The premiere of “The whisper” has excited Luciano Caceres. Destined as a cult phenomenon among followers of horror made in Spanish, the story directed by the Uruguayan Gustavo Hernández wisely explores the mysterious nature of the interpreter, apparently inaccessible and a cultivator of well-guarded privacy.
The Cáceres meeting with NOTICIAS takes place in the famous Metrovisión building, a meeting place for those who carry out cinematographic work in our country.
News: You continued doing the play “Muerde” with great success and now you are releasing the movie “El susurro” in which you play a vampire. What reflection does this curious coincidence deserve for you?
Luciano Caceres: That he plays a vampire and that the one-man show is called “Muerde” is a simple coincidence, because vampires bite, but that’s where the commonalities end. “Muerde” is about an abandoned boy who grew up alone, like a bad dog, in a coffin carpentry shop in a town in northern Argentina. In “The Whisper” I have to embody this vampire father, addressing the question of continuity, of a legacy that you cannot escape because it is linked to your identity, to who you are.
News: What captured you about this film?
Caceres: I already had a link with Fernando Díaz, the producer of “El susurro”, I have known him for thirty years, what an outrage! (laughs) The incredible thing is that we had never worked together. When he called me, I was touring the United States with “Muerde” and he told me: “There is a movie in Uruguay and with a role that is just for you.” I read the script and I loved it. I had to record a self-casting in my hotel room in Los Angeles, I sent it, it liked it, and that’s where this madness began. I love genre films, since I was a teenager I have liked horror. And, particularly, “The Whisper” has an interesting twist, which is the linking theme, without leaving aside all the clichés of the genre, because it scares you, there is a mystery, there is blood, but it is also exciting, and my character is a vampire different from the ones usually shown, although it sounds crazy, I would tell you that he is very human.
News: You have been working in genre cinema for a long time. Do you feel that after what happened with “When evil stalks” and its triumph at the Sitges Festival, there was a before and after in Argentine horror?
Caceres: And if. This is a movement that has been brewing for a long time with festivals like Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre, I was lucky enough to work with cult directors like Daniel de la Vega or to have made “El desarmadero”, a very genre and self-managed film by Eduardo Pinto, which brought me ten international awards as an actor. With de la Vega I made “Punto neutral”, a beautiful tribute to the genre, my partner was Osmar Núñez and together we won the award for best actor at the BARS, it was a really nice experience. I think we were finding an Argentine terror, when we want to copy models from other places things don’t work out, that’s why films with their own identity are the ones that tour festivals and gain an audience that continues consuming genre films in theaters. That flow of people who bet on experience must be defended, horror films are the genre par excellence in that sense, something physical happens to you in the room, the scare and emotion catch you in a different way.
News: You are a very theater actor, but at one point in your life you entered the audiovisual field. What was that transition from the stage to the cameras like?
Caceres: It was very funny because by training I must have made about a hundred short films from the FUC and the Pan American School of Art, do you remember? (laughs). I wanted to have my first practices in front of the camera and the students to become trained as directors, imagine the amount of things I did until I reached my first film, which was “Love, Part One”! Its four directors today are all established names: Santiago Mitre, Alejandro Fadel, Martín Mauregui and Juan Schnitman, coordinated by Mariano Llinás, it was a great start for everyone, from that film a very powerful world with cinema opened up to me. I’m not going to deny you something that the first times I was on a shoot they told me: “Luciano, you have a microphone, you don’t need to project your voice because we are not in the Martín Coronado room” (laughs).
News: The theater appeared even if you didn’t call it…
Caceres: I’m a theater fan all my life! At that time he was doing “Death of a Salesman” with Alfredo Alcón, Diego Peretti and María Onetto, but at the same time he was working on “Ugly Duckling.” They told me: “What are you doing working with Alcón and recording ‘Patito Feo’?” I was just learning, it was like that for two years. In the theater I played one of Alfredo’s sons and on TV I had a character with two or three scenes per episode, there I learned to work with the camera, to be an accomplice of the focus, the lights, the sound. That training of practicing the trade every day and resolving in the moment teaches you a lot. In the theater you also have to train yourself from the base, I started with Alejandra Boero in the room that later became Andamio 90, not only did I work in the plays that were done there, I was also an usher and ticket taker. Alejandra didn’t just teach you theatrical genres, she gave you a broom, a hammer, a saw and a paintbrush. I acquired the acting tools, but above all those of self-management; Thanks to that I managed to set up my own theater at 19 and start directing my plays.
News: Knowing the job of directing from such a young age, what are you like when the director is someone else? Do you give in or do you see all the threads?
Caceres: I am once again obedient. There is a fundamental word that is “willing”, it is necessary to be available for the task, theater is a team effort and you have to give yourself… although I do not deny that I am an actor who even proposes things regarding costumes or characterization, whoever calls me knows that I am not a puppet and that dialogue between all of us who do a play is always good.
News: You mentioned Alajandra Boero and Alfredo Alcón. Apart from them, who do you consider your teachers?
Caceres: To many, I worked with formidable people. I have to name Leonor Manso, I was lucky enough to direct her in four shows and they were very happy experiences, I have trained with Javier Daulte, with Rubén Szuchmacher… There are so many teachers! And I am also very grateful to all my colleagues, I have learned from each one of them. Something special happens with the young people, the new ones, they rekindle the flame of this profession in me, living with that desire of the first times allows you to understand that it is an enormous privilege to work in what you always wanted. Because I never thought I would make a living from this…
News: Not even when you dreamed of acting?
Caceres: Look, the first time I fantasized about being an actor was when my old man made me see Vittorio Gassman, something was awakened there because cinema is magical, theater manages immediacy and surprise, but cinema creates an illusion. My father was also an actor, but he could not dedicate himself fully to this because making a living from the profession is difficult. It was only in 2020, when I filmed a film in Rome, that I realized that I dreamed of being an actor like Gassman at the age of five and I am fulfilling that dream.
News: One of the first times I remember seeing you star in the movies was in a movie called “Garúa.” We’re not going to say how much time has passed since that, but how do you remember her?
Caceres: (Laughs) Imagine that it was my second leading role and it took me for the first time to a film festival, none other than the Shanghai one. That film had the peculiarity that it was all made on film, but with a low budget, so most of the shots were unique. The director, Gustavo Corrado, had accounted for the footage he had; You couldn’t screw up. If he had twenty seconds left, he saved that piece of film to later make detailed shots. Everything was so handmade that it was exciting, it was a great trip for me. I learned something important from Gustavo, he told me: “For me you are already the character because of your physique, your face and your voice, but there are three scenes that no matter how much I frame you well, photograph you fantastically and play you a nice little incidental music, it is not enough. In these three scenes I need your actor.” That made me aware of the job and recognize that in my work there are moments where cinematography is not always enough, it is essential to understand when it is essential to appeal to your actor, to give everything you have.
News: We talked about “Garúa”, when you filmed it you were very young, but they say that tango awaits you, is that true?
Caceres: Completely! Look, since I travel a lot, every time I hear a tango while abroad I feel it inside me, it also happens to me with folklore and with some of our voices that move me. My old man was a re tanguero. I keep his image dancing with my mother in my head, it is indelible.
