He Pedro Alonso The calm host on the other side of the Zoom doesn’t look like the charming villains he’s played. But suddenly he laughs and a flash of that thief with the name of a German city, brother of a professor, who robbed the Mint and Stamp Factory, appears. They say that Berlin, like Lazarus, will be resurrected once it becomes a spin off in December, but that is another story.
Now in Spain it is 8 at night and Alonso, the Galician actor who also broke it in “Gran Hotel” and “El Ministerio del Tiempo”, is still eager to chat. He is presenting “Awareness”, the adrenaline-pumping film that has just been released on Prime Video and in which he shares a cast with Carlos Scholz, his “Casa de Papel” partner María Pedraza and the great Óscar Jaenada. In this mix of science fiction, thriller and coming of age cinema with enormous action scenes, Alonso plays a father mired in the mistakes of the past. Someone very different from the relaxed guy who greets NEWS.
“Well, I’m here at home after a day of work, in the process of editing and editing a miniseries that I filmed last year. I have a few days left to finish this after three or so months of riding like crazy, so I finally see the light for a change of cycle,” he says, referring to a personal project, the docuseries that will reflect a spiritual search and his experience with ayahuasca. “But come on, let’s talk about ‘Awareness’!” she adds. He asks for it, he has it.
News: In Argentina it was always difficult to tackle science fiction audiovisual projects, both for budgetary and technical reasons. How did they manage to do something like this in Spain?
Pedro Alonso: The thing is that science fiction for us has always been a forbidden genre because it was impossible in industries like ours to dream of having everything it takes to build a parallel world. I am an actor who, when I started doing television, kicked a frame and knocked down an entire set (laughs). Later, over the years, my jaw has dropped when I arrived at some sets of productions I have worked on and I have said: “Wow, how crazy!” In recent times, a door has been opened in Spain to be able to compete in areas that were previously exclusively capitalized by Anglo-Saxons., I’m still getting used to it, when I saw the final result I was amazed. In terms of art direction it is very striking, it is very well done, but there has been a paradox…
News: Which was?
Alonzo: That while all those people were kicking in a science fiction movie, I was in a traditional movie (laughs). I am in another register, involved in a toxic plot with my son and playing a character that inhabits his own world. I have this ambivalent situation of surprise that we can start competing in any genre and place, but then I wanted to do a science fiction one in my life and I was given this very particular version…
News: Maybe the superpower of Vicente, his character, is love. A half-twisted but very human father-son love, how did you work on that?
Alonzo: Completely. At first, several roles were considered and at a certain point the director, Dani Belmayor, told me: “Pedro, play the father.” At first he had not taken it into consideration and then it seemed like a very interesting proposal to me. I am not an actor who is obsessed with doing something different every time, I am interested in finding reasons to get involved in a project and put myself into it with all my heart and all my soul. But at that moment I thought, he is a character with a very different tone from the ones I have been doing.
News: In the movie there is a phrase that says: “The best fish are for those who keep hope.” How do you maintain the actor’s hope with the instability and competition that the profession has?
Alonso: Today I had a talk with a fellow actress who is in a delicate moment and many times our expectations are our main enemy. You imagine what you would like to happen to you and it prevents you from seeing what is really happening to you. Life teaches you that continuing and growing in your profession is almost a miracle, but I think more and more about the best way to take advantage of every moment of what you have. It involves understanding the point of view that allows you to extract value from what happens to you, even if it is not always good. Management capacity, from my point of view, can make you value the meaning of each segment of your career.
News: And what about the pursuit of success? It is something that everyone pursues, but it keeps many people awake.
Alonzo: It is not easy to try to find meaning in each stage, even the most difficult ones, because you do not always have the same confidence or are equally focused, but I think success is a very treacherous image. Success for me is not that a series of things happen to you and that people recognize you, but that you are in your place and know how to value the life and professional path you follow. It is the art to be able to see the pearl of each moment, that is learned little by little.
News: In Argentina the Galician community is very numerous and loved, we affectionately call all Spaniards Galicians. You have worked with Argentine actors, did they tell you anything about that? He performed with Chino Darín, Ernesto Alterio…
Alonzo: And with my brother, Rodrigo de la Serna! I know very well the love for the Galician community there, my father is a migrant and we all have stories to tell around your country. Since I was in Dramatic Arts I admired Argentine actors, they were impressive names like Héctor Alterio, for example, always surrounded by an aura of prestige associated with the Argentine school of theater, a kind of endorsement that they all brought. Powerful preparation, ultra-charismatic personalities, with many resources, something that sometimes also happens with British actors, fly at a different speed. I have always liked that respect for the theatrical culture of Argentine actors, which implied a background and a type of tools that turned them into very solvent performers.
News: Were you here?
Alonzo: In recent years I have traveled not only to Argentina but also to different places in Latin America. There is a link with language, the sensation of feeling that you are in a similar space, but not exactly the same that is an opportunity for wealth. And then, the last trip with Rodrigo de la Serna, someone I adore, an enormous talent.
News: In “Awareness” there is a power that allows you to enter the memory of another. If you could use it for yourself, what souvenir would you choose?
Alonzo: The moment has come for me when I felt the vocation. I have a very good idea of the exact moment in which the flash of light hit me, I fell off the horse and had the revelation (laughs). I was almost 16 years old, I had done a little theater in high school and then I acted in a small performance that was the adaptation of a story by a Galician author, my role was that of a scarecrow and I remember that I entered another space. It was a great shock, something was generated and when I left there I said, I don’t know what it’s going to be like, maybe it’s impossible, but this is my thing! After having gone around many times and gotten lost countless times, in recent years my journey is to recover that type of connection.
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