Jean Reno: "Feminism in fiction should be done from the fun, not pointing the finger at you"

After participating in

, the new Spanish premiere that arrives this Friday for everyone through Amazon Prime Video, Jean Reno (Casablanca, 74 years old) is a little more Juan Moreno, his birth name.

“My parents were both Andalusian and that is what I knew about Spain.

Galicia is another world for me”, admits the actor about this period police comedy set and shot in this region in the 1940s.

In the Bambú Producciones series (

,

,

) ​​he forms a leading duo with Aura Garrido.

She is Marina Quiroga, a young upper-class woman from Spain in the forties who is the daughter, granddaughter and sister of policemen, a club she cannot belong to because she is a woman, despite the talent she shows for investigation.

She sets out to hunt down the serial killer who has been stalking her city for months, while her mother (Ángela Molina) only thinks of marrying her off.

Reno embodies her faithful ally.

Héctor is the butler who has worked for the family for decades.

More information

'Santo': two policemen in search of a faceless killer for one of the most ambitious Spanish series

“He is one of those people who works for others and not much is known about his personal life.

The other day, I was seeing a butler who was hanging a poster for the death of Queen Elizabeth II and I wondered how many things that man would know, ”he comments in early September from a Madrid hotel.

His character, although sharp-tongued, is discreet and observant.

That is why, like Marina, he has been learning over the years about the profession of her bosses.

“He loves Marina as if she were her daughter and, at first, he goes with her to investigate to make sure that nothing happens to him from her.

But that lasts one or two chapters;

then he continues with her to enjoy the adventure, ”he explains about her character.

Reno is a very busy man since he chained several successes in Hollywood in the mid-nineties, such as

,

and

, aside from his work in French cinema.

As they did not coincide together in Europe, Teresa Fernández-Valdés, the main person in charge of the series that she has created together with Ramón Campos and Gema R. Neira, decided to travel to New York to meet the actor and propose him to play Héctor.

The Frenchman imagined the cars, costumes and period buildings in this story and became interested in the project: “He convinced me that it was partially inspired by the Sherlock Holmes novels.

And that history added a certain touch of modernity to the Spain of 1948, the year I was born, when women could not be police officers.

This speech should not be made from a forced didactic, pointing the finger at you, but from fun and entertainment, so that the public does not reject it.

That's how it appears in the series."

“I have always looked for the opportunity to work in Spain, but the agenda did not allow it”

“Marina fights, as a young woman that she is.

In front of her she always finds herself with a wall that prevents her from moving forward, whether it is her brother, her mother or the rest of the police officers [Gorka Otxoa, Álex García, Pablo Molinero].

If there is a second season, I think she will be more empowered and the way she acts will be different, ”she continues.

"It's what I see in women filmmakers, like Claire Denis or Amanda Sthers - with whom she just shot the movie

—: They know how to be in charge.

Feminine intelligence means that when they have power, they do not give rise to more fight and conflict.

What happens is that it is very difficult for them to find financing for their films... And, in the case of actresses, it is age that continues to weigh on them.

The only thing that can stop powerful actresses like Angelina Jolie and Penélope Cruz is the prejudice that society has around their age.

Catherine Deneuve always told me that age is a barrier that gets closer little by little”, she comments as she makes a gesture bringing her hands closer to her body.

'A private matter' is set in the Galicia of the forties. Manuel Fernandez-Valdes

The actor celebrates having been able to coincide with Aura Garrido and also with Ángela Molina, with whom he maintains a special connection.

“My father had all the records of his father [singer Antonio Molina].

He understood flamenco and copla and I have grown up with that music on a daily basis.

And with the radio soap operas that my mother managed to tune in to in Casablanca.

I remember those deep voices, ”he says, laughingly imitating the fat tone of the old radio.

Working for weeks on spectacular action scenes in Galicia —the series shows the cities of Vigo and Pontevedra and the Cíes Islands— was another of Reno's great amusements in

.

The Frenchman has been daring to shoot in the Spanish of his family for years.

He first did it in a short film / beer commercial in 2016 in the Mediterranean with Alberto Rodríguez (“Have you seen

? He is an extraordinary director”, he points out).

Later, he participated in the film

(2019) by Gerardo Olivares, a project in which he was worried that his companions and the spectators did not understand what he was saying.

Little by little, he has been losing that fear.

This same year he joined the third season of the Mexican series

(Netflix), along with Ginés García Millán.

“It is a jump that had been preparing for many years.

I have always looked for the opportunity, but I did not have the opportunity because I had a lot of work and the schedule did not allow it.

In Spain they took a long time to decide, they left it for the last moment.

And then I was already always committed to another project.

Right now, I already have work until February, so I have to close everything in time”, he argues.

He says that he is considering interpreting the painter Salvador Dalí in a project that would be far from a typical biography.

And that one of the opportunities that he most regrets having missed was a script by Pedro Almodóvar that came to him a long time ago, but could not be.

In case there was a new opportunity, he drops the obligatory comment for an international star visiting Spain:

Marina Quiroga (Aura Garrido), investigates incognito in one of the episodes of 'A Private Matter'.

You can follow EL PAÍS TELEVISIÓN on