It’s a thousand. Count the minutes left for the premiere of “Matilda”, the Broadway mega musical that promises to revolutionize the winter holidays at the Gran Rex —premiered on June 1 with a pre-sale of more than 30,000 tickets—, there she will be the sweet Miss Honey and she will face the fearsome Tronchatoro played by Agustín “Rada” Aristarán in addition to the terrible parents played by José María Listorti and Fernanda Metilli. She also hosts “Welcome aboard” with much grace and no fear of ridicule, she can be a jury member of “Los 8 escalones”, winner of “Dancing”, naive seductress in “Sugar” or weather girl with Guillermo Francella on Netflix. Laurita fernandez She does not deny the diminutive because it is part of her history, as are her formative years, several media upsets and a present where she tells NEWS that she is no longer willing to compromise on the issues that matter.
News: “Matilda” is a generational film. When you saw her as a child, did you imagine that she would be part of a musical version when she grew up?
Laurita Fernandez: I have seen it many times! It is one of those movies that when you hook it on the cable you stay watching even when you are big. It marked me, I remember many scenes like the one with the chocolate cake, the other where the girl is thrown around with the braids… There are several iconic moments. Know? When she was a girl, after watching the movie, she tried to move things with my eyes (laughs). I never imagined that a project like this could come, not only to me but to the country because it is very difficult to produce something similar, with three casts of children that rotate, plus all the adults, technicians, props, the structure is crazy, only the that we are rehearsing we are one hundred. When they summoned me I thought that this is something serious, it is going to be incredible.
News: Did your character, Miss Honey, have to appeal to some superpower to remember the names of so many children?
Fernandez: Oh look, I confess that they had made us a memory aid with the names, photos and characters of each one, but in a week we learned who they all were. Many arrive with their school clothes, they kill me with tenderness, they hug me… and few call me Lau, almost all call me Miss Honey! It’s really nice to see how they are aware of the work but at the same time live it as a game, we adults look at them and say: “How I would like to feel like this again”. When we started rehearsing they already knew everything, theirs and everyone else’s, they learn very quickly, they sing everyone’s songs, you can’t believe it.
News: When you were a girl you lived in Liniers, all of us who grew up in neighborhoods know that to see a show you had to go downtown. How do you remember that girl who wanted to see theater and learn to dance?
Fernandez: Total, it was like that, and it was not easy, even to go to the movies with the first boyfriends one took the bus to Caballito. I started studying dance when I was very young and I was able to do it because my parents always took me to classes after school, I started when I was 4 years old. I grew up with Cris Morena and every time “Chiquititas” came to the Gran Rex I would spend hours on the phone calling Ticketek to see if I could get them to help me and get a ticket. I saw several shows by Cris, she was amazed and told me: “I want to do this”. In each act of the school I put the paintings of Cris Morena, I did the Romina Yan, later when it was the turn of the Bandanas, the same. She would gather my friends and we would dance with our classmates, it was heavy! She wrote little pieces of paper as if they were tickets, each one with its price in coins, I charged everyone to come see us in the same courtyard where they could be for free! (laughs). Then my mom took me to see my first musical comedy which was “Saturday Night Fever” and there I told her that I wanted to dedicate myself to that, so they added theater and singing classes, they always accompanied me a lot.
News: And what was that day where you thought you were finally where you had always wanted?
Fernandez: The first time where a musical premiered in which he was part of the cast, “The Canterville Ghost”, which was made in 2008 at the Lola Membrives. I remember that previous moment of a lot of nerves where you say: “Explain to me why I wasn’t a lawyer or a psychologist instead of this!” It was very crazy, because 10 years later they called me for “Sugar” in that same theater and before opening I remembered my first premiere in those same corridors and dressing rooms as a prop or replacement. Being in charge of “Sugar” was something very important on a personal level, it led me to think about all that journey and it was beautiful. Of course, the nerves were the same as on the first day, once again I wondered why I wasn’t a lawyer… Then the show starts and everything flows.
News: When you debuted in “Sugar”, some questioned your leading role, saying that you came from a popular place like “Bailando”. Are actors who come from television still measured with a different yardstick?
Fernandez: It can be, they always say things, but it is more difficult for those who come from the off, it is very difficult for them to reach the commercial theater. Today producers are governed by whether you are known, they measure their level of popularity, they look at the networks to see how many followers they have, talent obviously counts, but for some who want to jump to other types of works, it is difficult for them to get there. There is prejudice with those of us who come from TV, but I had an advantage, I became known doing what I knew was dancing, perhaps if it had come from another type of reality show it would have been different. Beyond the bolonquis and everything that moves “Dancing”, it was the most watched program and everything he knew how to do always stood out, which I appreciate.
News: He has made musicals like “Sugar”, prestigious comedies like “The Gronhölm method”, reality shows, he acted with Guillermo Francella in “Hail”, he hosts “Welcome aboard”. Is there something he hasn’t done yet that he would like to try?
Fernandez: I tried the world of series and I liked it, I had done a strip and the waiting times bored me a lot because I came from doing live programs with a different speed. As a dream I would like to work in another country to try different experiences, come and go with a project in Spain, for example. As a girl I did not have the opportunity to travel a lot, financially it was not possible, I would like to travel to discover new places.
News: Before you decide to go to work outside, I need a prescription. He has had to go through hot moments at the media level. How do you dodge scandal gracefully?
Fernández: Let’s not call misfortune because I come very calm (laughs). It’s not easy, many times I tell myself: “Don’t answer because it’s worse”, but you bite your tongue, you get home and you may regret not having said anything, although in the end you win. To me the bolonqui, far from seeming like part of the show, it seems to me that it is something that takes away from you, wears you out, that’s where my humor ends. That they bardeen me affects me, it’s not that we go to court and I laugh with you, there is something that I don’t like. Many have that capacity, they are fueled by controversy, but it is not my case. I try to get away, I don’t know if my technique works because I have also eaten several quilombos and I had a bad time. At the moment you suffer from it, then with time you learn, you say: “But look at the drama I suffered because of this!”:
News: She said that she comes very calm, does being a girlfriend with Claudio “Peluca” Brusca who is a producer of “Welcome aboard” and working with him every day add up? Does someone who is inside the industry without being an actor understand some things better?
Fernandez: He understands me and I understand him. There will never be a person who tells me: “Stop, your working hours are over, why are you still connected?” work, everyone does their thing, we greet each other with a kiss on the cheek, imagine (he laughs). We don’t walk like boyfriends at work, zero. And that luckily makes us feel very comfortable. We do different things that at the same time complement each other because he advises me a lot and lets me propose a lot in the program. With “Matilda”, for example, he knows that these months of rehearsals demand all the time I have, I would never consider that it is too late, I die when there are those questions, Today it would be very difficult for me to be with someone like that, it is not negotiable at this stage of my life. We accompany each other a lot, the poor guy already knows all the songs by heart, he can go as a replacement for anyone in the play!
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