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Hernán Cuevas, low-ranking actor from the Palermo Division: "It is not an inclusive series, it is told by minorities"

2023-03-01T11:52:22.045Z


The also theater director and playwright, talks about the phenomenon that is seen on Netflix and how the other's gaze towards him changed.


The first thing that Hernán Cuevas

- playwright, director and short-sized actor - clarifies

 is that the new Argentine police series on Netflix, División Palermo, which remains among the most watched on the platform,

is not an inclusive comedy.

"Because there are many more things to tell and minorities are only an element that belongs to a whole, like society," explains one of the protagonists of the streaming phenomenon -created by

Santiago

Korovsky-, which moves in absurd humor with deluxe choral cast.

“I

have dedicated myself to the theater for many years and with a low profile, quack

.

But this massiveness runs over you, it's a bit overwhelming ”, Cuevas admits, that although he perceives a recognition that he never had on the street for his work, he does not allow himself to be overwhelmed.

Hernán Cuevas, in his character as Johnny, in "División Palermo".

It is that more than a decade ago, and with his own universe to tell stories -he founded "The company of the Scream", his independent theater company, which on March 12th will re-launch the fifth season of the play The non-sacred screams in the

Kairós

 Method -, works to make things happen to him.

Coincidence or not, the actor who is part of

a fictional urban guard represented by minorities

-which in the story works for marketing purposes, to improve the image of the security forces- is a militant of talking about what is not talked about.

“From my company, I always write about what is not there, what is not seen and for me it is very worth doing that theater.

For this reason, with

the Palermo Division

I understood that it was a project that had a lot to do with me.

The energies were found and I am grateful that everyone sees that

behind a physical appearance we all have something more to tell

.

And

Division...

is far from the victimization of minorities ”, she completes.

-Which does not happen in the common of fictions that address these themes.

-That's why it's great to be able to take on a theme that seems sensitive, untouchable.

There are many films where a disability or minority is treated in a victimized, solemn and almost anti-heroic way

.

Not in this case.

The characters of the urban guard have such a beautiful personality and attitude to life that they end up being the heroes of the situation.

And black-caped heroes, who are, but not that much.

With

attitudes and answers that are often not politically correct,

because they make fun of the person who looks at them, and at the same time the person who looks at them makes fun of us.

Hernán Cuevas knew from the age of 9 that he wanted to be an actor.

Photo Maxi Failla

A humor to educate

-Is there also a criticism about where society stands in terms of inclusion and diversity?

-Sometimes it happens that by reflecting society, how people are on the street, we think that it is a criticism.

And yet it is not.

It is a day-to-day demonstration and the criticism will be on the one who watches the series.

Santi Korovsky with Martín Garabal and Lucrecia, who is a girl in a wheelchair, did a spectacular job, but they

did it to reflect society, not criticize it

.

Let the spectator who sees it say: “Hey, this is true.

And what happens to me with that?

”.

-Open heads...

-It is that this humor is also educating and that is the strong point.

That you laugh a lot, but also understand how the situation is.

Today in the street it happens to me that they don't nudge each other to say: “Look, look at the little boy, the dwarf”.

Now the nudge is: "Look at the one in the series."

The title already has another connotation and is a different look.

Mario (Renato Condori Sangalli), a Bolivian who came to Argentina to stand up, and Johnny (Hernán Cuevas), in "División Palermo".

-A look you didn't know.

-It

always happened to me that being physically different I am the object of gaze

.

It happened to me recently that I was around the corner from the Colón theater, where the plazas are, and a couple of older gentlemen yelled at me: “Hey, Johnny, we saw you in the series”, but with a clean horn.

And all the people in the square began to look at me and suddenly I felt that different gaze. 

I'm proud to be part of something that breaks with everything and with comedy climates.

-Doing this kind of humor could also have gone very wrong?

-Obviously, you play on the ledge.

Either you fall or you stay.

As happened with

Waiting for the float

in 1985, a film where they laughed at death and old people.

I think

División Palermo

has to do with that style of humor, as was

Time for the Brave

as well.

They are films that educate with humor, without falling into the commonplace.

the jokes themselves

Hernan Cuevas was encouraged to joke about himself on the set of "División Palermo".

Photo Maxi Failla

-From the set they told that the most acid jokes were emerging from yourselves.

-In that Santi was very permeable to say: "What do you think if this happens?"

And from my reality I was able to give him that information.

At one point in the series I make a joke, which I asked him if he could add it.

It is the scene when I see the poster of the urban guard printed in the city and I ask: "Hey, did they shrink me?"

And no one on the team knew it and suddenly I jumped with that... And there was no laughter!

We on the set did live theater, for the cameras, the technicians to find out if it worked or not.

And sometimes on set it generated a nervous laugh.

So I ask Dani Hendler, "Wasn't that a good joke?"

And he answers me: “yes, but it seems to me that the others don't know whether to laugh or not”.

-That scene you are talking about represents everything that false inclusive marketing would amount to.

-Happens all the time.

Today you see much more, because such a photo gives me inclusion.

Or the tackiest example of all: Barney, who had a black boy, a white boy, a blond boy and a wheelchair user.

While there is a question of integration, there is also a question of showing all the colors.

Obviously, in children it is much more progressive because

children do not see the differences, that is the adult

.

I began to realize discrimination at the age of 20 when I was studying at the IUNA (National University of the Arts, today UNA) and I traveled every day by bondi.

It doesn't hurt, because you already have it incorporated, but you do realize it more.

-And it generates impotence?

-Once I was with a friend in front of Plaza Flores going to have a bondi and a big lady approaches me.

She grabs my hands, rubs herself in as if it were perfume, and runs it over her body.

With my friend we didn't react and the lady said: "Because little people like that are lucky."

Who knows what tradition, culture or where she came from, that the lady had the nerve to believe that she could touch me.

I told Santi about it and it didn't stay in the series, but it was more anecdotal.

For him to understand the kind of society we live in and to be able to laugh at those kinds of people.

Hernán Cuevas and Martín Garabal, on the set of "División Palermo".

the gaze of the other

-How do you get along with that look today?

-When I was little, when I was four years old, my grandfather sat me on the kitchen counter and told me: “Look, Hernancito: you are little, you are different and people are going to look at you differently.

It may be that they make fun of you, but you don't give them a ball.

I never got that information out of my head and my attitude was always like that, although I did notice the nudge to look at me.

And he continues: “I only have a mother, who is also short and she is more rebellious than me.

She is very brave my old lady.

She comes to feel that nudge and my old woman makes you chest.

And

what I learned with her, in a beautiful way, is not to shut up

.

In Monte Chingolo, Lanús, where we always live, she was always known by everyone and suddenly one day she became "the mother of".

But no longer from a prejudiced look”.

-Does that gaze last on television and in the cinema?

-I remember being 10 years old, watching

Poliladron

and wanting to do that, playing good and bad.

But from what is always seen on the screen, for minorities, the professions are either calmer,

home offices

, or they do nothing directly.

Or in my case, short, they summon you more to what the circus is.

-Happened to you in all branches of art?

-It has happened to me several times in what is audiovisual: cinema, TV, series.

To tell me: "Look, there is a participation here, we are in a circus and you are such a person."

And I, a little puffing, went.

Because in the end it was work and they paid me.

It was a way, in quotes, to become a little better known, but without ceasing to pigeonhole.

Hernan Cuevas says that his family environment helped him a lot to be who he is.

Photo Maxi Failla

-There is still a great lack of opportunities in the mass media.

-Yes, I think that the place where it is best seen is in the most commercial.

I would love to go down Corrientes street and see how many works there are minority people

, regardless of whether they are famous or not.

Let's take out the short stature: How many people are fat?

Wheelchair bound?

Blind?

They are not visible.

They are all the minorities that the series shows you, that reality show.

It happened to me that once I participated in

Silencios de familia

, an eltrece miniseries, where I played a fumigator and it was my first different role.

My family was very excited just like me.

And they cut my share!

-When you are summoned for this series, you will have assumed that it was more of the same...

-They couldn't tell me much because they wanted to take care of the product, but they threw me a few lines and I thought: this is not what always appears.

And I was led by a good doubt, wanting to know what else it was.

This series gave me something that I have never seen for someone like me and in this way.

-Santiago Korovsky chooses not to call it “inclusive comedy”, because he says that it would be falling into a marketing idea.

-It is not an inclusive comedy,

it is a police series told by minorities

.

The difference is that there is a society that many times shows you the minorities by pointing at them with your finger and marking a distance.

Here part of a choral exercise among all of us, that we form a communion of people telling a series with black humor, drama and also love.

The best thing I take with me is the human group.

We talk often with Vale Licciardi, with Santi every other day, with Dani Hendler we are almost neighbors...

-Caballito Division?

-Yes, haha.

We all stay very close and we finished filming in May 2022. A beautiful community that was put together thanks to Santi, who is the genius of all this.

The urban guard.

Hernán Cuevas says that there was a very good vibe among the actors of "División Palermo".

photo netflix

The importance of the family environment

Artistic expression was always the mother anchor for Hernán, but also the family.

A very present matriarchy that accompanied a desire that came with him into the world.

“When I was little my mom worked all day and my grandmother took care of me.

I remember watching all the novels on a 14-inch TV.

And between breaks, Telefe's commercials, Christmas, with Susana Giménez, Marcelo Tinelli and the figures always toasting.

I grabbed my grandmother's glasses and repeated it.

She was 9 years old and she wanted to do that ”, she confesses, rescuing that innocence.

And, appealing to nostalgia, she completes: “My mother spent many years in a construction company, doing craftsmanship and then she dedicated herself to being a babysitter.

When she is unfairly fired from the company, she dreamed of becoming a greengrocer and she did.

I was 12 years old and in that sense I learned a lot from watching her and saying: she did what she wanted.

And if I am who I am today, it is thanks to the family environment I had”.

WD

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Source: clarin

All news articles on 2023-03-01

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