If there are two names that can be linked to the golden years of Pol-ka, and to those strips that marked a television era between the beginning of 2000 and the end of 2010, those are those of Luciano Castro and Betiana Blum.
Times have changed: it’s been a while since streaming It is a reality and those daily soap operas that have broken the charts and been the subject of rumors everywhere are produced in drops. But in the new era of television, Blum and Castro met again on the same set.
It was in the series the good retreata black comedy by Kuarzo and Flow that claims old age and which opens this Thursday on that on-demand consumer platform. Made of 8 chapters of 45 minutesthe story revolves around a group of older friends who decides to live together in the final stage of their life to protect a great secret.
Castro plays Martín, a 45-year-old boy whose mother, Norma (Mirta Busnelli) falls into a coma, immediately after expressing a dream to him: spend his last days with his three best friendsLili (Claudia Lapacó), Elsa (María Leal) and Julieta (Blum).
Martín is torn between selling the house that belonged to his father and committing Norma, or granting her wish. Veronica (Mey Scapula), his wife, pushes him to sell it and then stop paying the rent. Eventually he decides to follow his instincts and invites the three to settle in the house. What Martin doesn’t know but they know is that there is a lot of hidden money inside.
“He is responsible for everything and at some point I’m like the one who knows everything and knows nothing. So I am constantly in embarrassing situations with girls: one tells me something, another tells me another and I don’t know what to say because I don’t know how far I can talk, ”describes Castro.
“My mother doesn’t help me much, my wife hates me because I’m unhappy living behind my mother and I don’t give her a ball … It’s the first series where I don’t laugh in one chapter. If I laugh, it’s in some area of compromise with my son, “she adds.
Blum, for her part, defines Juliet compared to her other friends. “My character is the most deficient of the four. He is the most hidden also, and I don’t know whether to tell you if he’s the biggest liar. He lied a lot. And in such deep relationships, lies as thick as his make the masks fall off », he begins.
“She is in such a critical situation… the only relationship she has is with a younger woman, an employee who does everything for her and never stops paying her. She is the most complicated of the four. And she suffers a lot because, of course, you don’t get it from above, ”she adds.
Old age in the foreground
good retirement was created by Martín Kweller and directed by Pietro Levati. Mariano Hueter is the showrunner. Castro confesses that together with his partner, Scápola, they were part of the assembly of the series and the cast, which has better known names: Gustavo Garzón, Mónica Cabrera, Raúl Rizzo, Brenda Gandini and Andy Kusnetzoff.
“Kuarzo, in a very clever way, offered me to be part of something they already had and they told me, Mey (Scápola) and Maru (Moscow), the producer, to put together the project, the cast. I already knew that the books were good and put them together knowing that it is easier because it is more attractive. Each of these beasts that has been called has been offered something important ”.
-What did you think when you read a story about four women over 75?
-Blue: First, my three mates blew my head off. In Europe maybe not so much, but here (the fiction) they talk about kids or young people. So suddenly such a proposal, right from the start, seemed great to me. I have nothing to say about girls. And then there is the book, which lacks nothing. You have more to hold on to. There is much more to tell.
-Castro: That’s what I also liked about the series, because it dispels the myth that at 60 you’re already retired and that old age is the least enjoyed. They are the Rolling Stones: They do it in every chapter and that’s what always pisses me off. They are great and I hope you see it.
-Betiana, did you feel it as a kind of revenge?
-Blue: No, I saw it as a good idea. As a way to take advantage of the experience. Also, the four of us are so different, it was very well thought out. When I saw who they were I thought: “Is this happening in Argentina?” I liked it.
-Castro: I had worked with Mirta, many years ago: was my first mother in Como pstill hot, in ’96, before Christ. Y Betiana was my mother samples. With Lapacó and María Leal, n. It was like a chore for me: working with my partner and my friend who is Mey. We did nothing but propose, because we didn’t do the production work. I am like a manager, one of the parties.
More than an imaginary mother
We talk about champions of lifethat great success with Osvaldo Laport and Soledad Silveyra which aired from January 1999 to March 2001, and where Blum played Clelia de D’Alessandrothe mother of the character of Castro, Daniele.
“We always have a lot of fun with Luciano, we get along very well. In samples he was my son and courageous he was my daughter’s boyfriendthat was Julieta (Díaz), “says Betiana, who would work with Castro again in heirs of revenge (2011)
-What memories does Champions bring you?
-Blue: It lasted over two years and I think it’s the strip I’ve enjoyed the most in my life. The authors threw us some wonderful ideas. My character had a beautiful madness. She changed her hairstyle with each scene. I would throw away a few little things and in the next book they would take it and develop it. Marvelous.
-Castro: Yes, in my case it was a question of seeing Betiana again. I remember at the time we they offered to do a separate series with D’Alessandros: (Osvaldo) “Cacho” Santoro, Julieta Díaz, Betiana and me.
-Today it would be a spin-off.
-Castro: Yes, because he was running that family constantly. Juliet and I were starting and it was a pleasure, because whatever they told us, we did. We weren’t afraid of anything. Pol-Ka at its best, you had to cheer to last. And Betiana in a great moment. Then I worked with her courageous. All time it was very disappointing for meespecially off set.
“All time he told me things that no one told me. They weren’t nice, but Betiana told you. She has a son who is my age and she always talked to me about it. At one point she talks to me as her son, “confesses Castro.
Old and new television times
Two exponents of that open TV with long-lived costume designers and fiction, Blum and Castro they are adapting to the new streaming paradigm. Castro recorded small wins Y the first of ushybrids that have been seen from the air and can now be seen across platforms.
Betiana comes from filming with Netflix a participation in the film matrimille, with Juan Minujín and Luisana Lopilato. And soon he will be in command of Marcos Carnevale in a starring series Martin Bossy.
-The two did a lot of strip, what are the differences with the series?
-Blue: The strip is like doing conscription. Every day, from very early, and all day in there. Here too we went early, but all times are shorter. In samples It’s been two and a half years, imagine how many chapters we’ve done. Here we work very comfortably, very careful. The director planned the scenes very well. It almost worked as if it were a cinema.
-Castro: It’s closer to the cinema, yes. In a set you don’t have dizziness or the need for a daily schedule. In the strip, you drop a soldier from the head line and you have to write twenty of them suckers, because you have to go in the air. She has a dizziness that I will sayasks you and trains you in such a way that when you come to do a set and they tell you that you have to wait 40 minutes, you think: “But if I do 16 scenes in 40 minutes”.
“And suddenly someone comes and explains how to work, and then you start closing the orthopedic,” says the actor.
-How are you experiencing this new era of streaming as actors?
-Blue: They are phases. Everything is changing so much … Since we did the strips with (Alejandro) Romay on Canale 9, a lot of water has passed under the bridges. Everything is innovation and change. And the change changes again. Look, the actor’s job is always the same. Maybe it changes for production. What happens is that everything becomes wider, there are more choices.
-Castro: I love it. Because I thought all the cards had already been dealt. And I had to go back to work, to reinvent myself, to think of new things, working with young people who have other rhythms, other ways of seeing and acting. Everything is motivating forward.
-Even if it hits the TV air.
-Castro: I’m not sorry. She sent me to a place I didn’t expect: be one more. Everyone knows me here and I am the protagonist. On platforms no, you are one more. Being another being known is an advantage, I know. But there are fifty, sixty like me all over the world. It’s not like when 7 or 8 of us were fighting over a role. It is an evolution. It’s great.
-At the sector level, do you see it as an expansion of opportunity for all?
-Castro: For everyone, yes. It should be more generous at the sector level, because we are not very fair to the rest of the world. But, well, it also has to do with our reality. Yes, a door has opened that is immense. There are colleagues who have not been lucky here and have found work abroad and have changed their quality of life. This has to do with evolution, with change, with what is happening.
SL
Giovanni Tommaso Erbi
Source: Clarin
