The actresses star in the new Spanish Amazon Prime series alongside Jean Reno
By age, Aura Garrido (Madrid, 1989) and Angela Molina (Madrid, 1955) belong to two generations of very different actresses, but both have become female references in their profession in Spain. Now they act as mother and daughter in ‘A Private Affair’the Amazon Prime Video series that combines thriller, action and humor and that drinks from mystery classics such as Sherlock Holmes and the stories of Agatha Christie, going through cases such as the murders of Jack the Ripper.
The protagonist of ‘The Ministry of Time’ is Marina Quiroga, a girl from a well-off family, belonging to a long saga of police officers, determined to catch a serial killer in Galicia in the mid-40s. Although her status as a woman result at that time insurmountable obstacle to join the police force. Her mother tries to keep her away from detective dangers and only looks for a good husband for her. Filmed almost entirely in Galicia, it has an international star like Jean Reno in the role of Marina’s butler and assistant, who will accompany him during her investigation.
The relationship between his characters is like that of cat and mouse. Doña Asunción (Molina) spends the series chasing her daughter, Marina (Garrido), to meet her suitor, while she constantly escapes to investigate crimes.Ángela Molina: Marina is getting out of hand! She knows it, but it’s not something she knows how to change, at the moment. She tries to track him down, but I think she has other vital needs and she knows that her mother is in a capricious moment of life, also with alcohol, and she can’t control it. That is why each one is in a different place. For my character, the most important thing is the safety of her daughter and, although somehow she knows that the girl throws away her vocation and she won’t be able to stop her from dedicating herself to it, she plays dumb. Aura Garrido: Marina thinks it’s very different from his mother, but in reality they are much more alike than he thinks.
But Doña Asunción is an old-fashioned woman, while her daughter acts like a more typical 21st century girl who is trapped in the middle of the 20th century. Aura Garrido: But there have been many women in history like that. I don’t think it’s just a now thing. She has a very free character and a vocation beyond what her environment and her society tell her and she is not going to let anyone tell her what she has to do. It is true that It is a type of woman not very common for that time, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t exist. There are many examples throughout history of women who have completely defied social norms.It is a series of mysteries, murders, action and adventures, but it also invites us to reflect on the advances made by women in recent decades. For example, Marina cannot be a police officer because at that time they did not accept women in the force. Ángela Molina: Completely, and it is also a current issue. And then there is the humor with which Marina safeguards those distances from those who think that the best thing for her is to get out of the way. That kind of irony in her humor is very clever.
Was it a plus for you that your characters had those drops of humor? Because we are used to seeing them in more dramatic roles, with no room for comedy.Ángela Molina: Being able to laugh at oneself is always very necessary. In Marina’s case, I don’t think she’s laughing at herself, but rather she’s very critical of everything around her and relates to all the characters that way, including her mother. Aura Garrido: For me, yes. It has been a plus. I was fascinated by Marina and the tone of the series, but I also really wanted to do comedy.
When the scripts arrived, did they know who was going to be the murderer?Ángela Molina: I never thought it was the way it was. Aura Garrido: Me neither! Did working blindly on that aspect make the shoot a lot more complicated?Ángela Molina: Working without knowing the murderer It is not working blindly, it is that it was in favor of the work. For an actor, knowing from the beginning who the murderer is in the series is going to condition you, it’s going to determine the relationships between the characters. However, if you don’t know, you can’t treat anyone as guilty. I think that was very well thought out. He had never worked on a story in which he did not know from the beginning what the end of the script is like, but in this case they decided it that way.
With the trajectories that the two of you have ahead of you, when you receive job proposals, do you have to do castings or is the character written for you?Angela Molina: I don’t castings because I am already very old and they already know what I do. But young people often do more casting world. I don’t think that was the case with Aura. Did you cast? Aura Garrido: No, not for this series. I already got the character.
Aura, your character has a multitude of action scenes throughout the eight episodes: car chases, jumps, escapes, some fight… Did you do it all or did you have a double?Aura Garrido: No, I didn’t do everything. If you knew me you would have no doubts! We have several specialists for different things from Marina, but the main one was Sheyla. We have both been Marina. She did a really nice job adapting to the character’s movement. And it’s not easy. But still I’ve done more things than I thought she would be capable of, especially with heights. They terrify me!Would you say that Galicia is one more character in the series? Because many locations are shown. Mainly Vigo, but also Pontevedra, Combarro, Tui, Fornelos de Montes, Baiona…Angela Molina: Totally. The north gives this series that body and that naturalistic spirit, that relief within all this dark plot. Suddenly you find the strength with which these series coexist every day, which is that place so beautiful, so pure, so from the north… So yes, he is one more character, and highly necessary for such a difficult story, so police, so tremendous, although it is treated with sensitivity and lightness.