The actor premieres a new series on the HBO Max platform, ‘Pollos sin cabeza’, which is created by the son of Jorge Valdano as a result of an idea by Álex de la Iglesia and Carolina Bang
Hugo Silva (Madrid, 1977) was not one of those children who dreamed of being a footballer. He always wanted to be an actor. Today the ball continues to attract him rather little. But he understands the passion that the beautiful game raises. In ‘headless chickens‘, the series that stars in HBO Max created by the son of Jorge Valdano based on an idea by Álex de la Iglesia and Carolina Bangbrings out his humorous vein again to fully immerse himself in the ins and outs of the world of football.
His character, Beto, ends his soccer career to become a representative of soccer stars. And he realizes very quickly that it is a very competitive industry full of sharks. He reinvents himself in a world he knows. He starts off well because he is talented, he knows what he is doing, he has remade his life, he is free of his addictions, but suddenly he suffers a betrayal with his star soccer player and begins to sink ever lower.Do you think that the world of football easily gives rise to comedy?The world behind soccer, which is where the series is set, does give a lot of room for comedy. Above all, because it is very hostile. The more the character suffers, the funnier the comedy, and this is a wonderful minefield. Are you a soccer fan? No. But you don’t have to be to enjoy this comedy. As a child he did not want to be a footballer either, but an actor. Besides, he was terrible with the ball.Despite not being a soccer fan, do you understand the passions that the king of sports raises? Yes. Also, those passions are necessary to get you out of your life or out of a routine. It is not normal to reach violence, but if there is passion it is because cheering on your team makes you feel alive. I don’t follow any of them, but I have experienced that electricity in a concert.Are you worried that the series will be compared to the award-winning ‘Ted Lasso’, which also brings the world of soccer to the fore?I have not seen. I didn’t even know it existed until I started the promotion. But from what I’ve been told and the trailers I’ve seen, they don’t have much to do with it. The world of football is there, but this is something else.
Did you go through a ‘casting’ to play Beto?I didn’t cast. I am lucky that he is a character that is written with me in mind. That’s why I immediately understood the energy I had to bring to it.That they write a character thinking of you is a luxury.It is a great luck. It has happened to me only twice in my life, and in both cases it has been very easy to approach the character.With his career, he thought that he would no longer have to go through so many ‘castings’.Yes, I do ‘castings’, we all do. Also, it’s good to do them because they keep you in shape and, if they don’t catch you and then you see the product, you understand why they told you no, that you weren’t the one who was going to give them the energy that that partner has given them.
Didn’t Beto’s characteristics surprise you, having written it for you?I did not like them. They thought about my energy to address it, but what happens to the character, the more bizarre and the more it makes him suffer, the better. The more flaws he has, the more I like him.Have you ever confessed that you cannot afford to be unemployed because you have a mortgage and two children. Now he won’t have to worry, because he has six projects pending release. Among them, a series from Almodóvar’s production company, Mentiras pasajeros.I have been and am very lucky and I am very grateful to this profession and to the public, who I think have always treated me very well. That answer was to the question of do I take breaks and prepare the character. I, with humility, said that I could not allow myself many breaks and that I am very lucky to work on the projects that I like, but that if others arrived that perhaps did not motivate me as much and I needed them, I would do them, because I live In the real world.You were one of the protagonists of ‘The Ministry of Time’, a series with very active fans. Javier Olivares, its creator, has commented that he has written a fifth season, but that TVE did not buy it for him. Do you think they have mistreated the series a lot?I am not going to go into whether or not they have mistreated it, but my opinion is that it is a much-needed series that should always continue due to its informative function. I know that they show it in institutes and schools because it is a series that helps us understand each other, so it should continue. I am not saying all this as an actor, but as a spectator. If the series continues with another patrol and other actors it would also be great. In addition, it is that it has no limit because we have a very extensive history.