Enrique Torres He arrives at the interview with quiet and safe news, as who knows that his life is full of unknown stories that will surprise those who discover them. Closely, his gaze denotes a mixture of nostalgia and enthusiasm; nostalgia for the times in which novels such as “Sky blue”, “Brava doll” and “Cebollitas” They marked generations, enthusiasm for the new worlds that continue to create from their computer.
Birth footballer, a journalist by trade, screenwriter for vocation and eternal narrator, Torres began his journalist career because fate played a bad pass. As a couple for 40 years with Anabella del Boca, sister of the iconic Andrea, they married a few years ago, confirming that the love and admiration they have, grows and intensifies over the years.
Now he returns with his book “Alquimanía”a youth novel in which five boys face an extraordinary mission, save the world using the periodic table of the elements. Science, fantasy and adventure are mixed with that seal so yours, that of a storyteller that is never repeated.
News: Although nobody believes it, its beginnings were as a footballer.
Enrique Torres: Since I was a child I was closely linked to Chacarita. My dad took me to the court. I tried and started playing from seventh division. I arrived until third, where youth were mixed with some professionals. In a match against Vélez Sarsfield, I had a fortuitous encounter with a mastomaur, I fractured my leg and never recovered. They had welded me badly, my recovery was dilated, I started reading because I was in bed and left. A few years ago Clarín wanted to get together with Mastromaur, as a story of redemption, but he did not want to. I wanted to thank him by the heart, because if he had continued playing football, today he would be driving a taxi or attending a kiosk.
News: Did he have an attempt to be an actor?
Torres: With some colleagues we created a theater group and invited us the Miró Foundation to Barcelona and I took advantage and went with my partner and my two older children. We arrived in July of ’69, just after the title of Chacarita. I told myself: “I do well or badly, I stay.” I started on television and then went to journalism. They offered me to write for an erotic magazine and was the beginning of another stage.
News: In Spain towards the end of the 70s, the stage of uncover began.
Torres: It was a country that came out of 40 years of dictatorship. It was prohibited to the language. The Catalan was practically extinguished. There was a hungry for freedom. I directed Penthouse, Lib, and then we put together Yes. We expected to sell 40 thousand copies and we reached 380 thousand. It was a boom. Of course, we also had messes, the Law of Social danger persecuted us. The first cause was by a note with four transvestites. That law allowed us to stop without trial. In each number we published a note against that law. The year and a half he repealed.
News: A born provocator.
Torres: Yes, but with meaning and arguments. He was not a rebel without cause. Once I wrote a note that was titled: “How to live with a small penis?” He sold out. I even invented a sexological office. Thousands of letters arrived. One day a lady asked if having relationships with her dog affected her pregnancy and we ended up in court. I also had learning to blows. Once we put Laura Gemser, the black of the movie “Emmanuelle” and sold 110 thousand copies less. There I understood how racism operated in the industry. It sounds horrible, but it was another era, luckily.
News: But he returned to Argentina. What left your experience in Spain?
Torres: I went with 800 dollars, made fortune there, I bought my house, I lost everything and returned fifteen years later with an immense experience. I learned that I have valuable ideas, but that if I handle money, it choco it.
News: How did journalism go to soap operas?
Torres: Working in Editorial Profile for the weekly magazine, I began to link with actors and began to accompany Andrea del Boca in many notes. In the era of Silvestre and others. In one of them I know his sister, Anabella, we fell in love and that approached me to the world of soap operas.
News: Flechazo at first glance?
Torres: Immediate and luckily. Upon my return to Buenos Aires, I decided to separate from what my wife and mother of my two children was, to start a life with her. Since then, we build a love story together that has lasted four decades.
News: They got married recently.
Torres: We were already married to civil, but last year we celebrated our religious wedding to renew our votes. It was an intimate and very special ceremony, surrounded by friends and family. We have a child in common, Lucas, who is a film director and with whom we share the passion for art and audiovisual production.
News: Returning to the past, his first novel was “Celeste.”
Torres: One night I took three librettos from a novel that Andrea did and started studying the melodrama. One morning at two in the morning I woke Andrea and said: “Worse than this cannot leave.” That same night I wrote my first story. I asked my son a name and said “Antonella.” I showed it to Nicolás del Boca and offered me $ 100 per chapter and we changed the title for “Celeste”, because it was more salable for the Italian market.
News: “Celeste” was a before and after in the career of Andrea del Boca.
Torres: An explosion. From 14 points in the first week we spend 31 in the second. And with that flavor to triumph, I began to play more with the scripts, to put pauses, surprises. A scene without explanation could last several chapters without resolution. That generated expectation.
News: He dared to put a character with HIV positive. Unthinkable in those years.
Towers: Era Sebastián, played by Osvaldo Guidi. It was key. He had advice from the host foundation. In a scene, Sebastián reveals to Celeste who has AIDS. She listens to him, gets up and kisses him. It was a strong message, that a kiss did not infect. He was educational and brave.
News: What repercussions did it have?
Torres: In “New Time” they dedicated half a program. It was the first time that a soap opera gave real sex education. We even made a scene with Paula Jáuregui, an activist with real HIV, without script. It was very hard, but powerful.
News: Another of his successes was “chives”, which broke with the myth that only the triumph is worth in life.
Torres: It was a revolution. I wanted to compete to the tank that was “small” that seemed unbeatable. I pointed to the men, but with a story for everyone and added a topic, which does not need to win. The team lost the final and the character of Don Lucero, who did Carlos Moreno, told them that being runner -up was also a pride. In Japan, adolescent suicide was high due to the pressure of success. I wanted to go against that.
News: In the 90s, he put several batacazos, the other was “Brava doll.”
Torres: Gustavo Yankelevich came once and said: “I stole a paquita to Romay and I need a story for her.” It was Natalia Oreiro. I already knew her. VI Chemistry with Facundo Arana. He had tried “black pearl” in a very hard scene with Andrea del Boca. He convinced me. He had sensitivity and a look that moved.
News: What made it special to that novel?
Torres: A unique combination of humor, romance and endearing characters. I tried to show “less male” protagonists, more human and sensitive. Even the villains shone. Natalia and Facundo were very dear to the team and their chemistry transcended the screen. People loved them.
News: In his present, there is a book and a movie.
Torres: Yes, my book “Alquimanía” that arose from a game of imagining that each person is a combination of chemical elements. I mixed science, fantasy and adventure. The story tells how five boys, the Dayters, face rap, a villain who steals the soul of the children. If it achieves it, the earth runs out of love.
News: And in his new film he addresses the theme of autism.
Torres: Yes, I wrote the script of the film “What the heart says”, about an autistic father and son. The boy does not act, he has real autism and that was an absolute achievement of its director René Bueno. The boy was awarded as best actor at the Stockholm Film Festival. Fact that excited me deeply. Many autism organizations celebrated the film. And when that happens, I mobilize with my stories, I am deeply happy.
