The actress Anita Gutiérrez It has its own light. Behind his charismatic smile and lively eyes hides a personality that overflows energy. Throughout two decades he has traveled an extensive path in which he knew how to demonstrate his multifaceted talent. At 11, on the advice of his psychologist, he began studying theater. “I had some difficulties to adapt to school. She told my mother:” Take her to do theater. “And it was the best thing that could have happened to me,” he confesses. Thus, after a brief step by classes with the endearing Agustín Alezzo, he arrived at “Río Silver”, the School of Integral Training and Musical Comedy of the remembered Hugo Midón, where he stayed for seven years. Then publicities and their first steps in the Independent Theater would come. There Adrián Suar discovered it and added it to the cast of “Heirs of a revenge.” They would continue “Quitapenas”, “Messrs. Papis” and “Mía Esperanza”, among other work on TV. In Cinema it did not go unnoticed by incarnating climbing remedies in the movie “San Martín: The Crossing of the Andes”, along with Rodrigo de la Serna. In Commercial Theater, he caught attention in “Los Bonobos”, with Campi, Osqui Guzmán, Peto Menahem and Lizy Tagliani. This year it premiered “New Mamita”the Disney series+ shot in Mexico, in which it gets into the skin of Lucrecia Flores, a publicist who decides to pretend a pregnancy against social pressure; And it is a revelation like Elena in “A shit Christmas”the spawning proposal with Verónica Llinás, Alejo García Pintos and Tomás Fonzi, at the Premier Theater.
He meets news in a cafeteria decorated with plants that evoke serenity and home climate, a serene shelter in the middle of the urban rhythm, in which it is expressed with the same inexhaustible passion that transmits on stage.
News: What do you remember from your classes with Midón?
Anita Gutiérrez: He was a director with a unique look. It made us throw ourselves to the floor, say texts without thinking. At that time I did not understand at all, but over the years I fell to the file. It was a deep formation, without effects and with a lot of affection towards what we were forming.
News: Did you still linked to that school?
Gutierrez: Yes, first as secretary and it was bad because I never closed my box. Until one day Hugo told me: “Your thing is not this.” And offered me to teach tap and theater. In addition, I made a recommendation letter and opened the doors to meet other directors. It was a great mentor, as was my therapist at the time.
News: Did your family support the artistic path?
Gutierrez: They always accompanied me. My mother is a psychologist and writer, she has just published her first book at 78. My dad is a auditor and my sister is a clinical doctor. They never pressed me to follow another way. Already from Chiquita organized shows at home, I was magic, with the computer printed tickets and sold them. They started hiring my uncles for family events. It was natural for me.
News: When did you decide to professionalize as an actress?
Gutierrez: It wasn’t something I planned. There was some chance, hits of luck, and many particular things that happened to me. I did not get into theater to be an actress, I did it because it caught me. When I started seeing that I had some vocation, I decided and understood that this was mine.
News: He made under and commercial theater. What differences do you see between both worlds?
Gutierrez: The commercial has something beautiful: the popular, contact with people who come from the interior, who sees you on Corrientes Street. You go out and someone tells you: “Thank you, you made me laugh, I had a bad day.” That is unparalleled, but work is the same, it doesn’t matter if it is a large theater or a smaller one. The essence is the same: make people have a good time, that party is sacred to me. The important thing is that people leave happy, it was in a theater with 800 people or in one with 40. The public is the most important, and work is the same in all spaces.
News: Do you think luck plays an important role in your career?
Gutierrez: Yes, totally. But also tenacity, which is something to have in this environment. Everything that happened to me was somehow unpredictable, like when I stayed for a movie and, suddenly, the director died just before we started the rehearsals. Everything can change in a second and sometimes things fall apart from one moment to another.
News: How are those unexpected turns ignored?
Gutierrez: It is important to be prepared for good and bad moments. When you are in successful projects, we must not let that dizzy. The key is to be emotionally prepared for ups and downs and understand that everything is part of a process.
News: How did “New Mamita” arise?
Gutierrez: In 2018, I met by chance with a producer friend who started therapy in the same building where I lived. We chatted, we had coffee, and he told me that he wanted to do something with an actress. We add two more friends and start thinking about ideas. The story of a woman who, pressured by the mandate of being a mother, pregnant a pregnancy in networks and becomes a false influencer. We were interested how networks build identities, how children, social mandates on motherhood are exposed. History was born with that mixture of humor, criticism and tenderness. We made a trailer with friends and then, incredibly, Disney bought the project. They asked us to do it in Mexico, but with me as the protagonist and it was something magical.
News: How was the experience of working in another country?
Gutierrez: Unique We traveled the four with the idea that, although no one knew us in Mexico, there was something in our history that was going to connect. And, suddenly, we realized that there was a real interest. The key was tenacity. In the process, I learned a lot as an actress, I saw how a casting is done and I understood why sometimes you do not stay in a project, something that has nothing to do with talent, but with many factors.
News: What cultural differences noticed?
Gutierrez: Although language is the same, there are words that have different meanings. Those small differences gave us a lot of comedy, something that Disney’s team saw very fast. It was a crossing of cultures that gave the project a unique touch.
News: Did you feel that pressure of being a mother?
Gutierrez: Yes, in my twenties I thought that was the way, but it was not a real desire. Over the years I realized that I was not vibrating there. I never felt pressure from my family, but social. That phrase of “Who is going to take care of you when you are big?”, I was crashing. It seemed crazy to have a son for that. I never closed the door, but the desire did not appear.
News: Is your heart busy?
Gutierrez: (laughs) I realized that I don’t fit so much in the coexistence structure. I am knowing someone and we are well like this, each at home. It is the first time I feel full in love. The coexistence, for me, usually affects the link.
News: Comedies are among the most watched shows. Why do you think the public has so much need to laugh?
Gutierrez: People need to disconnect from reality. We live in a country with many difficulties, and laughter is a way of cutting with that, to reset, to disconnect. The theater has a unique value in this regard, because it is a resistance to digital and virtual life, where the real connection is lost. In the theater, people sit in a room and allow you to enjoy a collective experience. For us, as actors, feeling that energy of the audience is vital. The spectators guide us, they tell us with their answer if we are successful or if we need to adjust something. When the public responds, one knows that the work is well done. It is a unique and mutual experience, where there is no ego, only an energy circulation.
Acknowledgments: Styling and makeup Paul Paul (@Paulopolbaires) and Gise Danon Make Up (@gisedanonok) – Manuel Balut and Vestalia – Botanical coffee
