Fists on guard, bare torso, chin slightly to one side, as if attempting a mischievous smile, eyes that denote a challenging look and a physical build that makes it clear that he could be part of the heavyweight category.
At first glance, one would say that it is
Oscar “Ringo” Bonavena
who is posing for the photographer's flash, but no.
Actually, it is
Jerónimo Bosia
.
A 26-year-old who is in charge of playing the legendary boxer raised in Parque Patricios in the Ringo series.
Gloria y muerte, from Star+, and whose similarity never ceases to be admired.
Before continuing, a fact about the series: it is made up of
seven episodes in which the last months of the life of the Argentine boxer are recreated
, who came to face Muhammad Ali on December 7, 1970 at Madison Square Garden.
It also surprises with some biographical passages from its humble beginnings and focuses on the mysterious murder of Ringo in Nevada, United States, at the hands of William Ross Brymer, the main bodyguard
of Joe Conforte
, a man linked to the mafia and who had taken charge of the boxer's contract when he returned to American soil with the illusion of a rematch with Ali.
Bosia, like Ringo, on his way to fight Ali in the Star+ series.
We continue.
The similarity of Jerónimo Bosia with Bonavena is of long standing.
It is something that they already told him long before he got the opportunity in this series.
“At the age of 22 my jaw changed a bit and people constantly pointed out my similarity.
That's when I began to think about the possibility of participating in something related to Ringo," he tells
Viva
, while trying to get the spray out of his hair, cleaning off the makeup that they put on him for the photos and adding that a few years ago he took some photographs impersonating Ringo. Ringo.
“Before all this, a photographer, surprised by my resemblance, suggested that I do something.
'Imagine if one day they do the series,' he told me and it stopped there, ”he explains.
But the acting door did not open immediately.
Although he started taking drama classes at 18, his path seemed that she was going to lean towards martial arts.
From a very young age
he practiced taekwondo
– “from 7 to 22”, he specifies – and came to compete internationally in the youth world championships in Spain.
At first he hesitated to participate, but helped by his father's advice and by a dinner they organized at the Colegiales Club to raise funds for the trip, he ended up going.
"It doesn't matter if you're doing well or badly, what matters is that you live that experience. You spent a lot of time on it. You're going to thank me for going," he remembers his father telling him at that time.
The truth is that it did not last long in the competition.
He lost in the first fight
and had to pack his bags back.
“Emotionally he was not there.
I blamed myself and I felt like a failure, although it was not so traumatic because I already knew that my career was going to go the other way, ”he relives that experience, and suggests that his motivations were directed towards acting.
His was no longer about taekwondo.
Without hesitation, he abandoned the tatami (surface on which this type of martial arts is practiced) for the theater, and began to write another story.
Bosia practiced boxing with Fernando Muñoz, the same trainer that Mauricio Paniagua had, the protagonist of the Monzón series.
Photo: Andrés D'Elia.
Boxing is very hard.
You have to have more than the desire to box to get into the ring.
Jerome Bosia
soap opera heartthrob
His first strong job proposal came from Peru.
She had to play the protagonist's new boyfriend in the novel
Ven, baila, quinceañera
.
“A classic soap opera that was doing very well.
I had a lot of fun.
I spent six months and in another strip I played the protagonist's boyfriend again.
All the fans of the other character hated me, they bitched at me and there I learned to deal with all these things.
On the streets of Peru they recognized me,” she says.
Back in Argentina, there was nothing firm, beyond some castings that came to nothing.
He got into CAST, an artistic talent selection center created by Telefe, and that's how he got the chance to be on the sitcom
One Hundred Days to Fall in Love
, where he had to play a high school teenager who liked to bully. and gained exposure.
“
There I regained my faith a little again
.
After that I went on to make a bit of cinema", he says and, in a tone of reflection, he adds: "You always have to find confidence in your acting career, there is nothing that sustains it more than your faith and getting a job".
In between, he did some plays, he participated in the movie
Yo, teenager,
which was circulating on Netflix, he was part of
Bella
, an independent film that was screened at the Red Blood Festival, until the most anticipated role came to him. , the one that his facial features were intended for him:
play Ringo Bonavena.
“I cast a lot for Disney youth products.
I was trained by doing auditions in which I didn't finish staying.
Sometimes they told me that I was very big, at other times my role was not fully defined, until out of nowhere Dario Coronel, a Disney talent scout, noticed my similarity and knew that living Ringo's life was on the agenda." , account.
How was the call?
-I was on vacation in Bariloche and I received the message to summon me to the casting.
I thought it was one more like the ones I had been doing for youth series.
Until they told me it was for Ringo.
Immediately after they gave me the news, I started working on the voice and on the day of the casting I arrived in costume, totally in character.
I arrived with a cigar and everyone thought he was crazy.
We did the scene where he's on the phone from New York with his dad.
At the time I thought: if I don't get to meet, it will be the first great casting I have.
I felt like I was destined to be here.
Not only because of my knowledge in the fighting arts, but also because of my failure in taekwondo.
Jerome Bosia
Similar: Bosia and Oscar Natalio Bonavena.
hinge moment
After that test, in which he managed to move the people who were on the set and earned everyone's applause, the wait for confirmation was put on hold because the coronavirus pandemic arrived.
Everything was suspended in the air and nobody said anything to him
.
At that moment, rather than falling apart and thinking that her chance of life was at risk due to the virus that kept the entire world on its toes, she started studying and participated in virtual meetings, called “poetics”.
“I started with a literature mentor, who is one of the Okupas writers: Alberto Muñoz.
He is a teacher.
He opened a huge door for me, ”he says, and reveals that he read a lot about Greek tragedy.
“That was part of the formation of my world.
Having an imaginary world is no small thing
.
Sometimes, one stays in the adrenaline of the trade and getting the job”, he affirms.
When the advances of the series were published, Bosia's networks exploded: the feedback and the followers began to grow.
All the comments, every time she shared something about Ringo, agreed on the same thing: "You're the same."
His balance, at the end of the journey, comes together in that you have to be willing to face challenges, let your emotions run wild and, above all else, find your place.
“
It is a pivotal moment, not only in my career but for my acting self
.
A tremendous responsibility.
I had this kind of epic idea that there was a role that was for me and it was definitely Ringo's,” he says.
Bosia brought out perfectly from the tone of voice to Bonavena's self-assurance.
-Did you have to practice boxing?
-They put me with Fernando Muñoz, who had already trained the boy who played Monzón (Mauricio Paniagua).
He has given bandaging seminars.
A machine, the guy.
He took me to the gym where he teaches and made me box with all his students
, obviously with all the care.
Boxing is very hard.
You have to have something more to get into a ring, beyond the desire to box.
-You went to eat at Patio Funes, the restaurant of Natalio Oscar Bonavena, Ringo's son, right?
-I went to “Ringuito” in Parque Patricios.
He told me a lot of anecdotes.
Very intimate things that are not in the media and some of the eccentricities of his dad.
Things like Ringo bringing animals of all kinds into the house.
He once carried a penguin and then a monkey.
Or a baby sheep that was found near a service station, going to Mar del Plata.
He was nice doing all that.
The rhythm of his words is rhythmic and he remains escorted by an enthusiasm that is difficult to hide.
The role of Ringo feels like a revenge for that fight he lost in the taekwondo competition
and he is surprised just to think that his face is the protagonist in a series of a "major" platform.
"I feel that my world championship converges in Ringo," he says, and affirms that it was the first thing he confessed to his parents, after finishing the filming of this work.
And he concludes: “
I really like that type of cinema that the series pays homage to, half Scorsese, where there is a lot of leather jacket, mafia
.
I wanted to be in something like this and out of nowhere this series comes with that proposal.
I felt like I was meant to be here.
Not only because of my knowledge in the fighting arts, but also because of my certain failure of not being a world champion in taekwondo.
I took all my experience and when this opportunity came to me I felt complete on all sides”.
look also
Oscar Natalio Bonavena, the charismatic boxer who became a TV series and is still alive 40 years after his death
The night Ringo Bonavena gave a hell of a beating to a Nazi who ended up as a villain of Ghostbusters and Die Hard
