Silvia Kutika He is one of those people who smiles with his eyes. He speaks softly but forcefully. Although she swears that she does not have self-confidence, she had the courage to let herself go through life, and in that process, to be who she is: at 17, she wanted to study Biology but ended up listening to her father, she posed for a photographer, they made her the first Miss 7 Días princess and soon after she arrived in “Calabromas” and filmed with Renán. The rest is known history.
On tour through different cities in Argentina with “At the end of the day it is my life” and preparing “Veronica’s room” for the season in Carlos Paz, he describes that every time he goes on stage it is like magic, a ritual in which energy comes and goes. “What happens to me on stage? It’s a loving sensation, it’s feeding the soul. If I can awaken a smile, if I can light someone’s gaze, it’s already wonderful. It’s worth it.”
News: Could we say that in some way “It’s My Life” talks about taking charge?
Silvia Kutika: Yes, from a character who asks that his right to decide about his body, about his life, about his death be respected. She is living a moment that she feels is not a worthy life.
News: That word seems key, right?
Kutika: Of course, she is a sculptor who has been absolutely free, imaginative, fantastical and at this moment her body does not respond to her. Her head also becomes her enemy, because that imagination that she lets fly all the time, at some point has to be captured and that is where she collides, where she has that wall, that impossibility.
News: What about viewers who went through something similar with someone they love?
Kutika: They even approach me as if apologizing, I have the feeling, as if with some sense of guilt. I hope that after seeing the work, they leave lighter. Because I believe that making a decision like that involves an act of love. One puts aside the selfishness of having that loved person at any cost. I experienced a very similar situation with my mother.
News: How was it?
Kutika: She told my brother and me all her life that she didn’t want to be a burden, that when there is nothing more to do, there is nothing more to do; ready, smooth. And at 84, he was diagnosed with rampant leukemia. They told us that she didn’t have more than three months to live and they asked us if we wanted to leave her hospitalized or take her home and we decided to bring her home. I think it was the best decision. Although one says “I would like more things done to him”, because it also occurred to me that it couldn’t be, that it was all a bad joke…
News: Denial appears because that is the point: how do you know that there is nothing else to do?
Kutika: Of course, that “there’s nothing else to do”… He died at home, a month later. I woke up and told Pipo (Luis Luque): “Mom died,” and I ran downstairs and she was dead. And (with the work) that happens, people come to you with that “I must have done well, instead of trying more things.” But I felt that she had left peacefully, in a loving way, surrounded by all her affections. I think it’s the best way.
News: A few days ago Uruguay sanctioned the Dignified Death law. How does it impact you? Have people who work for the cause in Argentina contacted you?
Kutika: I know that Mirta Wons’ father (part of the cast) was a doctor who worked a lot on dignified death and then he had to be an oncology patient. The issue is that you do not continue doing invasive treatments to prolong something that has already been decided. Then they called us to take the work to Uruguay.
News: From the law?
Kutika: Yes, based on the law. And we really want to. The issue is how it is implemented because carrying out the work is not that simple, we are a lot of actors. But we would love to.
News: At some point in his career he wanted to open himself up to other characters and challenges. Kutika: Yes, it’s great. I asked the universe so much, or I don’t know if it’s asking the universe or saying “I can’t wait to change course a little, I can’t wait.” Because I was pigeonholed a lot into certain roles. They told me that they chose me for good characters and at one point I wanted to do something else, because there are characters that are wonderful to investigate, to grow because I felt that I was limiting myself and I was staying there in a place that I didn’t want to be.
News: Still.
Kutika: Motionless, look!
News: That’s the topic, right? By staying fixed in one place, life stops.
Kutika: Of course, even if it scares us, even if we are not very comfortable. So I wanted them to propose things to me that I wasn’t comfortable with, that I didn’t know how to solve, which I think is fantastic, how to delve into those lights and shadows, those darknesses that are in a character.
News: It seems like she got carried away but she says she lacks self-confidence. How did he do it then, what did he hold on to?
Kutika: The thing is, I am a person who can be full of doubts and fears and yet I keep going, nothing stops me, nothing stops me. Faced with challenges, I go. The performance was a challenge, something that I had not thought about and I said: “Let’s see what this is about. If life puts this in place, it will be because I have to continue here, react to this and get stronger as well.” Given the lack of confidence, the shyness, the fears, I kept going, I said “this is not going to defeat me. I’m going to overcome it and I’m going to see what’s next on this path.”
News: In other words, search and exploration prevailed over lack of self-confidence and shyness.
Kutika: Yes, it is stronger than all that. It was also a bit of education. In my house they were very demanding with us. It was this thing about doing with excellence, you couldn’t have a 7, you had to have a 9.80 or a 10.
News: Do you still feel like you have that chip in or were you able to remove it?
Kutika: I still have it, it’s there, it’s never enough, it’s never enough.
News: It could have happened that all this demand would have led her to be harder and more rigid and, yet, it seemed that she was very plastic. In fact, the plastic arts are one of their arts!
Kutika: Of course, I paint and I make sculpture, and there you can see that it is difficult, because they are not very bright things. I think that’s where I leave the real Silvia, with those darknesses that appear, those brushstrokes that are a little hard. I have to get it out somewhere. I was also always very respectful: if I have darkness, I can bring it out through fiction, not bring it to real life, it’s like I need to get it out somewhere where it won’t hurt anyone.
News: Along the same lines, he shares positive, constructive and empathetic messages on his social networks, such as “Where you are today is where you need to be, trust, all places are part of the journey.”
Kutika: Yes, I think we are so hard, so unempathetic, so selfish, that I love to try to leave something bright, something that helps.
News: He’s 69, can you believe it?
Kutika: Now that I have sciatica, yes (laughs). The same thing happened to me with my mother. I listened to her and said what a genius, because she said “somewhere on my body it shows, but in my heart I am 30.” You saw it, and the spirit! There are people who are young and have an old spirit, who are unbelieving, who have a look that is not luminous.
News: What are your tools to renew enthusiasm and confidence in life?
Kutika: And, it’s Pipo, it’s the family, now we have a beautiful grandson named Faustino and in November another one is on the way, Oliverio. It’s a way of renewing oneself because I see Faustino and it’s like love, I don’t know, it’s seeing him repeat those things that Santi (his son) has done, seeing my son as a father… Then I’m very restless, I’m trusting a lot in the universe, that characters come along that are very beautiful, that also leads me to consider the game. It seems to me that we never have to lose playing. Even though we are 104 and have all the problems because it’s not that I don’t have problems.
News: Being with Luis Luque for 35 years, is it the product of something constructed or of destiny?
Kutika: I think there is a lot of affinity, something of a soul mate, but I don’t think it’s just that but there is a construction, there is a choosing each other day by day. There are things about Pipo that I don’t completely agree with or things about me that aren’t so good for him, and yet, we are reaching the balance of saying “well, I don’t like this, but there are 90% of things that we really share and commune with.” And that makes me choose him day after day, I really love his sense of humor, his codes, his values. We were looking for each other for a long time and we found each other at the right time. We had met 8 or 10 years before.
News: That phrase returns again: “where you are today is where you need to be.”
Kutika: Yes, if we had insisted at that moment, I am sure that we would not have gotten to this point, it was not the time, we had to wait.
