Vicky Luengo is an ectoplasm. Has no face. It has no body. That is, she has it, and it is recognizable, but it is as malleable as the liquid mercury in Terminator 2. We all saw her in Rodrigo Sorogoyen's Antiriot series, where she played a tough internal affairs cop. Or in Suro, where she was Helena, the townswoman transplanted into a forest. But I realized it after watching her monologue Prima Fascie, in which she plays a fierce lawyer who gets raped. After watching her put on an entire theater, I went outside to get some air. I was on my way home when I heard someone calling my name. In a corner, wrapped in a huge anorak and under a hood, a body waved at me. He looked like Kenny, the South Park cartoon, but it wasn't a cartoon, it was a little human who spoke to me in a soft voice. The voice of Vicky Luengo. I had just seen a hurricane on stage, a woman who must have been at least eight feet tall with a wild voice. Who was this young woman who spoke to me?
Luengo is a Houdini of acting. He does what he wants. And it makes you believe it. After years of hard work in theater, film and television, she has now released her most international series, Reina Roja, which adapts the successful novels by Juan Gómez-Jurado. For an hour he reviews his work, his latest readings – he quotes Luis López Carrasco, bell hooks and Graham Greene – with a torrent of well-structured words and ideas and then leaves. Where and where to? I don't know it. He did it again.
Luengo wears a long-sleeve polo shirt, cashmere-silk rib knit and Marina Chain necklace, all from GUCCI.LAIA BENAVIDES
His role in red queen It's kind of like a superhero, it's different from other things he's done. For starters, it's a blockbuster. How do you feel about the turnaround?
One of the hardest things was translating that feeling of being a superhero into reality because Antonia is a woman with extreme depression. The challenge was to represent his head audiovisually. It was a lot of fun because I filmed car chases and monkey attacks, I've never filmed anything like that before. It was like an amusement park. I learned to record effects using chroma keys without even having an object to imagine. Although now that I think about it, standing in the middle of a green set is similar to a theater because you have to give the viewer the idea that there is something there that doesn't really exist.
What did it mean to you? Protective gear?
I'm lucky because I've never lacked for work. But I remember that my professional life before the riot police was very stressful. Because it's very frustrating to feel like you have to start over every time, no matter how well it went, you can never fully relax. Later I realized that my success was that I had worked for 10 years. Riot Control gave me a small feeling that I had entered an oasis of calm that might last another year or two or end tomorrow. I could shake off the feeling that they wouldn't call me tomorrow. But it can come back to me, we've seen it a thousand times.
She said she wanted to be called Victoria and not Vicky. He also wants to play roles in which his character is happy. Does it have anything to do with it?
It has more to do with how I see myself than others. I chose Vicky when I was 14 years old to play my first role because Victoria seemed like a lady's name to me, but now that time has passed, I'm starting to get nervous about signing projects as Vicky, and it I'm starting to feel like that's not me, although I don't mind being called Vicky. My family calls me Victoria, and so does my boy. Since it is a question of self-perception, I also realize that I play many roles in which I suffer a lot, I would like to play others in which I am happier (laughs).
With a linen, wool and cotton dress and cotton gloves, all from FENDI; Heeled shoes from ACNE STUDIOS.LAIA BENAVIDES
Is it a coincidence that you are offered roles that make you suffer so much?
Until recently, I didn't have the privilege of choosing my own roles. I'd like to give you a more detailed answer, but it's somewhat intuitive. Choose my body over my head. It happened to me with Suro, with Prima Fascie. These are usually projects with which I feel morally and politically identified. Let it be something you've never done before, like physical comedy. And that I can play a character surrounded by people who interest me: script, cast, direction.
What was it like working with Hovik Keuchkerian again?
In Antiriot we only had one sequence and Sorogoyen, since it was an interrogation, asked us not to speak to him or the other actors beforehand, so we had a single rehearsal but we didn't speak. And on the day of filming we were in different rooms until it was our turn to film. He said that at that moment he thought: “I have a bull in front of me.” And I thought the same thing, she has such strong energy… With Reina Roja it was great. He is very down to earth, very loyal, one of the most loyal people I know. Very hardworking and very funny. It was a long shoot, six and a half months, very tiring. When you lack strength, it's great when someone makes you laugh.
In the past, actors and actresses didn't have as much attention as they have since the advent of networks. Many actresses show their home, their privacy, their body. There are many people who work as both actors and actresses Influencers. It's not your case.
I had been conflicted about the exhibition for a long time, I sensed what they might ask of me. Like many other people, I am addicted to the networks and without judging what others do, it seems to me that an actor or actress must have a secret. If you see me in all the moments of my life, you will always see me behind the character in a film. I would be a worse actress if I showed my life.
Mohair jacket and pants and sunglasses, all from PRADA.LAIA BENAVIDES
He also doesn't play much to show off his physicality.
Although it may seem like self-help, things started going well for me when I started loving and accepting myself. When I was 19 or 20, I went to castings and wore a padded bra, I put on a lot of makeup, I tried to be the actress I thought others wanted her to be. They called me to series castings to play the stunning lead character and I don't fit that mold. As a result, I had more body insecurities than ever before. While doing theater, I realized that what made me stand out was something different and I started to use it. For the casting of “Antiriot” I wore a bun and a washed face. I'm more conflicted now with the way we sell femininity in the film industry.
What does it refer to?
It is less physical and more ideological. I wonder how we sell what a woman is: beauty, eroticism, sensuality. With that in mind, I'm trying to be consistent: What doesn't seem right to me is going to a premiere in February in sandals and a sundress while my co-star calmly wears a suit and I, on the other hand, get the flu. If I want to wear a heel, I can wear it, but as much as possible in accordance with my well-being and health.
In Great fasciaThe text and her acting bring her into conflict with contemporary debates about consent, sexuality and what a woman is today.
Through Prima Fascie I have dealt a lot with these topics. It's a huge melon. As bell hooks says, should I make it clear to men that they would benefit from internalizing the teachings of feminism? I question it often. At least I learned to have an opinion about which contemporary feminism I want to collaborate with.
And which one is it?
Since it is about equality, for me equality also means responsibility. I am in favor of helping through love, through communication, so that people's eyes are opened. But I will if you as a man take the same responsibility that I take on as a woman as a feminist. In Prima Fascie I say: “The law has been shaped by generations upon generations of people.” Well, the picture of what a desirable woman is. As a woman, I want to create the image of the woman I want to be.
Vicky Luengo wears a sleeveless wool dress with a corset inside by VERSACE.LAIA BENAVIDES
How do you prepare each role?
Each character asks me to do something different. With Antonia Scott [la protagonista de Reina Roja] I wanted you to believe her within the code of the show, that you see this girl in her house suffering from agoraphobia and anxiety and afraid to go out. That's what drives the series: Antonia's pain. To do this, I read all the books there are about people with high abilities. They are often bothered by noises, loud noises or labels on clothing. In the series you can see that sometimes I scratch and hold on to these things to create the character.
Is it different in the theater?
In Prima Fascie I first learned the text and then created a map of the body, an emotional map. In one scene I will try to see what happens when my stomach hurts, in another my hands are sweating… It was about finding physical sensations because for me the play asks the question of what happens to a body , who does this was sexually abused. In the theater the information has to be in the body, on television it is in the eyes.
What is your dream as an actress?
An Oscar, a Goya… and above all a film with the Dardenne Brothers. That would be breathtaking.
The actress with jacket, draped shirt, wool skirt, silver headband and heels with black stocking, all GIVENCHY.LAIA BENAVIDES
Credits
Styling: Juan Cebrián
Production: Cristina Serrano
Makeup and Hair: Rebeca T Figueroa (Another Agency) for Givenchy Beauty.
Photo assistant: Edy Pérez.
Styling assistant: Paula Alcalde.