There is something that only happens in the theater and is a phenomenon as inexplicable as love, it is the electricity that the audience generates when they leave the room after seeing something moving. That’s what happens on a Thursday night at El Picadero when it ends with a full house. “Le Frigó”the corrosive, uncomfortable and irresistible work by Copi where a woman on the brink of the abyss becomes flesh in the interpretation of Manu Fanego. An actor who doesn’t hold anything back, his thing is pure dedication. Whether in “Le Frigó”, in that smash hit that is “Dead living model” with the Bla Bla or in the documentary “I am Mika from Frankfurt!”, starring her alter ego, a trans artist protected by tenderness. Manu Fanego flows without fear of feeling in this talk with NOTICIAS.
News: How did you come across a text like “Le Frigó” in a time so different from the 80s?
Manu Fanego: At first when they offered me to do “Le Frigó” I had my doubts because I have not been a fan of Copi, there is something about his writing that shocked me. It’s crazy because when I put the body to the text I was ordered to use that rhetoric that distances me and distances me, it is so politically incorrect that it scared me because it was at the antipodes of my structures. But performing it I found a very particular enthusiasm and the projection of an author who is not so visited here in Argentina, but who needs to be more represented, especially in these times where some voices of diversity are muted or there is a desire to go back on certain rights achieved. For me it is important that voices that are not necessarily progressive can talk about the issue of identity, mental health, and loneliness.
News: Seeing you on stage, I remembered Alejandro Urdapilleta. Is there anything about your performances?
Fanego: What you say makes a lot of sense because I trained at the school of maestro Guillermo Angelelli, someone very close to that era of Parakultural and the Clown Club. For me, Batato Barea, Urdapilleta, Tortonese and Verónica Llinás embody that type of bold, overflowing, visceral performance and it is the one that suits me because for me the physical is always very available. I tell a story from there, I am not a realistic actor of Stanislavski’s method who seeks the truth on stage, but an actor who is predisposed to be as light as possible. After having passed the work through my body, I understand the lyrics more, as happened with “Le Frigó”, I understand the author better, what he means with this or that scene, it is better put together physically than from reading. I try to be as stripped of prejudices, morality and ego when it comes to going on stage. In any case, if something becomes intolerable to me because I feel it goes against my principles, I prefer not to grab it. But if I get on a project instead of judging the author, I prefer to perceive it from another place. I played it intuitively and believed I had the backbone to carry this letter. There is also a spectacular team with director Tatiana Sandoval at the helm. The work is full of talent in all areas, it is truly a group effort.
News: Speaking of groups, the success they have with Los Bla Bla and “Modelo Vivo Muerto” is something that was built around a more playful way of doing theater. You come from varieté, a genre that has a lot of that imprint, what fascinated you about that world?
Fanego: The varieté has that will that generates the lack of resources. I am fascinated by the capacity we have as a people to create theater, to build possible worlds, to express feelings and also the variety of tools that we can deploy to generate immediate contact with the public. The fourth wall is a wall that does not exist in that type of proposals, the varieté is like a kind of refuge, a cave, a nest where I was formed.
News: You say that you were trained there and it seems almost an identity issue, is that correct?
Fanego: Let’s see, I was born with the figure of my father, Daniel Fanego, who did commercial theater, television programs, he was expansive and popular. Somehow, for me, entering from the variety show meant becoming from below and hardening myself beyond the figure of my father. Variety opened up the possibility of my own path within a space and a language that my old man did not experience, I managed to really feel myself in that place. Recently we went with Bla Blá to the Podesta Coliseum and discovered the cradle of our theater, beneath the stalls there is still the circus arena, which is our national theatrical root. In the type of theater we do, the audience has another relevance, they are complicit, they choose the moment to laugh, I would say that they are almost more important than the actors. That seduces me.
News: In recent years you have also been working a lot on series and films such as “Love After Love”, “Cris Miró (She)” and “Verano Trippin”. Do you feel as comfortable in audiovisual as on stage or does theater rule?
Fanego: In my case, theater rules, it is higher in experience and transit than audiovisual. Cinema and series require another type of acting, which also amuses me a lot, I love cinema. It is a field that I am not so familiar with, but that I feel very eager to experience. I bank on the wait, the discomfort and everything that surrounds a shoot in exchange for something miraculous: that moment when the camera turns on and all the people on the set are waiting for your performance, they are waiting for your breathing. There a kind of surgical field is set up, a place where risk somehow lurks, playing within that territory that has its own rules requires care, attention and asepsis. There are resources that are useless in front of a camera, such as excessive gestures, for example. There you do have to act truthfully, understand where the character comes from, feel it alive and know where the eye that looks at you is, because behind the lens there are thousands of people who will see what you did if you are lucky.
News: In “Verano trippin” you shared a cast with your partner, the actress and producer Zoe Hochbaum. Returning to the fact that these are difficult times for diversity, certain malicious comments regarding the bond between you caught my attention. Some surprisingly came from people from the LGTBIQ community and questioned your non-binaryism. How did you live it?
Fanego: I don’t pay attention to those comments, I don’t let them grow in importance, it’s absurd that people wonder about our relationship, in fact we’ve been together for a long time. The problem is theirs if they question a bond of love. I wish they would ask themselves about the boy who is governing us and the policies he implements, if they have a little more respect for people, for humanity and for the choices that each one makes, it is enough for me.
News: A while ago you named your old man, who was and is a very loved person. You had the difficult task of thanking him for the Platinum Award he received for his role in “El Jockey” after his death. How did you navigate that moment?
Fanego: I felt like I was in a place where he had put me. As I told you, I come from a variety show, from an independent theater with the expectation of remaining economically complicated, very hard fought, you spend a lot of time doing a thousand jobs. When my old man left and I was invited to receive the Platino Award in Madrid, accompanying the entire team of “El Jockey”, with Luis Ortega and the people from Rei Cine, I felt that in some way I was there because my old man had sent me, I could almost hear him telling me: “Come on, there are cameras. People are going to know you.” My dad made those comments to me, annoying me a little because he thought I was escaping the cameras and that wasn’t the case. In reality, there were not as many opportunities as one might imagine, it is a very difficult environment, the truth is that having a surname alone does not guarantee anything, you need to work hard to make your surname worth what you yourself are. Being grateful for his award was like receiving that message, that legacy, as if my dad said: “Well, here, this is my work space. Come, I invite you to know what it’s like, to get to know you, I’ll introduce you.”
News: That sentiment was evident in your acceptance speech.
Fanego: It was a very special moment. We had recently been dating Zoe, who also traveled to the ceremony, and I was accompanied by her with a lot of love. In a way, that award began to authorize me as someone other than Fanego’s son, as the remaining Fanego, if you like. I am in line with my old man, I work in the same way, I do not deny that, nor do I avoid talking about him in the notes. It is an honor to be his son and to have had the father I had, beyond the great artist he was. I enjoyed an incredible father who gave me a lot of love, freedom, enormous confidence in me, he helped me understand that we are the creators of our own history and to believe in people.
