Eugenia Tobal He gets up very early every morning to take his daughter to school, but lately he needs to go back to bed and curl up to sleep for at least an hour longer.. “Mommy’s chat, a comedy at school”, The work that he puts his body into at the Multitabarís demands energy and physical display, as well as acting. When she is “Becky”, she is in permanent movement, a movement that is at times spasmodic and has little control. So much so that every time he bathes, he discovers a new bruise. That matters little to him. Rather, she falls in love with the magic of acting, which makes those blows go unnoticed by her, Eugenia, while losing a false nail on stage destroys her soul and fills her Becky with anxiety.
News: How did you build a character that plays on the edge?
Eugenia Tobal: It was difficult. Since I was one of the first to be in the play, they gave me two characters to see. When I read Becky, although originally it wasn’t exactly like that, I detected some things that seemed interesting to me so that I could be seen in a different way. The other character was a little more like what I usually do. But I like to play at disarming myself, at disarming Eugenia, and composing something else. Now when I started working on it it was chaotic.
News: In what sense?
Tobal: I found myself in chaos, because it also doesn’t have that much text, so there was something about body composition that I had to focus on finding. I created the little monster with all the physical part, its nails, its walk, its way of speaking. At first, I had a bit of a “this is border” meltdown. But, thanks to being present all the time, with the character placed in my body, I found balance. I mean, I never escape from Becky, she is present in all that model that is, it is true. So when the truth lives in the character there is no way for you to go overboard. And beyond that colorful packaging that she has, she is the most human, the most empathetic. So defending that deepest part of Becky is defending her truth.
News: And he ends up stealing the applause.
Tobal: Yes, there is a very beautiful feedback from the people, which I honestly didn’t expect or did I. But it was not composed to receive so much praise. I feel like I did it for me, so that they can also see me in a comedic side that I think they don’t have as much of me.
News: Did you find anything that brought you closer to Becky?
Tobal: I think the closest thing I have to her is the humanity and truth she has, the character with her color and me with mine. I am very frontal, I really like the truth, sincerity.
News: How do you handle brutal sincerity in the artistic environment?
Tobal: When I was younger it was difficult for me. But there was always a little spark where I made a difference because I remember that mom had that thing about “don’t say no to that job, it’s work.” And I told her: “Mom, they are paying me two and fifty, I deserve more.” I had that. Luckily, I always did things that gave me pleasure. Now, with the path a little further traveled in terms of the profession, it gives me the peace of mind of being able to be where I want to be. In addition, the reality of work is also changing and must be updated.
News: She is quite bossy, she was encouraged to host “Cooking School”, to be part of “MasterChef Celebrity”…
Tobal: Oh, yes, here I go, experimenting, because I think that one is a lot of experiences, it’s like trying and knowing what one is capable of doing. That’s why I say that I’m not going to give up, I’m going to try. I may or may not do well, but I challenge myself all the time. I never calm down.
News: You also use social networks to generate content, for example with some tourist tours around Buenos Aires. Are you sponsored by the Buenos Aires government?
Tobal: No, but we are looking for sponsors (laughs), brands that can accompany and expand the project to other destinations. I was always a bit of a fan of just acting.
News: In real life, how do you get along with school chats?
Tobal: I am one of the moms who are there and want to solve. I also have the parallel chat of the moms who help me solve things faster that I don’t understand from the 84 messages that appear in the other group. And I am also one of the older ones, so what sometimes makes me noise, and that is seen in the work, is that the problem is not the children, but rather we are the parents who instill in the children things that the children do not represent. Because the boys are wise, they are our teachers.
News: Does being an older mom allow you to look at things from a different perspective or do you feel like you arrived late?
Tobal: No, I live it with much more relaxation than “I arrived late.” Being the mother of a 6-year-old girl with 50 pirules is not the same as being a mother of 40 or 38, like the moms I have as friends from school. They are different perspectives, they are different journeys and each one is the mother they are at the moment in time. Luckily, I find myself much more settled today, the 50s really hit me hard, to be honest.
News: Were you able to relax the demands of being the perfect mother a little?
Tobal: Yeah! Let’s not be perfect, let’s not be perfect moms because it doesn’t exist. I remember we told my mom that she was a super girl, she gave everything and more. And, sometimes, he couldn’t and well, he ended up getting sick and died with cancer. I mean, there is something of the demand, of always having to be there, that is, I give what I can as far as I can, but it is my nature. I was always the same way and I like that Ema sees that her mother is in front, that she faces. But I realized that I have to also show a mother that she can’t. Two years ago I began to notice that Ema had a demand to want to do everything well and that she got very frustrated when something didn’t work out. I went to talk to the teacher and she gave me a reflection that I said “it’s this way”: she asked me if Ema saw that I was wrong. I began to understand that it was not so good that everything was perfect. We must understand that as women and as mothers we cannot do everything either, we are not Super Woman, we are human, we learn as we go.
News: In this matter of recognizing limits, I read that you will no longer seek pregnancy and that you have frozen embryos, have you already decided what you will do with them?
Tobal: You have the possibility to donate them for scientific research, throw them away or donate them to another woman. I still have them in reserve, they are there, but since science has helped me a lot, they are embryos that may possibly go to donations for scientific research and that from now on the possibility that mothers who want to postpone motherhood can be mothers in better ways will be 100% improved.
News: Once again his decisive side appears.
Tobal: And yes, because I am also of the idea that you cannot remain installed as if in a constant suffering on a subject, you have to go through it and continue because life is short.
News: Does that awareness of the finite end up being a driving force?
Tobal: Overall, that’s why I tell you, the 50s hit me well because I reached that point of understanding that from now on what remains is profit. I already decreed it, I say it in all the notes and I continue to decree it because this is how it will be: I want to reach 100 years.
News: I read that he wants to surpass Mirtha Legrand!
Tobal: I want to surpass Mirtha just as Mirtha is, eh: splendid, lucid, beautiful. But of course there is something dizzying when you understand that what you experienced until now one believed was eternal and it was not. And after my mother’s death… Her illness was unexpected because mom was a very healthy person and ate well, she didn’t smoke. But yes, maybe all those silences and those anxieties and those sufferings that he had for us and for life, and for who knows what other things from his past, all of that makes an impact somewhere. So I am aware that you have to live life lighter, say the things that need to be said, express your emotions and be able to get everything out. I think there is a very big change of era and if one does not evolve, one will stay by the wayside.
News: What do you do for that?
Tobal: Luckily, I always liked to experiment, go inward, I did therapy for many years, I read, I connect with my interior. For me, the pandemic made a big impact on those who understood that a profound change must be made from within. I join that group. You have to find yourself, otherwise you’ll be left kicking in the air.
