In these times prone to oblivion and to enthrone only the youthful, it is worth remembering that Victor Laplace is a true outstanding personality of Argentine culture. For this reason, it is difficult to synthesize the acclaimed and award-winning career of this multifaceted actor, who sings, dances very well, and went through all genres.
In theater, he starred in great titles such as “Life is a dream”, “The three-cent opera”, or the musicals “They are playing our song”, “Me and my girl” and “My beautiful lady”. She also has a prestigious and extensive film and television career. In the first of these disciplines he launched himself as a screenwriter, director and documentary filmmaker, and led true national classics such as “Los gauchos Juvos”, “Adiós Roberto” or “Flop”. On TV, among other well-remembered cycles, he ventured into “Alta comedia”, “Limit situation” and even dared to drive in “El gran club”.
Located in his splendid maturity, the talk with Laplace arises from his manifest support for the initiative of the civil association “Soñadores Unidos”, a non-profit organization, whose objective is to strengthen the social work and food assistance that they carry out on a daily basis. Sponsored by businessman Julio González, this entity promotes the “Full Pancitas” law, which proposes that the companies that earned the most in times of pandemic contribute 0.04% of their sales to provide the necessary resources in the supply of dining rooms and picnic areas. community.
News: How did you get involved with this Association and its bill?
Victor Laplace: I began to have a record through my colleague and friend Antonio Grimau, who connected me with Julio González. I believe that they do a very important task with regard to the present of children and adolescents in our country. That’s how I got to know “Pancitas Llenas”, its bill that is waiting to be dealt with in the Chamber of Deputies of the Nation. But hunger does not wait and there come the complications. It is a mandatory contribution that does not depend on the good will of businessmen or businesswomen who do well in business.
News: Currently, business sectors, large or small, complain that they pay too many taxes.
Laplace: That’s true; but the theme is not to look the other way, be ambitious and want more things. It is about putting, each one, within what they can, a grain of sand to make what is not talked about so much a reality: hungry boys and girls. I think the pandemic exacerbated it and it is a very hard hit age sector. I understand that six out of ten children are poor. Hence, the work that is done through thousands of picnic areas and dining rooms commanded mostly by extraordinary women, is vital. In this sense, I request the treatment, as soon as possible, of this law. There are a lot of things I do for people that I’m not going to say because it’s not appropriate, but I do fully and publicly support this proposal.
Recognized Peronist militant, last year, Laplace starred in and directed the microseries “Perón answers: past, present, future”, which can be seen through the link peronresponde.ar and also on YouTube. A timeless fiction within which ordinary citizens, historians and officials could ask the former president a question. The cycle of twenty-one episodes, whose durations range between two and four minutes, draws on what Juan Domingo Perón said or wrote at some point in his life; and “try to recover the memory of what has been done in terms of the country project,” the interpreter clarifies.
It was not the only time he played the General. In 1996, she approached him in the film “Eva Perón: the true story”, along with Esther Goris as Evita, directed by Juan Carlos Desanzo, and written by José Pablo Feinmann. Two years later, in “Borges y Perón” by the Uruguayan Enrique Estrázulas, with Duilio Marzio as the writer, at the Cervantes Theater; and in his film “Puerta de Hierro, el exilio de Perón” in 2012, with Victoria Carreras as Isabel, in what was his fifth feature film, of the six he made, as a director.
News: What would Perón say about hunger as an Argentine political and social problem for decades?
Laplace: I’m tired of that journalism closer to skepticism than other things. We live in a moment of a very special planetary situation, there is no doubt. Now, there is a lack of union among citizens; some inhabit the country, just that, and mistreat the planet. Perón spoke of ecology from the beginning, for example; and in “Perón Responds”, which I loved doing, there are convincing answers. The country is very divided and we are not growing; ideas are not discussed either and by not doing so, what happens is that they go on television to see who is more lively than the other. With all the intelligence that the human being has, we do not know how to transmit it. The basics of equality, fraternity, unity, solidarity, love do not appear either. There are many people who, as (Diego) Capusotto said, believe they own the country they hate. Even actors who go abroad are doing well and from there they speak ill of the country that fed them, enlightened them and allowed them to be where they are. That doesn’t seem like an ethical or interesting thing to me.
Originally from Tandil, the son of a jeweler and watchmaker and a housewife, he grew up in the mountains; and that city, to which he always returns, is his place in the world. At the age of 18 he came to Buenos Aires to develop his artistic vocation. With the plastic artist Renata Schussheim, he was the father of Damián, his only son. He would later form a couple with Nélida Lobato, who accompanied him in the ban.
News: You went into exile in 1975, threatened by Triple A, precisely to survive.
Laplace: And survival was not good. Beyond that Mexico and Spain opened their doors. I had 48 hours to leave, so I didn’t have much time to think about what I could or should or wanted to do. The situation of exile or exile is appalling, I don’t wish it on anyone. My feeling is that, as a society, we still haven’t learned how to understand each other, get closer, take care of each other and love each other. Certain people continue to have more and more ambition, and only care about traveling to Europe, for example. It’s okay, I traveled to Europe many times, fortunately, even for work; and also to Miami or New York, where I would go with Nélida and we would see wonderful shows. But from there to what seems like a panacea to me, knowing that extraordinary things are done here on an artistic level, there is a huge distance.
Currently, after a season in Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata, Laplace is on a national tour with the play “Rotos de amor” by the late actor and playwright from Santa Fe, Rafael Bruza, where he shares the bill with Antonio Grimau, Osvaldo Laport and Roly Serrano. A comedy about love and its misunderstandings, narrated in a tender and histrionic way, through the stories of four medical visitors.
News: In addition to the fact that you are from Tandil and, for your work, you have always toured our country, how do you see it at this time?
Laplace: I always think that there is another Argentina that is not the one promoted, because the percentage of people who love the country is greater than the one who does not; People still get up every day to work. So the personal discipline of meditation and yoga make me feel less angry and appreciate it. Every day I try to honor life, as Eladia Blázquez would say, sometimes she succeeded and others not. Still, I try to help others, and be a great man, as I already am, even if it’s a little bit, wiser.
