“Life rhymes,” says Blanca Portillo when discussing her character’s name in Better Days, Dr. Soledad Laforet, speaks. She says that her country house used to belong to the author of Nada, Carmen Laforet, and that the writer’s granddaughter contacted her to say she played there as a child.
Portillo (Madrid, 60 years old) is about to take a vacation, he can’t remember the last time he took a month-long break. He puts the psychologist he plays on the show to work, Season 2 premiered on Prime Video on June 28th. The first can be seen “soon” on Telecinco, the chain announced without giving a date. Last week he received the Corral de Comedias Award from the Almagro Festival. In his acceptance speech, he focused on the word and the meaning of its proper use. It’s one of his tools. When she returns from the summer, she returns to the theater to adapt the work of Almudena Grandes, Frankenstein’s mother, and has more film and television premieres to come: Teresa, a film by Paula Ortiz, based on La lengua en piezos, by Juan Mayorga; and another series on RTVE.
dr Laforet defends that life is more chaos than rhyme. Portillo affirms that chaos rhymes too.
Questions. Does her character reiterate that she is a middle-aged woman? Are you a middle-aged woman?
Answer. I don’t use that expression. I don’t know what middle age is. You are in the middle of something. I’m already halfway done. I don’t have 60 years ahead of me.
Q I would want?
R They tell me to sign another 60 and I sign them. Unless they tell me I’ll fall through the corners of decay.
The term ETA is used as a throwing weapon and that is despicable
Q Which of your patients at Better Days do you feel most identified with?
R Obviously at Alba [Planas], NO. it’s a girl She is a wonderful actress. He is a very special character at a very special age and has fallen in love with an eggplant. It’s very far from me.
Q The doctor does not judge Graci (the role of Planas), who at the age of 20 is inseminated by her boyfriend who has died of cancer. But you, what would you say?
R It’s crazy. Do not do it. But I think it’s good that the show is sending messages to people of that age, it’s a section of the population that has a lot of problems, a lot more than we imagine, and it’s fair that they’re being listened to.
Q When he starred in Maixabel, he was in close contact with Maixabel Lasa, the widow of Juan Mari Jáuregui, who was assassinated by ETA in 2000. Why do you think the term “ETA” is still so present?
R It lies before using it as a throwing weapon, which I find despicable. Mainly because of the lack of respect for the people who suffered as a result. We should be very proud that it happened. And not to unhealthily use (emphasis on “unhealthy”) a topic as vast as this, I mean it by all words.
Blanca Portillo, on June 27 in a street in central Madrid. Jaime Villanueva
Q What else is the right word for you next to one of your work tools?
R It is our space of freedom. Nobody can steal our right to speak. And if they try, we’ll have to fight with all our might. But it is also true that it is a tool of manipulation, so let’s take responsibility. Let’s exercise our right to speak.
Q And Juan Mayorga, playwright and one of the academics of the house where words are awake, what is he to you?
R First a friend. And probably the smartest person I know in every way. He is very wise and cultured. He has the ability to connect disparate things and build a discourse. He’s a genius, a benchmark. I don’t know what to call it. But he is my colleague and my friend. It’s the host!
Q Are you aware that you are also a very powerful voice in the culture? Do you feel this responsibility?
R Too much. Please don’t take me so seriously. But I know it’s difficult to get out of there anyway, so I have to be very careful because I know what I’m saying has meaning that sometimes I don’t expect.
Q Tell me about some of your secret pleasures
R I like beer a lot… [Contesta mientras se toma una en una terraza del centro de Madrid. Al pedirla dijo: “Una cerveza, que no tengo nada que hacer esta tarde”].
Nobody can steal our right to speak. And if they try, we’ll have to fight with all our might.
Q And what do you see now?
R I’m embarrassed, but I’m seeing less and less of everything. In the theater I’m not looking for great authors or great actors. I’m looking for people who have their own language, who tell stories that come from their liver, and that’s what I want to do. And I’m exhausted from the series. It gives me no life I want to live more than see.
Q Better days will come?
R My naive side comes into play and I say a resounding yes, but for me.
Q And what does your pragmatic part think?
R Generally not. I don’t see a bright future. When better days come for me than the ones I experienced, I suggest a song to myself, because I live very beautiful days. To be honest, I don’t see my future as bleak. Also, I’ll make sure that’s not the case.
I want to write. Screenplay, theater… I would like to write a novel. But yes, I want to write and tell stories. I think that would be good too. In this profession we have few people who leave us experience. I devour the memories and books of those devoted to this subject. I would like to share my experiences in case they are useful for something.
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