«NOoooo: no party on September 15, for my 80 years ». Oh god, even the adorable Carmen Maura, muse of the transgressive Pedro AlmodóvarIs it one of those trivially vain actors who remove birthdays? The doubt – Fiuuuuu! – He is immediately dispelled. “It attacked me laziness to the idea of organizing a party! My house is sacred: in disorder, full of dolls everywhere, of nonsense, of games … »specifies her, laughing, back from the success of Calle Málaga (Beauty spectators’ prize at the Venice exhibition, in theaters in 2026).
Moreover, the personal theme is the heart of the film by the Moroccan director Maryam Touzani: Carmen/María Ángeles has lived in Tangier for decades in the same apartment but, one day, you can see the daughter from Madrid and not on a courtesy visit. He tells her that he decided to sell the property, that his father had registered to her … what to choose? Follow the ungrateful to Madrid or stay there, however, moving to a nursing home?
Interview with Carmen Maura, the protagonist of Calle Málaga
«When we met, Maryam immediately placed me in front of the difficulties: I would have been busy relentlessly, since they appeared in every scene. “All right”. E: “You will have to undress …”. “All right”. It’s curious: I had never happened to deceive me on the setand yes I worked a lot (166 filmsto be precise, winning four Goya, the Oscar of Spain, and the Cannes prize for Volverin 2006, ed)! A single time, in ¡Ay Carmela! Of Carlos Saura, the boobs had seen a little … I know that friends will have to complain, but now showing the butt or not will not influence my career! (laughs) First I would probably have refused, today I don’t care.
Carmen and Pedro Almodòvar, today 76 years old, in 1987 in New York (Photo by Tony Palmieri/Wwd/Penske Media Via Getty Images).
Why?
When you arrive at this age, look at things in a different way, you have more courage: everything has less importance, you are aware that tomorrow you could pull the leather … two actors who knew well have just died: the wonderful Verónica Echegui (she was 42 years old!) And Eusebio Poncela, who was born on my same day, in the same 1945. But he lowered the age, while I always declared mine. (Smile sad smiles)
What attracted it in particular in the plot of Calle Málaga?
The fact that the protagonist rebels against his daughter and flees from the hospice, despite not having a safe perspective, what happens happens. And I find fantastic that he falls in love! It can happen at any age. Any. Me – alas – I have the problem that now a man at home I would not let him enter even for a dream: I love being alone! If I happen to have a relationship, everyone will live on their own!
The scene in the bedroom breaks one of the few taboos left: the sex between mature people.
Certain! Once it was almost a sin and Calle Málaga It can contribute a lot: maybe someone lets himself be inspired. I would go crazy if a lady approached me on the street – in Madrid, people stop me, speak to me and make me happy, so I understand how things go – and she said to me: “Thanks! I liked a man, I thought it was too old, but after seeing the film we made love!”.
Carmen Maura in “Calle Málaga”, in cinemas in 2026, distributed by Movies Inspired (Webphoto).
“A good decision, which helps me in the roles, is not having sold to the” retouches “”
It is fashionable to argue that the 50 are the new 30, the 60 the new 40 … do you believe it?
Well, I remember that my mother, who disappeared at 75, already considered herself quite old. But it is not a matter of numbers: it depends on the individual, on the existence he leads. I am lucky, with my job it is as I always playing: now I am Tizia, now I am Caia; Now I’m poor, now I’m rich, now I’m a murderer (I just turned a horror, Vieja Loja: I had fun from Matti, how to be in Disneyland!). A tiring game, to be taken seriously, but that is … a good decision, which helps me in the roles, is not to have given to the “touch -ups”: I have the face of one of my age. What I apply in is gymnastics. And keep healthy habits. I love the campaign, I love animals. In the great farm I sold, I kept a dozen dogs.
A dozen?
Yes, I love them. I would have taken a cow and a donkey, unfortunately it was not possible: a donkey would need company, of a donkey. Ditto for the cow.
Do you sensitivity to nature has root in your childhood? Did you grow up in the green?
No, in an apartment in Madrid. Anyway, I remember that since I was a child I had the obsession with taking a can and putting a lentil in it to check if it grew. When we rented a villa with a garden at the Ascorial, I immediately planned something. Now I have a campicello in Miraflores de la Sierra: it is my refuge, I am not an excessively sociable person.
Primadonne di Spagna: with Penélope Cruz in “Volver” (2006) (Photo by Emilio Pereda & Paola Ardizzoni/Mptvimages/contrast).
Carmen Maura: “Acting was an early passion”
Difficult to believe them, also considering the profession chosen …
The acting was an early passion. Since I was a child my favorite amusements were: I have a shop, I ordered my sister – come and buy. I have a child, I take him to the park … at school, since I was nothing special, in the spectacles they never gave me a primary role: I was the little angel at the bottom … I felt so unfair, I was the only one with the vocation! Then I organized shows with my friends. I suggested to them: “This year you ask the Magi for a dancer costume, I have a perfect script!”. We settled with me and asked to pay a peseta to dads and mothers: I also had an entrepreneurial vein. (laughs) When I entered the university, the professor of literature communicated to us: “We organize a theatrical group: write a letter and explain why you would like to enter it”.
The turning point.
Well, they didn’t take me! Look what eye had those professors! (laughs) Fortunately, a friend in the class “registered”: they gave me a joke: “I have to open the door”. After a few weeks, the director was frozen with the protagonist: “If he arrives late again, I replace it”. He arrived late, she replaced her. Next stop? The notoriety came with a TV program of which I was a presenter (ESTA NOCHEbroadcast between 1981 and 1982, ed). In the meantime, I had met Almodóvar at the theater, during a serious representation where he had a particle as an actor: The dirty hands by Jean-Paul Sartre. He liked as I spoke, accompanied me every night at home and told me stories.
He didn’t have a penny, he turned small things with friends. After a short film, we started with the project PEPI, lights, bom and the other girls of the pile. I loved his theories, the sense of humor; It seemed to me of incredible genius while my colleagues were amazed: “How can you confuse you with that? You are crazy, you ruin your career!”. But I didn’t see her as a “career”. And our collaboration represented for me an incredible help.
With Alaska and Eva Siva in Pepi, Lights, Bom and the other girls of the pile (1980) (webphohoto).
“I know Pedro on stage, we were staged with Sartre”
In what sense?
My personal life was a disaster. After the divorce, my children had taken away (María del Carmen and Pablo, born from the marriage with the lawyer Francisco Forteza, editor’s note) And reciting was the funniest thing that was happening to me. And then Pedro was modern, I was not at all (she was born in an aristocratic and conservative family, ed.). I entered that group – with Alaska, with Bibi Andersen – where anyone who said what he wanted, dressed as he wanted. I was the biggest, the only one with children and they transmitted me a sense of freedom that was foreign to me.
The celebrated period of the Madrileña nightlife, late 70s.
It was a sudden wave of emancipation, irony, transgression. Despite the difficulties – the presence of the military on the street, the risk of coup d’état – in the fifteen days following Franco’s death, something rare was realized: opposite political forces, from the far left to the far right, agreed to guarantee the stability of the country. To remember it I get the chills! Now, however, it is a continuous quarrel, an insulting each other.
Transgender icon Antonio Banderas in “The law of desire” (1987) (webphohoto).
Carmen Maura, the relationship with Pedro Almodóvar
Almodóvar is still attending?
No. After Women on the verge of nervous crisis We have no longer been in tune. In 2006 he called me for Volver And I accepted, finished there. I am proud of his success and he recognizes that at the beginning I was of considerable support.
It was generous, it was already Primadonna at the National Theater …
No, generous no. Pragmatic, practice: I exploited his talent. He was close to me in that heavy period making me laugh. It was a mutual exchange.
“Women on the verge of a nervous crisis” (1988): from the left, María Barranco, Rossy de Palma, Julieta Serrano, Carmen Maura (contrast).
Do you have a mantra that guides her?
I have a wonderful guardian angel, I think I duty my fortunes to his protection, otherwise it would not be normal … I had a complicated private individual and, on the other hand, a crazy luck in the profession: I have always found myself in the right place at the right time.
Away, it will not have been that.
I didn’t take anything too seriously, as if it were a matter of life or death. It was something pleasant and it was good for me, so … my guardian angel was really smart!