jorge suarez he arrives as perfumed as he is disturbed, as impeccable as he is overwhelmed, with open arms and shaking his head from side to side. He feels missing, he doesn’t know how to apologize. He can’t understand how he could forget about the note, how, if nothing like this ever happened to him. Host at last, he looks for a quiet corner inside the Picadero theater, from which he is saying goodbye to Buenos Aires with “Lapland” because on December 30 the play will have opened its season at the Bristol Theater in Mar del Plata.
He asks for forgiveness again and tells that just a few days ago another unprecedented thing happened to him in his 43-year career: he stained the clothes of the character he composes in the series he is recording. Signs of the stress of the last few months in which he filmed a movie (still without a definitive name, together with Peretti and Rafa Ferro, directed by Hernán Guerschuny), the miniseries “Espartanos” and did theater. “Lapland”, he says, is a good synthesis of what theater is, a simple but profound work that amuses, excites and makes you think. And shortly after starting the interview, he talks about his children.
If there is something that seems to constitute this perfumed and impeccable gentleman, who has left the overflow behind and plunges headlong into conversation, it is devotion to his family: Agustín (30), Violeta (21) and his wife, Laura ” China” Singh. He talks about the way in which his children reacted to what the work raises —without spoiling, the poster has a Santa Claus hat—: “I remember that it was quite a challenge. I explained to them that illusion was also taught to me, that where does one learn to be excited, from something that he breathed in at some point in his life, that he learned from someone he loves, ”he says.
News: In the work, truth and illusion are played. At 59 years old, where does the illusion go?
Jorge Suarez: It may seem pretentious, but honestly, due to the fact of trying to live each day to the full, with serenity, in peace. I would like to be able to live these years that remain full, giving my best on stage and giving peace to my family and that we are energetically well, that we are not afraid. People develop many disorders out of fear. We live in a somewhat turbulent country, so it’s very difficult. I’m not afraid of the news because some tell you one thing, others another. One has the lucidity and is informed enough to understand that everyone goes to one side, and that there are conveniences and negotiations, and that politics is dirty. I said it all my life. But at this time, where serenity, peace and the stomach, the nutrition of children, education, the health of the people are at stake, the mess that is being made is so big that I don’t know if the politicians can realize and we have to try to get positive and think forward that we are going to try, we have to keep trying.
News: Despite the fact that it is an adaptation of a Catalan book, “Lapland” is very “argenta”.
Suarez: Yes, my character is the voice from outside (he is a foreigner), and for me, who is so Argentine and I love my country so much, at first it was very difficult for me to think that I had to do comedy with that. Later I realized that I was very happy because I was contributing to a global thought that had to do with people being able to see that culture shock and think to what extent we are as bad as one imagines, so wrong. I think that Argentines are beautiful people. I feel that sometimes the lack of education makes these directions a little wrong and there is too much fanaticism. Fanaticism is something that does the most damage. Things are very difficult, in the world in general.
News: There are no shelters, it’s hugging those who are close.
Suarez: Exact. We have a very loving family.
News: He had the great fortune to build a powerful base with Laura, his wife.
Suarez: Yes, I believe that the search for peace, harmony, affection begins there, being able to get to know each other a little more each day, believing in some systems that can help us, such as psychoanalysis or other therapies, something that makes us find with own axis. And we are a family that talks about those things, about what happens to us, about what we feel. We discovered that talking about what hurts you helps it hurt a little less and knowing that there are people who love you and who are with you and will always be.. Of course we also had and have conflicts, coexistence is an extraordinary tool and also something very dangerous for a bond. I do not believe in seamless links, without imbalances.
News: We started this meeting with a “fissure” like oblivion. Do you allow cracks in yourself?
Suarez: It is very difficult for me to fail, that may be the reason why I do it sincerely. I mean, if I’m going to fail, I’m going to fail but with my heart set.
News: Always with my heart set!
Suarez: Always, with three bypasses! (laughs). It’s just that it comes out of my pores, you see the play and I enjoy it like crazy. Of course I have technique, that I developed a trade, I have been doing it for 43 years. But I go to the dressing room and I know when he was very good and when there is something that did not go as I would have liked. I spend my time teaching my loves and my students that the secret of learning is in the mistake, if you don’t make a mistake, you are not risking anything and you can’t learn from what you don’t risk. But if you ask me on a personal level, I think I put so much emphasis on that because I myself am the one who has to learn to be wrong, because when I’m wrong, I go through states that I can’t explain to you.
News: In “Lapland” there are two parenting systems: in each of them there are fissures and confrontation with one’s own beliefs appears. Has raising your children confronted you a lot with yourself?
Suarez: Yes of course. It happened to me with Agustín when he left home, before his 22nd birthday. It took me six months to accept it. I felt that he had failed. It was: “How can it occur to him, if he lives in a house that lacks nothing, where everything is done thinking of him and all of us, what a need to leave!” I almost didn’t want to know the place. It cost me a lot because I took it personally. He said: “What a rebel to the fart!”. Today I see him, that he went to Europe, that he decided to return, that he learned many things, I say: “This boy is wonderful: he learned to do what he wanted without disrespecting anyone!”, he just does what that he wants because he is already an other, I raised an other (he smiles). But that one understands after the pain. At that moment, the traffic lights stopped me and I started crying. Everything lives very deep, like an ocean.
News: What things did you do by imposition?
Suarez: Nothing, I do nothing because they tell me to. I am rebellious.
News: So that was it: his son was taking his place!
Suarez: Obviously (laughs), I’m the rebel, I don’t like being told what to do, never. Except the manager. With the director I am obedient, because I learned from my teachers that without direction, one always ends up doing the same thing.
News: Are you surprised at yourself?
Suarez: (answers immediately) No. I am more surprised by the reaction from outside, I am very surprised that they give me another ACE every time. The last thing I would have imagined in November is that they were going to give me the award (for Best Actor in a Comedy).
News: Why?
Suarez: Because they already gave it to me, and because there were 6 ternados. I honestly did not expect it. So I go upstairs to meet him and forget everything I want to say. It surprises me because I do what I like the most in the world there.
News: In past notes he talked about flying up the stage. How is that flight achieved?
Suarez: With the commitment. Sometimes for some reason, for some reason, because it did not arrive, it could not be delivered… it is very difficult to explain but a performance can be a great performance, with physical dedication and energy, but there may be something of the soul that one is not delivering , which is being saved, and the idea is to surrender.
News: Therein lies the significance.
Suarez: Absolutely, something that justifies someone sitting there looking at what you are willing to give them. The difference is when one truly manages to surrender and the spectator sees how you fall into the void, he is witnessing that your soul is floating there. One surrenders because what he gets in exchange is immense, it’s magical, it’s giving your soul the chance to fly and fly over, and to plan for a while. Because ultimately we are trying to justify this step, one already knows that we are born to finally leave and is trying to avoid it; Life has a time, it has a limit and it seems to me that this plays a lot in my dedication: knowing that I am giving myself up today and that in 30 years no one is going to find out that I gave myself up (she laughs). I give myself because I like it.
