TV series One hundred years of solitudebased on the novel by Gabriel García Márquez, it began to take shape in the Colombian Caribbean, where Netflix’s associated producers are looking for actors who can interpret the characters of the gods with as much reality as possible Macondo’s “magical world”.

Those responsible for the series visit several cities in northern Colombia to identify those who can represent the physical and psychological characteristics of the inhabitants of Macondo, including the more than thirty members of the seven generations of the Buendía family.

Due to the legal agreements between Netflix and Colombian production company Dynamo, those responsible for selecting actors cannot make statements to the media communication, that’s why what is known about the auditions is what has been expressed by those who have so far presented themselves to be part of the cast.

For several weeks the producers interviewed up to seventy people every daymost with no acting experience, but with the spirit of some characters One hundred years of solitudeto choose who embodies them best.

dipped in the paper

Looking like “a burly gypsy, with a wild beard and sparrow hands”, as Melquíades describes in the novel, Jairo Vergara showed up for the audition after one of the selectors saw in him the image of the “honest gypsy” who had a great friend. by José Arcadio, the “patriarch of the condemned race”.

“Many years ago I read One hundred years of solitudebut I hadn’t thought of looking like Melquíades“said Vergara, who unlike many who auditioned, has an acting education with a theatrical tradition of over forty years.

“One hundred years of solitude it is the universe of the Caribbeanin which you discover so many magical things and we belong to the generation that was born with him, with that book under his arm “, he says, expressing what García Márquez’s work means to him.

Yasmin Jasdanwala, who was born in the Indian city of Bangalore and has lived in Barranquilla for more than twenty years, also auditioned after seeing in her the opportunity to play some of the characters who came to Macondo from distant lands.

He recalled that the first contact he had with One hundred years of solitude It was when an English copy of one of his companions came into his hands on a train.

“The trip is over and I told my friend to lend it to me because meand it felt like a fantastic and surreal world and ten years later, in Colombia, at Carnival, I was able to verify that what García Márquez wrote is true, “he said.

Daily life

Although new tests have yet to be carried out on the chosen ones, a breeder of fighting cocks who lives in Soledad, a people of the metropolitan area of ​​Barranquilla, could play the character of Prudencio Aguilar, who in the novel dies with his throat pierced by the spear of José Arcadio.

The goal of choose people who have the same activity in their daily life as the characters in the novel is to give more realism to the show, which is why they were found in market squares, in the parks of popular neighborhoods and in the houses of culture, among many other spaces in which García Márquez was inspired to create “magical realism”.

In one of those days they found José Luis Morrón, Vallenato singerwho in the Netflix series could play some of the minstrels that García Márquez describes in the book or even the composer Rafael Escalona himself, companion of the Colombian Nobel Prize winner in La Cueva, a meeting place for artists and intellectuals of the time.

“Ranking for One hundred years of solitude It is something very honorable for one, with such a beautiful story by the master Gabriel García Márquez. So be extra, it must be a big win for one“, restricted.

Source: EFE Agency

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