Out of fear, actor Juan Diego Botto moved 14 times with his mother and sister before arriving in Spain, fleeing the Argentine dictatorship that had made Diego, his father, disappear. The awareness of being an exile began early, at the age of four, surrounded by children who laughed at his accent and who on weekends went to see some grandparents who were very far away for him, "14,000 kilometers away." The success of
Una noche sin luna
, where he plays another disappeared person, Federico García Lorca, has led him to extend the theater tour for almost two more years in Spain, Argentina, Chile and Mexico. At the age of 46, he is about to start filming his first film as a director, a drama about the consequences of the economic crisis, with Penélope Cruz, Luis Tosar and Adelfa Calvo.
Question.
The deputy of Vox Mireia Borrás recently said in Congress that Lorca would vote for his party today "because he loved Spain."
Do you think the poet would support Santiago Abascal's program?
Answer.
It is true that Lorca loved Spain.
He signed a manifesto supporting the Popular Front, that was his political option.
He would never vote for Vox, a party heir to those who assassinated him.
It is like saying in 70 years that the victims of ETA will vote for a party heir to ETA.
The victims and the executioners cannot be vindicated at the same time.
Q.
And you, do you love Spain?
Tell me one day that you were proud to live in this country and another that you were ashamed.
R.
I have a feeling of belonging to this place that welcomed me. That is not political, it is affective. It is expressed in the fervor for Iniesta's goal, in the melancholy with which you miss your neighborhood when you are away, in the affection with which a paso doble enters you that you feel like a hymn, a vital hymn. Being a patriot has to do with content, not the continent. For me, a patriot is one who cares about the people who inhabit a place, that they have the best possible education and health, and not about the liturgy of a flag. You are no longer a patriot for hoisting certain symbols. That you like bulls makes you more Spanish than if you like Alberti's poetry? One reason for shame is the price of electricity, which the different governments have not been able to regulate. One of pride, the citizen response to a reason for shame:the Iraq war.
Q.
You and your mother [actress Cristina Rota] testified in the Argentine macrocause against those responsible for the death flights, including the executioners of your father. Why do you think that in Spain, where most of the executioners have died and more time has passed, there is such strong opposition to historical memory?
R.
For the time.
In Argentina, 1976-1982 is a sufficient period to commit atrocities, but the outrages are very fresh and there was no time for fear to pass from one generation to another.
In Spain the will to exterminate left a terrifying fear.
The dictatorship lasted 40 years and his story is alive in many levels of the State.
Establishing a culture of human rights is more difficult in Spain for that.
The substratum of our democracy is what in Argentina is called the theory of the two demons: both were bad.
That in Argentina is exceeded.
In Germany it was never raised.
Spanish cinema paid the hatred of many sectors for the no to war
Q.
Several academics argue that the Goya's no to the Iraq war did a lot of damage to the box office.
Juan Luis Iborra, who directed the gala on several occasions, assured that he had not only faced the PP, but also spectators who felt annoyed.
Has your ideology and political commitment harmed you in your artistic career?
R.
Obviously, the cinema paid for the hatred and rudeness of many sectors that did not forgive him for taking a position against that war.
One assumes that there are producers who will think that it is better to hire an actor who does not get into trouble in the promotional interviews saying according to what things and that he likes viewers from the left and right, but I cannot complain.
Q.
Have you ever suffered that anguish of waiting?
Did the phone stop ringing?
R.
That always accompanies you.
And there have been streaks of a year without work that you think no one is going to call anymore.
Q.
What films would you prescribe to those who boast of not seeing Spanish cinema because they say that it only talks about the Civil War?
R.
Spanish cinema is delicious.
Late for anger,
The orphanage
,
27 hours,
The Holy Innocents
,
Tasio
,
Family,
Return
,
8 Basque surnames
... That to begin with.
P.
You have been nominated for the Goya six times.
The speech will have it rehearsed, right?
A.
Yes. Once we met at the [bar] Tony II Carlos Bardem, Eduard Fernández and I after the Goya.
We were nominated, but we did not take any of them and at four in the morning we decided to say out loud the speech we had prepared.
Q.
How was the experience in Hollywood with
The Suicide Squad
?
R.
Very funny.
I had never participated in a project of so much money.
Each day of filming was like entering Disneyland, a journey of illusion and fantasy.
The budget for the film is almost two-thirds of the total budget of the Ministry of Culture of Spain.
I went into a studio where there was a beach and a real helicopter hanging from the ceiling.
I've never seen anything like it.
Q.
Did you turn down many Hollywood proposals before this one?
A.
Some.
For what I have lost more jobs has been for the theater, because when I do theater it is about something that I have written, I spend years with a show, the commitment is long.
I have said no to a Hollywood movie for going to a town in Murcia and other times I have said no because I did not see it clearly.
In this case he was a small but very funny character, with James Gunn as director, who I really like.
Almost all my scenes were with Margot Robbie and it was also going to coincide with Idris Elba.
It was all in favor.
Q.
His first filming as a director begins in October, but he has been with the project for seven years.
Why so much?
How much does it cost to build a film?
R.
What my movie costs is what they spend in
The Suicide Squad
on shoes, but it is money.
Funding sources are limited and there are certain projects that cost more than others.
With the arrival of platforms, a lot of work has been generated and that is very good, but what is suffering the most is auteur cinema, the average film, which is neither a
thriller
nor a comedy.
That is the hardest thing to lift.
The script has gone through many production companies, televisions and networks that did not see the project.
I had to knock on many doors until TVE said yes.
P.
Which director do you want?
R.
I would love to work with Fernando León de Aranoa, with Almodóvar, the Dardennes, Farhadi ... and I have blown away with the latest Leos Carax film.
Q.
What is the movie you have seen the most times?
R
.
The Godfather
.
Any of the three.
I think it's the closest thing to Shakespeare on film.
Colleagues by profession have had to approach food banks because they lost their jobs
Q. He
was one of those who believed that we would emerge better from the pandemic.
And good?
R.
I thought that the pandemic was going to put the value of the public, the common, at the center. That we were going to give importance to jobs that we had always despised and that were the ones that saved us: the replenishers, the cashiers, cleaners ... I thought that the feeling of community would be strengthened, that we would be aware of the relevance of investing in what health personnel have good salaries and conditions. But it has not been like that and I do not know why. Madrid has been an example that you can go over that and win. In the debate of the collective versus the individual, the individual has won. I thought that the pandemic would teach us that if we do not protect the weakest link, we do not protect the strongest, but we have all emerged weakened. Personally, the pandemic has not been particularly traumatic because I was able to learn, write,fine-tune the script for the play ... but colleagues have had to approach food banks because they lost their jobs.
P.
Del Barça and Argentine.
How are you doing with Messi?
R.
I have really enjoyed Messi.
He has given us, Barça and all of us, wonderful football.
I am not from Madrid, but I will also be eternally grateful to Iker Casillas for the football he gave me.
I think that with Messi the end of a cycle had come.
I was moved at his press conference, I was very sorry, but three days later I saw him entering through the main door of the common places with Paris Saint Germain, that of "what an illusion to be here", and so on.
and I thought, "Business is business."
And the pornographic amounts of money that are handled now in football take me away a bit.
It is difficult to abstract from that.