With 100,000 spectators in its first 100 performances, “Tootsie, the comedy” It is one of the most outstanding works on the Buenos Aires theater billboard since its debut last March, at the Lola Membrives. Over there, Juliet Nair Bald plays Julia, a recreation of July, the young actress who won Jessica Lange her first Oscar for her work in “Tootsie”, the film where Dustin Hoffman played an unemployed actor who disguises himself as a woman to get a role in a soap opera. Characters that Nicolás Vázquez stars here, with the names of Santi —surely, a tribute to his brother Santiago, who died in 2016— and Dorita.
In the midst of this theatrical success, Nair Calvo takes time to talk with NEWS about his acting present, his rising career from a very young age, his role as the first-time mother of little Valentino —product of his relationship with the gastronomic businessman Andrés Rolando— and the viewers who made “Tootsie…” a true public success.
Juliet Nair Calvo: What happens in “Tootsie…” with the public is very special, and particularly with Nico’s followers, who have been with him for years, because he generates that trust. The public is a spectacle in itself; you saw it personally.
News: Yes. In the scene where Julia confesses to Dorita what she feels for her, and where Santi, aware of the deception, does not dare to move forward, a spectator yelled at her: “Go ahead!”
Nair Bald: I remember perfectly! The performances of “Tootsie…” are like a recital. People get so involved in the story —especially in the love story— that sometimes we hear them say: “Uhhh!”, “Ohhh!”. In another performance, a man shouted: “‘Hold on the theater!”; and Nico, who always speaks to the public at the end, asked him what he did, to which the man replied: “I’m a truck driver, but I study theater”, and he began to cry. And I broke with him, because this connection with the public is a blessing. I did not experience something like this in other works that I participated in.
News: What does “Tootsie…” mean in your career? There is a before and after?
Nair Bald: Definitely. Although I would tell you that this began shortly after I was a mother, with the two jobs I did after having Valentino, which were transformative. First, acting —nothing more and nothing less— with Susana Giménez, in “Skin of Judas”, In uruguay. Which was quite a move, because Valentino was only three months old, but I sent myself and it turned out wonderful. And attached to that, the proposal for “Tootsie…”, which is much more than I imagined. I knew it was going to be something big, from what Nico told me, because of the movie, because of the play on Broadway, but it exceeded all my expectations.
News: More than with a loaf under his arm, Valentino came with a whole bakery, one could say.
Nair Bald: Yes! With a whole bakery (he laughs). In addition to all this with work, I am absolutely drooling with my son.
News: On Instagram he showed him playing the piano. Will artist come out?
Nair Bald: Dresses!? He loves musical instruments. I almost didn’t play the piano, it was just him. He’s so little that he can’t see the keys yet, but he holds his hands in a way that makes me wonder, “How is that possible?” Rolo, the father, carries me, because I hallucinate that in a past life he was a pianist (he laughs).
News: In creating your Julia, were you inspired more by Jessica Lange’s July or the one from the Broadway musical?
Nair Bald: In Jessica Lange’s, but just to see where it would go, because the idea was to find my own Julia, which I continue to discover role by role. Besides, Mariano Demaría, the director, told us: “Our essence must be the film.” This is not the Broadway musical, but a comedy with musical overtones.
News: You worked a lot for guys. What is it like acting for an audience like “Piel de Judas” and “Tootsie…”?
Nair Bald: For me, that is something very beautiful and important. Although I would tell you that it started with “Showmatch – La Academia”, my previous work, where many people saw me who perhaps did not know me or who had only seen me in a soap opera or who did not know that I danced and sang, because they had not seen me in theater. People associated: “Ahhh, is that the Disney one?” When leaving the theater they usually tell me: “I didn’t know you sang like that” or “You made me emotional, I had never seen you in a role like that”.
News: At her farewell to “La Academia”, where she announced her pregnancy, she said that sometimes she had put things off for love of her work. Which is it?
Nair Bald: It’s that I’ve been working since I was four years old, when I started doing advertising, and to train myself, I had to take many classes. Sometimes at night; and since I lived in Quilmes until I was 19, my dad had to pick me up at midnight; and the next day, at 6:30, she was already awake to go to school. He was sacrificed, but I don’t regret it, because thanks to all that and the support of my parents, I am who I am today.
News: What things did you give up in childhood and adolescence?
Nair Bald: Not many either. I almost missed a graduate trip to Puerto Madryn because I was recording “Generation Pop” with Reina Reech, but in the end I managed to go on another bus with my mom and thus share part of those days with my colleagues. Obviously, I also went out with my friends, I went dancing, but since I always liked studying, even for school, I also had fun going, for example, to the library, because at that time there was no internet. Besides, for me, acting was always like a game. As a child, I watched a lot of children’s novels, children’s movies; and rewinding, he memorized the texts and repeated them. My mom took me to a casting for the first time because one day she discovered me interpreting a monologue of the “bad” Snow White in front of the bathroom mirror. My work is my passion and it always came first.
News: When you were offered to do theater with such a young son, did you have a dilemma between motherhood and work?
Nair Calvo: I talked about it a lot in therapy, because at first the idea of going away at night weighed on me, just when it was time to bathe or put him to sleep. But I no longer feel guiltybecause not only do I have a spectacular partner, who is also a great father, but with my mother-in-law, my mother and the nanny we put together a whole network of support and Valentino is a very happy boy.
News: “Las Estrellas”, a strip in which you starred as a young woman who fell in love with another young woman, did it mark the end of your childhood stage?
Nair Bald: No. For me, nothing has an end. Tomorrow I can go back to doing something childish, because I loved doing it. Working for the kids, without underestimating them, is so nice… Next to the “Tootsie…” audience, the Disney audience is the most wonderful one I’ve worked for.
News: You have a very particular connection with children, don’t you?
Nair Bald: Without a doubt, and now, with Valentino, things happen to me that I never imagined. I put the videos that he made for Disney, he stares at them and says: “Mom!” He recognizes me! In a song that talks about a lion, he puts his hands up like claws and says “Grrr!” to me. Now I understand the love that the parents of those children who went to the theater showed us: their children were discovering the world, thanks to a group of children who showed them the animals, the colors, through songs. Today I live that same emotion and it is moving.
News: What teachers marked your career?
Nair Bald: I didn’t have a teacher for many years, like other actors, I went through as many as I could. Although I did the Julio Bocca school in musical comedy for four years, where I had many teachers; and as a girl I studied several years with Deborah Warren, whom I can consider a reference. I also worked with Deborah in an independent theater company that she owned and I did my first voice-over play, which we all wrote. There I learned to make our costumes, set design, to get advertisers for the hand program, to fly. All of this was very important, because later you see each of those things with different eyes, you learn to value them.
News: Reina Reech and Cris Morena were also important in her career. What did he learn from them?
Nair Calvo: Without a doubt, discipline, to be professional. With both I learned that nothing is done at random, that everything has a reason, that within the freedom that art gives, there is a structure to follow.how to meet the schedules and know the lyrics.
News: Susana announced that she will do “Piel de Judas” again. Is she going to be her?
Nair Bald: I would love to, but I can’t, because it coincides with “Tootsie…”. Although I admit that it makes me a little jealous (he laughs).
News: Any new challenge in sight?
Nair Bald: Not in sight, but I would like to work in a movie. As a girl, I participated in “Un Argentino en New York”, then I did dubbing and I was about to act with Guillermo Francella in “Animal” —I couldn’t because I was just filming “Las Estrellas”—, but it’s going to happen.
News: Something dramatic?
Nair Bald: I love the genre. In “El Lobbista”, a miniseries directed by Daniel Barone and with great actors, I played something with that and it was amazing.
by Sergio Nunez
