Paloma is a perfect mix of her parents, Leonor Manso and Patricio Contreras.
Big black eyes, powerful but sweet look.
She is super expressive.
At first glance, one could tell that she has the face of an actress.
It's in your DNA.
And she is, because she is
full of projects and challenges
in her profession: she not only acts, but she made her debut as a playwright and director.
Paloma has just premiered
Wellness
, a work of her own that she directs, at the Portón de Sánchez, a project that
she enjoys on the side of the stage.
And this Wednesday, in addition, she will direct Sofía Gala in a
King Kong Theory monologue,
at the Solís theater in Montevideo.
On the other hand, we will be able to see Paloma in the skin of Gastón Pauls' wife in the
Barrabrava
series , on Amazon Prime Video, which will be released this year.
And as if that were not enough, in October, his mother Leonor will direct it at
Aurora Trabaja,
at the Cervantes, where he will share the stage with Ingrid Pelicori, Gustavo Garzón and his two sons.
A varied panorama for this restless woman passionate about art.
But Paloma
was not bitten by the acting girl bug
.
On the contrary, she was full of doubts: “It was hard for me to assume that what I liked was the same as my parents, being an actress.
As a teenager, she wanted to go the other way.
On top of that, she told them that she didn't have a university degree and that I was going to have it.
She faced me to differentiate me.
And she would ask me, 'Is acting my true calling or will it be my mandate?'
Paloma did not like having known parents.
She “When she greeted them on the street or in a restaurant, she would ask them: 'Where do you know him from?'
And they told me: 'Nowhere'.
I didn't understand why strangers were talking to my parents.
I wanted to have them to myself.
Even when it happens with a lot of love and respect.
Later, when you are older, you begin to understand.
You understand that it is the affection of the public and a characteristic that has to do with this work”.
When they greeted them on the street or in a restaurant, I would ask them: 'Where do you know him from?'
And they told me: 'Nowhere'.
I didn't understand why strangers were talking to my parents.
dove contreras
As a girl, Paloma didn't like her parents doing theater either.
She “she suffered a lot when they left at around seven in the evening to do a show.
It was the '90s and theater was done from Tuesday to Sunday: total madness.
I stayed with my grandmother Leonor, whom I love, who has lived with us since I was born.
She helped my mom a lot,” she recalls.
And he deepens: “
The anecdote is that I made some tremendous dramas.
It was very melodramatic.
I grabbed my mom by the waist so she wouldn't leave.
It was really a scandal;
almost a psychopath.
Because automatically when they closed the door, everything went away.
But mom was going really bad, she was crying too.
My grandmother would later explain my mechanism to my mother so that she would not be left with the guilt.
But I did scenes and I was only 5 years old, ”she details.
-There already appeared the actress Dove...
-(
Laughs
) Just like that, and I didn't realize it.
And at the same time there was like a reward.
They came back at midnight and always had something to tell, or they would bring me a treat, like a Chocolate
Shot
, which I love.
Paloma Contreras and the cast of Wellness: Victoria Baldomir, Malena Villa, Pilar Viñes and Cande Molfese.
Did you wait up for them?
-When I went to school, no.
The same, they approached my room and greeted me.
Other times, yes.
I loved waiting for them.
It was a good plan.
And also sometimes I went to the theater with them.
When they did
Made in Argentina,
I stayed backstage
with
the prop man.
He made some sandwiches that drove me crazy.
-You already liked something about that world...
-Yes, it is that it is a very beautiful world, particular and with particular people.
-But you resisted being an actress...
-Yes, but they sent me to VAT (Manuel José de Labardén Vocational Institute of Art).
I went since I was 7 years old.
It depends on the City Government and it is done on the school's counter-turn.
I did it throughout primary and secondary, three times a week.
It's fantastic.
And when it was necessary to choose a specialty, I chose theater.
She said she didn't want to be an actress, but she was going that way.
(
Laughter)
.
-And what ended up convincing you?
-In my case,
the enchantment worked
.
The climate of a house, unconventional schedules, not having a routine.
It seemed natural to me that my routine was non-routine.
Not always having the same hours, or the same job or seeing the same people, or charging the same.
Sometimes during the vacation period it was to accompany my parents to film Cuba...
-I imagine that in your house you breathed art. What artists were there?
-I remember moments when María Rosa Gallo would come, or another day to find Laurita Azcurra having lunch because my old lady was directing her in something from
Theater for Identity.
There were always people of art, beyond personalities.
My mom had a lot of set designer friends.
And I grew up in a big, recycled house.
We had a terrace, with a barbecue area with a barbecue.
They really liked holding meetings.
The anecdote is that I did tremendous dramas.
It was very melodramatic.
I grabbed my mom by the waist so she wouldn't go to the theater.
dove contreras
-And how was the beginning as an actress in your case?
-In the beginning, I was very decisive and I wanted to make my own way.
And very phobic that these two areas are mixed.
So I stayed as far away from my actor parents as possible.
As soon as I finished high school, I enrolled in the CBC for Political Science, but I dropped out.
Then I started at IUNA and that's when you started to connect with your own colleagues.
And with my partner at the time, Martín, we did a Molière scene in the buses.
-In the groups?
-Yes, we used to get on 92 a lot, on Avenida Las Heras.
We had many bus friends who gathered together.
It was nothing too invasive or long.
Say that the acting lasted two stops.
We chose Moliere because it was exactly the scene we were preparing at the University.
We had the wardrobe and everything we needed.
That's how we earned money.
And that gave me an incredible experience.
-But later you loosened up and worked with your parents, like in the soap opera
El elegido
...
-Whenever they paid me, I was going to loosen up (Laughter).
What happened to me at the beginning is that it didn't seem like a good proposal to motorize it myself.
I was born to work with my colleagues.
But time has passed.
Now, in August, I start rehearsing
Aurora works,
in which my mother is going to direct me.
It's the first time and it's a celebration.
I already enjoy it.
-Speaking of time, you are 40 years old. Did it make you noise to fulfill them?
-No, it did me good.
It seems to me that this age represents a stage of greater freedom.
There is something very scary about reaching that age, especially in women because there is a very high level of demand.
When you reach 30, if you didn't do certain things or if certain things didn't happen to you, it's like the countdown starts... The woman has to be reproductive, she has to be useful, and if she isn't, she has to give an explanation. .
And there is something about that that does not stop being a requirement.
All of this has to do with the universe that appears in
Wellness
, the work I wrote and just premiered.
Paloma Contreras will direct Sofía Castuglione in a King-Kong Theory monologue.
-Tell me a little about the work...
-Talk about 4 women who are sheltered in a beauty center.
It is a black comedy that has humor and a darker part has to do with cruelty, with the demand, with the demand and with job insecurity.
Because women go there to be the best version of themselves and, on the other hand, the women who work in those places are very precarious at work.
There is like an exchange of slavery.
And I clarify that I am not against aesthetic centers.
- Is it difficult for you to dissociate yourself as an actress and as a director?
I feel like it comes naturally.
I think that each actor is a director and a playwright.
I'm talking about the good ones, those who have passion and those who don't do it outright or believe only in a certain grace.
I'm talking about the ones that really work as a sounding board for something superior to them.
I was lucky to work with very good directors and that shaped me a lot as an actress and as a person
.
For example, with Rafael Spregelburd.
He has a level of creativity, obsession and freedom because he sets up crazy and complex reversal worlds.
When we did
La stubbornness,
we got on 14 to do that crazy thing and we had a fucking hell of a time.
And that circuit of madness was put together by him.
-You recorded the Barrabrava series, soon to be released on Amazon Prime Video, how was the experience?
-Very pretty.
We filmed it in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 2021. Gastón Pauls stars it and I play his wife.
Matías Mayer also works, who is a great actor.
-How do you see the audiovisual world?
-It's a weird moment.
There is little film production and the movies that work and that can be held on the bill are because they have a lot of money behind them and figures that summon.
Objectively, the platforms generate work and the possibility of making yourself known internationally, if you want.
But it is a new world to investigate.
I think it is a moment of transition where old production models are coexisting with new models.
We'll see what happens.
The important thing is that there is work and an appreciation of work.
-What would you change about your life?
-(
Gets excited
) Surely I hurt people I love and I would change that.
If I had the chance to reverse something, it would be that: never do it again.
- Why did you become sensitive?
-I'm very emotional and hormonal.
Sorry.
Lots of work too...
Paloma adores the color yellow, beyond superstitions.
Photo: Fernando de la Orden.
-Any dream to fulfill?
I always fuck that I wish I had a band.
I really like music and I have many musician friends.
Now I'm working with a friend, Dulcinea, who plays synthesizers and when I see her doing it, I hallucinate and say: “How nice it is to make music”.
I'll see if I can.
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