The incorporation of Maria Abadi to the third season of “Envious” It turned out to be a formidable surprise, a long-awaited reunion for the public who saw it in shows such as “The Manager”, “Almost Happy”, “Montecristo” and “Señores Papis”. At the same time, it emerged as a renewing presence within a series with conflicts entrenched and established throughout its different chapters, in which the daily vicissitudes of life as a couple are transformed into one battle after another.
Thanks to Lola, her character in the plot, a chef and television host with a past as a model, and with an apparently free, unprejudiced and carefree love life, she prepares a recipe based on spices, mischief and seasonings, the ideal formula to become the perfect antagonist for the troubled protagonist of the story.
The apartment in which Abadi receives NOTICIAS seems to have emerged from the imagination of Julio Cortázar and is made up of elements from the best crime series. A library in which Ibsen, Borges, Rodolfo Walsh and the Karamazov brothers coexist. A piano takes center stage and a playful cat steals everyone’s attention. Ideal setting to start the talk.
News: You turned 40 very recently. At what stage of life does the change of decade find you?
Maria Abadi: It’s all a number! (laughs) 40 grips me quite well, not clearly like when you imagine that age at 20. I feel happy, I am in a good moment in love and work. Beyond those things that you fantasize about when you are a child looking to fill boxes, I think that being okay or not always depends on the moment you go through with yourself, what you tell yourself in your head, because sometimes everything is apparently harmonious, but one is distressed or the other way around. I did a lot of internal work, I have stumbled and fallen many times, but at this moment I am calm… which is no small thing! At the beginning of the year I had a more adrenaline phase, I had just done “Cyrano” all summer, also recording and now I slowed down. At 40 you say: “Hey, it’s good to be calm.”
News: Does that tranquility have to do with therapy?
Abadi: I have been doing therapy since I was 11, I can’t imagine my life without it. But I think that with age, if one works on oneself, reflecting on one’s interior and the world around one, there are other values that begin to be organized. At 20 I worried about each thing, at 30 about others and so on. Now in retrospect they don’t seem so important to me. I think this version today is better than those, yesterday we were talking with my sister and a friend about it, obviously you don’t want to wrinkle, old age is scary, it’s not that it doesn’t affect me, but anyway I choose who I am today, I’m closer than before to who I like to be.
News: Lola, your character in “Envidiosa”, is a woman who has her profession and a very free life that in principle should not bother anyone. However, Vicky, Griselda Siciliani’s character, sees her as a villain, an antagonist. How did you work on it?
Abadi: “Envidiosa” is a series that I like a lot, when I saw the first season I was surprised by how well the story was told and how empathetic Vicky’s character is, being at the same time unbearable. She is an incorrect heroine even for feminist discourse, nowadays Mina is obsessed with getting married and envies everyone, that characteristic makes her very attractive, apart from the fact that Griselda plays her so well. She is a fabulous actress, she always was, but she found something very inspired in Vicky, the series is her. And for me it was important to understand that all the other characters are a function of Vicky’s world, much more so in this season. I tried to interpret Lola exactly to the size of Vicky’s head, what Vicky imagines had to be well related. The interesting thing is that I needed to enter her thoughts to create it and it was a nice challenge to discover what type of women she envies and try to compose the character according to that fantasy that generates so much irritation.
News: Did they call you directly or did you do a casting?
Abadi: I did a casting where they told me that a lot of people showed up and when I came out I said: “It went well but I don’t think I’ll fit.” Luckily I was wrong! For an actress to be part of a series that is seen as much as “Envidiosa” is always good and the truth is that beyond the fact that I came on board with the ship in motion, Griselda and Esteban Lamothe welcomed me very well, the director Daniel Barone also, they made me feel very comfortable because arriving in a group that is already consolidated can have its complexity.
News: In the series you play a chef and in life you are in a relationship with a cook. Did he give you good tips?
Abadi: Mmmm (thinks and smiles). The truth is that not so many, I have asked him some things, but at the same time, since there is not much character development in the kitchen, beyond the fact that he does a gourmet program on television, I was not that interested in learning to cook. Do you know what I did? I watched many videos of shows hosted by ex-models or famous women who cook, more than the technique of knowing how to use a knife I realized that the thing was to understand the energy with which they handle themselves in front of the camera. Shows about cooking models, travel shows and all that kind of reference, I didn’t miss a single one! I also liked the profile of a driver who I will not name and I watched her to decode her (smiles).
News: You worked a lot making fiction on open television and now you have also positioned yourself very well with the platforms. Are there differences between these formats or is the work similar?
Abadi: Yes, a lot. The big difference is the amount of work, now there is much less. When I started working there were seven novels per year, there were the noon ones, the afternoon ones, the youth ones, the night ones and the unitary ones. Even so, there were people who didn’t have jobs because that always happens to us actors, there are many of us for the number of positions available, but what is happening now is very difficult. I think that today a person who wants to dedicate themselves to acting has it much more complicated than when I started, the opportunities have decreased a lot. It is also beginning to happen that we always circulate the same ones, some more and some less, but you watch series and there is a group of 30 actors that rotate. Obviously it’s not their fault but because there is little offer and they opt for actors who know they work. It’s a shame, because there are many people who are also looking for their space to train. The industry is an industry if there is room to develop.
News: Do you like to see yourself?
Abadi: More or less. I don’t enjoy it, sometimes there may be a scene that I like, but in general I am quite critical. I avoid seeing myself even though I need to, of course, I never check the scenes during filming because most likely I will look at what I shouldn’t, for example, how my clothes fit or details that I don’t want to worry about at that moment, if I trust the director, I let go. Afterwards I need to see myself to minimally check my work, to know what the public is receiving, it is the only way to correct things.
News: You are an astrologer as well as an actress, how did that profession come about?
Abadi: It was kind of coincidental, I was always interested in astrology, but I never thought it would end up becoming a profession. I started a course, I got the hang of it and decided to start the training and the career, it wasn’t that much of a workload and it seemed fun to me. Then the pandemic just coincided with the time I graduated, so I started making birth charts that we exchanged with other people, I saw that I handled myself well, it was interesting, it gave me independence from the actress who was on hiatus. Astrology gave me another place of expression that wasn’t necessarily interpretation; I found another profession. I spent a year and a half doing a column on “Vuelta y Media”, Sebastián Wainraich and Julieta Pink’s program, a lot of people started calling me and I started working a lot.
News: At the time in an interview they asked you what you dreamed of and you answered: “To always be able to work on this, to be able to choose, with children, family, a house with a garden and a grill.” How are we with respect to that vision of the future?
Abadi: (Laughs) In principle I’m missing the children and the house with a garden and grill! The thing about always working on this is coming up for now, I think that at that time it was a very important issue for me and now I don’t think that my happiness is tied exclusively to acting, perhaps life can take me to other places. At twenty-something it seemed like a nightmare to fantasize about the idea of not being able to act anymore, everything was meaningless without that vocation. Today I don’t feel that at all, but not because I don’t like acting, but because over time you realize that happiness comes from other places. This profession, as you grow, is like a funnel, with age there are fewer and fewer roles and I wouldn’t want to play roles that I didn’t like. Of course, I still love the house with the garden and grill! Now I am with a couple with whom perhaps we will be encouraged together to fulfill that desire.
