“I end up physically exhausted after each performance, but that communion that is achieved with the public is very beautiful and gratifying,” says the actor.
Ana Maria Serrano travels this Thursday to Zamora to tell his story about the tables of Main Theater of the Castilian-Leonese city. And he does it through the interpretation of his son, the actor Eduard Fernández, who is touring Spain with “All Love Songs”an intimate monologue where pay tribute to his mother in the best way he knows how to do.
QUESTION: –On the eve of Father’s Day, he arrives with “Todas los canciones de amor”, an affectionate tribute to his mother. What led you to be inspired by Ana María?ANSWER: –It was an accumulation of coincidences. I had wanted to do a monologue for a long time and I was in Buenos Aires, where I saw a play that I really liked. I looked to see who the author was, Santiago Loza, and, curiously, he had another work of his on the bill that I also went to see. I also bought a book of his, full of monologues, and found one by a lady there. Shortly after, my mother died and I thought it would be a good idea to do something inspired by that monologue, because it was also quite similar to the relationship my mother and I had.
–Did the text then adapt to your own characteristics?
–Loza added personal aspects to the text, such as that I was afraid of going down the corridor alone in the dark, my flat feet, peeing at night or being very weak and very sensitive. There are many who think that everything I tell on stage is true, although that doesn’t matter, because, deep down, it is a poem and a celebration for a mother and for a journey to death, to infinity or to light, each one as you see it. It is a tribute to my mother and to all those mothers who gave up a bit of her life to dedicate it to the family and that her members could make their own.
–Personally, what has moved you inside when interpreting something so intimate, almost undressing in front of the public?
–I am quite intimate, that is to say, it is difficult for me, and I even get bored, having meetings with a lot of people. I’m a bit particular, you could even say asocial in that sense. So I like intimacy, I feel comfortable with just four friends talking about our things in a calmer way. So here I am walking my privacy through Spain without problem. I like that and taking my mother around the country, because my parents traveled a lot in Spain and knew her very well. In fact, before every performance I talk to my mother and explain where we are and I imagine her like this traveling with me and, in some way, giving her back something of everything she gave me.
“I like intimacy and I am walking it through Spain without problem”
–Does this work somehow shake off the pain that it caused you not to have been able to say goodbye to her when she passed away, in the midst of a pandemic?
– There is something of that, of making friends with something so hard and that it is also nice to celebrate it without much mannerism or sentimentality. A friend of mine confessed to me the other day, before seeing the play, that he was afraid of seeing a staging full of the ego of Eduard Fernández and his mother. But he changed his mind when he saw her and I like that. It is true that it is intimate and personal, but, at the same time, everyone can feel identified, because we are all children and have a mother.
– Is it a work that strikes a sensitive chord with the public?
–It’s a very emotional show that I’m really enjoying showing it around Spain, seeing how audiences from different places react, although it’s very similar everywhere and always very intense. Really, I end up physically exhausted after each show, my back is already a little touched. But that communion that is achieved with the public is very beautiful, very gratifying, really.
Do you think your mother would have liked your interpretation?
I don’t know (laughs). Always when one is interpreted one does not usually identify. I suppose she would say (imitating her voice) “make yourself prettier, I had a very cute little dress, instead of that nightgown. And why are you barefoot? Stand up straighter.” But, apart from all this, she would tell me “if you like it, I like it” and it would seem very nice to do this tribute throughout Spain.
– Is it necessary to be alone on stage, to carry the weight of the entire work?
-Of course it imposes. In fact, I was very scared and before the premiere I was really terrified, I thought of everything, even quitting, because it made me too nervous. After the process that I had to go through, now I am enjoying it a lot. I have already performed several functions and it is more assimilated, I can fill the stage more and I have a great time, while it is very emotional, I even cry. But it’s worth it, it’s very beautiful, especially to see how it reaches the public and that, without knowing each other at all, there is a certain intimacy between all of us.
Is it less complicated to interpret surrounded by cameras? Does the theater become a challenge for you?
It is certainly a great challenge. But I feel like it, because for me theater is like the root, the mother of interpretation, of my trade. And it is good from time to time to return to it to remember what this job is about. Then we’ll make movies, which is also very good, because it falls within the profession of actors. But the theater calms me down a bit, not to forget the essentials, which is the first thing we forget, the most basic.
–How do you manage to combine the theatrical tour with the recording of your new series?
–I don’t usually mix jobs, I’m very masculine in the sense of being quite denied doing two things at the same time (laughs). But this time it plays like that, although what I have left to record from the series is very punctual. But, as Cholo says, you have to go game by game, or as a Buddhist day, moment by moment, and do what you have to do at all times, so you don’t get balled.
–He is a very versatile actor, playing all kinds of roles during his career. How has he managed not to pigeonhole himself?
–Sometimes you don’t realize that what is given is really sought after, since one tends to what one tends to. I like the trade and choose things that I find interesting to tell, always keeping in mind that one can only choose when things are going well for them. I have said “no” to some projects that have later been successful, but that did not fulfill me, I did not feel like doing at that time or because I was immersed in another project. In that sense, I do choose, one gains meaning as you make films and you do them in a certain way. I feel privileged to be able to choose, really.
“I was really terrified before the premiere, but now I’m really enjoying it”
–To his credit he has three Goyas and has worked with the best national directors. Even so, he boasts that he can go outside without a problem. What is the secret to preserving his privacy and being able to walk like one of them?
–I have no idea, but surely it’s because I don’t make movies with a lot of pull. Those who recognize me look at me with respect and even some with admiration, in a very elegant way that I appreciate. I take it very well and I can make my life without problem. There are people who put on very large dark glasses and a cap, saying that they do it to hide from others, but what they are doing is marking themselves as special. When they are seen on the street, people point out that they must be famous, because they are very hidden. It is about doing the opposite.
–He still has many years left in his career, but there is his daughter Greta. How was it taken that he followed in her footsteps?
–I took it very well and it is also something that comes step by step, not from one day to the next. It seemed very logical to me, but if I had wanted to be anything else, it would have seemed wonderful to me, because she is my daughter and, above all, in front of her I am a father. He seems pretty to me and with her difficulties, like everything in life. I try to be a father and give her father’s advice, sometimes an actor’s father, but knowing that she has to follow her path, as I have followed mine. Some people ask me for advice on being an actor because they like me and I always tell them that what they have to do is what I did: do what you want. She also has to make her own way.
–They acted together in “The daughter of a thief”. Would you like to repeat the experience?
–Of course, I would love to play father and daughter again in some other film and, if we ask, that they be two very powerful roles, with a good director and a good script. It would be perfect, let’s see if it happens one day.