Theater is the oldest analog entertainment in the modern digital world. You can say “It’s boring”, we can’t. Thank’s to Gonzalo!
- What first drew you into acting as a career?
– What first drew me towards acting was literature and poetry. When I was 10-11 years old my literature books in school we used to cover many authors. First we studied their life and then we studied their work through the events of their life. I can´t explain why but I was fascinated by how someone could create pieces of work from the experiences lived. Creative lives, creative processes. Any title or poem or author that would catch my attention stood on the shelves of my fathers library at home. So I had the opportunity of reading plenty. That interest took me to theater. I acted several times in high school, was also fascinated by the movies. It wasn´t until I was 17-18 years of age when I began thinking of becoming an actor. I took some acting classes and shot some TV commercials before I was admitted in Corazza International Acting School (www.teatrocorazza.com), Spain´s most prominent acting school, where actors like Javier Bardem get his training till present day. Good theater plays as well as poetry gives you the opportunity to understand human behavior on a deeper level. Good theatrical plays and good films are like a mirror in which you can see yourself reflected, and it makes you learn and grow. And I wanted to be a part of this process. To be able to first learn about life by wearing someone else´s shoes and then to serve as a mirror for others. And this is what drew me to pursue an acting career, which is always something very unstable here in Spain!
- What have been its greatest rewards and greatest hardships?
– I find good, truthful and honest acting a very hard thing to achieve. The greatest reward is always when I´m able to move people´s hearts through my body my soul my voice and my eyes – learning something new about themselves. Thus good acting is a challenge for the actor and when you feel you have achieved it is also immensely rewarding. As for the hardships, well, it´s a very unstable life as an actor in Spain. Sometimes you have work and therefore money, sometimes you don´t. There are times where this life can be very frustrating waiting for that acting job that will help your career to take off and it never seems to happen. There are a lot of ups and downs and as James Dean used to say, although movie making and theater are collaborative arts, the work of the actor is always the work of intimate loneliness.
- You worked at both Spanish and American theaters, where did you find yourself most comfortable?
– It´s always more comfortable to work in your own language, which for me is Spanish. But I must say that I found certain comfort acting in English too. During my years at the Actor´s Studio Drama School in NYC, I took 7 hours per week of Neutral American Speech classes, that improved my accent. And having a good accent gave me a lot of support and security when I performed in English. Finally, I must say that since English is a language that is articulated with the throat and the back of the tongue (the opposite to Spanish) it helps you to produce a better voice and sound in an a effortless way.
- Have you had any roles that you have particularly enjoyed playing?
– I have just performed at the Jean Genet´s “Querelle de Brest” theater in Madrid. The show closed 2 weeks ago. I played the part of Querelle a charismatic and very sexual sailor, murderer, hedonistic and evil yet charming sadist, I loved playing this character. Querelle is a big gay icon that was filmed by Fassbinder in the early 80´s with Brad Davis performing the part of Querelle. Also, I played Konstantin in Anton Chekhov´s “The Seagull”, one of my favorite plays ever and a character that made grow as an actor.
- What was your first impression of New York?
– My first impression of NY was a weird one!. I arrived to NY for the first time in my life 2 days before auditioning for the Actor´s Studio. We all have these beautiful images of NY from the movies. During my first 4 days in the city I thought it was dirty, harsh and lonely. I was pretty poor and couldn´t afford most of what the city had to offer. Two months after my successful audition I was living in NY on a scholarship given by the Actor´s Studio Drama School and a bank loan that I took here in Madrid. Still poor and with out a house I spent the first 7-8 weeks sleeping in aerobeds and sofas of nice people that I met during the first few weeks. I remember saying to myself: “Gonzalo, you must enter in NY´s rhythm ASAP!” And that is what i did. Weeks after my arrival to NY I was loving the city and the people and completely integrated in its craze. Still honest but broke I must say that those 7-8 weeks were some of the best moments spent i the following 4 years I resided in NY.
- With which directors have you especially enjoyed working?
– I loved working with Daniel Korkhov and Luca Ammendola. This is true, I´m not brown-nosing!!! We shot a couple short films in NY and I still remember most of the time we spent working together. We were very young although they though I was an old man (I´m only 5 years older than them!!) We were all learning, and what I loved about them was their drive and enthusiasm and the fact that they would count on me to propose new ideas and they gave me freedom to try my thing and see what happened. We would take the camera and go out and shoot and the entire city was our playground. It was a fantastic experience for me. Loved working with Juan Carlos Corazza, my acting teacher, my mentor and the person who taught me all I know about theater and acting, a man whose depth in understanding human behavior is so vast that when I am with him working on a part I can´t help but think that I still have sooooo much to learn and to experience and the vertigo of beginning from zero every time I start working on a part. Last but not least I enjoyed my work with the Italian director Marco Carniti, who gave me the opportunity to work not only as an actor but also as the translator and author of the Spanish version of a British playwright Debbie Tucker Green “Stoning Mary” one of the hardest plays I have ever read and performed.
- Which roles or role do fans tend to ask you about the most?
– I don´t get approached by fans very often! Here in Spain things are very calm regarding fans except if you are Javier Bardem or Penélope Cruz or if you play soccer in Real Madrid or Barcelona teams!!. I have worked several years hosting a TV show and people would approach me in a very nice manner to ask me if I was the host of the show. They look at you not knowing who you are and then they ask and say that they like the show. Also, with this last part that I have recently played, Jean Genet´s Querelle, many people asked me if I was the actor performing Querelle. It´s obviously people that came to see the show but I also think it has to do with the fact that I had been twice in Madrid´s most renounced gay magazine talking about the play and in some news papers!
- Do you have a fan page dedicated to you?
– No, I don´t have a fan page dedicated to me, i´m not that big yet! I don´t even have a web page!
- So what projects have you worked on?
– I have extensively worked in theatre and also on TV (both as an actor and as a TV host). Shot a lot of short films but never worked on a feature film. So I guess this answers a bit of the next question!
- Is there any particular genre you prefer working in most?
– I like working in dramas. I like daily life dramas. But I´m good in comedy and it´s a lot happier to work in comedy!!!
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 29th, 2010 at 11:18 pm and is filed under persona. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.