With his unmistakable style, actor Carlos Calvo stated: “In this profession, if you don’t play, if you don’t have fun, you better dedicate yourself to something else.”
Andrea Politti She always knew how to take advantage of the playful side of acting, whether in television fictions such as “I will resist”, “El sodero de mi vida” or “Like hot bread”, or in proposals where she had to put on the host’s outfit. “A Matter of Weight”, “Cut and Sewing” and “The One and the Other” come to mind.
She was able to create an unforgettable cinematographic scene in “The Least Thought of Love” with Ricardo Darín in which she proved to be a worthy heir to the iconic Luis Politti, a remembered actor in films such as “Los gauchosjews”, “La tregua” and “Don’t touch the chick”.
The premiere of “Porteñas” in which she shares a cast with Cecilia Milone, Julia Calvo, Romina Richi and Micaela Riera, serves as a reason for this NEWS talk with an actress in a permanent process of reinvention.
News: The work is called Porteñas, but you were born in Mendoza, right?
Andrea Politti: Yes, and I was born in the middle of a nurses’ strike. My dad acted as a stretcher bearer, it was a very hot January 4th in a land as beautiful as Mendoza. This work is called “Porteñas” and you saw that Argentina is enormous, there is always that friction thing with the porteño, but it is called that simply because the events happen in Buenos Aires. What you see on stage is going to affect us all, being from Mendoza I have to clarify it…(laughs)
News: When your family settled in Buenos Aires, was it because of work?
Politti: We came when I was very little, my father, who was an actor, had gotten a job at the San Martín Theater and although my parents were already half separated, at that time the topic of divorce was not very popular, so we moved with the whole family. Look, I was seriously little and I still have the shocking memory of arriving at the Retiro station. Seeing that staircase and the crowd was overwhelming. If someone who came to Capital for the first time reads this, they will understand it because it is tremendous to see so many people in huge places, I no longer forget when we get off the train, it is something indelible. Later I developed my life and my career in Buenos Aires.
News: We are used to seeing her in her double role as actress and host. What did the actress contribute to the host and the host to the actress?
Politti: I was practically born in the theater, then I studied and started working from the age of 19 doing plays, I also had the fortune of catching that final blow of the explosion of fiction where a lot of television and cinema was made, luckily I did a lot of things as an actress . Until driving suddenly appeared, I was in the theater doing a play in which I went down to the audience and spoke to the audience, everyone told me: “You should drive” and I answered: “But no,! Look if I’m going to be a driver!” I didn’t think I could do it, I had to be encouraged and at that time it was not like now, It was frowned upon to be a driver for an actress. At first the comments were: “Is Andrea Politti going to drive? Ah, he squandered his career!” But since I’m kind of a rebel, I said: “Why not give myself the opportunity to be something else from the same place?” You are in contact with the public, you enter people’s homes and you can spread joy from there. I started with “12 hearts”, when it was my debut I felt like I had been doing it all my life, it was very strange, I didn’t expect that feeling. When hosting, you don’t act, you guide the program trying to make people have fun, but I feel that it gave me a freshness and an ability to improvise that can be very useful for acting.
News: We recently saw her in “Wild Scissors” where she shared the cast with her son. It must have been hard to have an actor father and now also share a profession with a son, right?
Politti: Oh, it was beautiful. Sharing the stage with your child is something very special. I wanted to step on stage with my dad, but he died very young, we didn’t have that opportunity, and doing it with Galo was like a caress for that lack, for that frustration I had of not having worked with my dad. I found it very moving to see traits of my old man in him on an acting level. Watching him act, him performing so well, and being accompanied by the entire cast was wonderful.
News: You did “The Least Thought of Love” with Ricardo Darín and many of us share the opinion that your scene was the best in the film. You haven’t worked as much in film, was that due to the predominance of driving?
Politti: They haven’t called me that much, I think what perhaps happened is that there was a bit of prejudice, For a long time there was this saying that people who make television are not for cinema, perhaps now it seems to me that the limits are softer. Even sometimes within the theatrical field there are certain preconceptions that I learned not to have, which is very interesting because it opens up a range that makes you more creative. When I went to film that movie with Darín I still remember the emotion and happiness I had.
News: He wrote many novels, was “Resistenciare” among the best?
Politti: I had several successes, many years ago I did a women’s novel that was “Like hot bread” with Mirta Busnelli and great divine actresses like María Valenzuela, who precisely in the previous cast of “Porteñas” played the character that I play now. In theater I did very well with “Confessions of Women of 30”, they always called me from female groups, at some point I even said: “I’ve already done too many women’s plays!” (laughs) but I like them. Sometimes it seems that one makes the path but the path is also the one that takes you.
News: But it was good that the path had led you to work with so many women because at the time you made “Los machos.”
Politti: It’s true! We were the women of “Los machos” in that very masculine cast, we are talking about many years ago (laughs), back then there were a lot of opportunities. We had several offices to go to and take our resumes to, suddenly all that became impossible. Now there are platforms, other possibilities are opening up, which makes me more relieved.
News: You were part of one of the first chapters of “Los Simuladores”, did you imagine that it would become such a phenomenon?
Politti: I was doing a novel in El Trece that was “Calientes”, with the whole group of young actors who are now leading figures. There Szifrón was the assistant, of the assistant, of the assistant. One day he calls me very humble, divine, redheaded and he tells me: “Andrea, do you remember me? “I wrote a series of several chapters, I would like you to participate in one.” I asked him to send me the book and when it arrived I was stupid, he fascinated me. We filmed in Punta del Este. I had my newborn son and I felt that “The Simulators” was much more than the great goal that Szifrón deserved, I knew there was something very important instantly and when I saw him filming I took my hat off. For me he is one of the great talents we have.
