Signing a series like Fácil shows how difficult life is for Anna R. Costa (Granada, 1972). Put your finger on the wound with this story, based on the novel Easy Reading by Cristina Morales, about disabled women in a sheltered apartment, broadcast on Movistar +. Andalusian and Catalan, also from the capital of Spain just for having signed the highly original Arde Madrid, this creator now flies alone and firmly, with her exquisiteness and radicalism on her back, after feeling too long in the shadow of others . It was painful to sever ties to have his creative merits recognized, it partly cost him the divorce from Paco León, with whom he signed some works, they lived together for 14 years and they have a daughter together. But she’s said enough: “I’ve been vampirized,” she says. This is the trace of what it costs him to bleed in his midst.
Questions. WhatArde Madrid was a Spain in black and white with caged color?
Answers. For certain rich people there was a bull and a suit, they were exempt from taxes, that’s why Ava Gardner came to Spain, for example. Everything was gray for the poor.
Q Was that a mix of Bronston and Berlanga Studios’ Technicolor?
R. In between he moved, if you take the underclass it was Berlanga and if you mix it with the glamor of Hollywood you get Arde Madrid.
P. And Anna R. Costa, who is she?
R. I am a woman who has worked a lot for others and now life has put me first.
Q Does that mean your former partner, Paco León, stole your plane?
R. Well, Paco and others. I was like an eternal helper.
Q And do you have enough?
R. Yes, it was like being born again at 50.
P. It’s not a bad age to be born again.
R Yes, it is also like giving birth. It has its side of pain and a different light. i’m in them
P. What school does he go to?
R I already have school at home where I study and work.
Q who will your friends be
R Those who are and those who come with no intention of vampirizing me. The ones who approach with good vibes. Now my blood, I need it for myself.
Q We accidentally got into Dracula.
R. This is now a sexist story. Sucking women’s blood! Well, that happened to me a bit: I was vampirized for a while in my life.
Q Cristina Morales, author of Easy Reading, the novel on which her series on Movistar+ is based, has said a Nazi work has come out. What happens?
R I don’t know, but that bothered me, because those who are devoted to writing in particular have to use the language for what the words really mean, and label what I’ve done as a Nazi, come on…
Costa, during the interview.Samuel Sánchez
Q Okay, he’s not a Nazi, what’s up?
R. He talks about freedom, protected desire, it’s driving me insane. If you have an intellectual disability but the only thing you are aware of is craving and you are being supervised in that area, what are you left with? Well, the right to exercise it is not theirs. And that creates a lot of bad luck. Do you know they sedate women and not men? That explains a lot.
P. What does society consider acceptable in such cases?
R Obey the rules, the laws, don’t insult. All kinds of people with disabilities are marginalized and unable to return to the center. They show us very important aspects, for example about power or about our own self-oppression.
Q Or a completely radical questioning of uniformity?
R You said it, this is it. Aside from suppressing his will, if that’s not standard when he breaks out of this form, it’s not worth it. I was obsessed with seeing that on the show, the paradoxes. Take that risk.
Q Are you, who are born again, willing to take even greater risks?
R The risk I want to take is to express myself in a radical devotion to the human. Or we reemerge by moving away from narcissism and clinging to humanity and we get stuck.
P. Do you mean more humanism? Because humanity brings them…
R. It is true to humanism. We’re being dehumanized, that worries me.
Q Why?
R. For competition, for a Kafkaesque and absurd system, hyper-capitalist, unemployed, focused on externals.
Q In the algorithm…
R In what is invented, in what is artificially created… As long as I’m gone, I’d bet on radically denouncing it.
P. What did you learn from walking in the shadows?
R I went through a big crisis after the premiere of Arde Madrid. It took a lot for me to let people know that it was my job first and foremost. At the same time, feminist demands grew and I asked myself, what am I doing? I am silent? A very ugly argument started and our couple broke up. I’ve been trapped in this shadow for a long time, learning, but I was a bit handicapped for a few years.
Q What radicalism is in your hands?
R Two films, one made as a result of my breakup and another in detention. I don’t know what will come out before then while I will be directing and writing some other chapters to make a living.
Q How do you see Catalonia from Madrid?
R. I’ve been here for 12 years and I feel very Catalan, but I’m very comfortable here. From this I highlight above all the creativity of women in the audiovisual field, a brilliant and particular look with an exquisite tone that shows no anger. Someone like Carla Simón is a very important new voice, not to mention Isabel Coixet who deserves a memorial. We’re still not being given the same opportunities, and we have to bleed to execute them.
Q To continue talking about Dracula…
R I agree.
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