But in the film they laugh because they do it because they want to achieve a goal, they want to earn miles and then spend them on whatever they want. And it’s nice to see that game and how they bring it to the movie.
-Juan: Yeah, I think there’s something about the idea of balance, right? In other words, when you have a balance in those negotiations and what each one does and things seem to work more or less well. But when that balance is seriously upset, it starts to get more complex and more complicated.
Later, part of the humor of the film is that it puts this somewhat arbitrary point on everything: lowering the toilet seat, looking for the boys, fixing something like that, making the bed… All of this starts to have a kind of of tariff …
And like I was saying, Lu, let’s laugh a little bit at the machinery that is a marriage, a couple, a cohabitation, how you can automate and obsess over some things and eventually end up being kind of a transaction of ‘I do this to get this advantage and then do it. Sounds fun to me.
-Luisana told us about the agreements she makes with her husband, we know that there is no key to success in love, but does the same thing happen to you or do you feel identified?
-Juan: No, there isn’t a key to success, as you say, because basically the idea of success and love don’t go in the same direction, right? But, speaking more seriously, it has to do with communication, with listening, with not losing the ability to listen to the other, to take them into account a little and to know how to put oneself in the other’s place.
Being able to dialogue, being able to talk about conflicts, being able to work through them and move forward. And this seems like a real challenge to me and it’s fun as long as there’s a love basis.
-Have you seen the movie with your partner?
– Luisana: Yes. I saw her yesterday and we looked at each other and laughed, as if to say “Did you see? You are Faith and I am Belén” (laughs). There are very funny things, that we laugh because they happen to us. And it’s an easy, beautiful, calm and sweet film to watch, because you see yourself reflected in everyday situations and immediately enter the story, the world of Belén and Fede.
-Juan: Yes, I saw an older build with my partner, about a month and a half ago, and saw this latest build myself. It seems to me that part of the beauty of this film is that the conflicts that exist and the topics that it touches on are very identifiable, so it seems to me that anyone who was in a couple could see that very easily.
-The same ones today don’t have the look of Belén-Fede, but that of their new roles. Luisana you are already in “Paola Argento” mode, because on January 5th “Married with children” comes out, Juan you are coming from filming with Angelina Jolie and you are shooting the miniseries on Guillermo Coppola.
-Juan: Yes, I finished Coppola’s Argentinian part and now we are on our way to finish it abroad (in Naples), so I’m half naked…
– Luisana: And I’m ready to be Paola Argento!
POS
Source: Clarin
