If the other side of the river spoke, it would say that it has seen a light, as Jorge Drexler sings. And it's by Natalia Oreiro. His magnetism is proportional to his chameleonic gift according to the role he plays.
After having been Eva Perón in the miniseries Santa Evita and a glassy intelligence agent in the series Iosi, the repentant spy, returns to comedy.
Now it is María, the protagonist of Casi muerta, the new film by Fernán Mirás, which opens in cinemas on July 6. She plays a woman who is diagnosed with a heart problem and given thirty days of survival. Thus, all his life, relationships and loves are resignified to the rhythm of a delirious countdown.
Natalia, married to Ricardo Mollo for twenty years and mother of Atahualpa (11), arrives on time at Martínez's bar, overlooking the river. She brings look almost from home, but in a matter of seconds she will be a total diva. She advances towards the water with her lace dress and moss green cover, ready to surrender to the spell of the gods, who will make summer breeze to this polar cold, even for a while.
On the river, a constant in his life between Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Photo Martín Bonetto
On the other side of the river
-What does the river mean to you? Depending on the day you can see the other shore and in the photos you could tell that you were enjoying the moment.
-A bridge. I grew up with the river. I was leaving high school and riding my bike with a friend to the beach. And the first times I came to Argentina was crossing this river that, for us, the people of Rio de la Plata, is a bond of love. It unites us culturally with music, history, cinema... That nostalgia that happens to us when we have a brown river.
Tango, in that sense, represents it very well. And although when I arrived in Argentina (at 16) it was difficult for me to see that the city was on its back, little by little I found places that looked towards the river.
And yes, I have that affinity, because when I look at the horizon I see my Uruguay, and when I am in Uruguay and I look at the horizon, I see my home, Argentina, the country that gave me the opportunity to fulfill my dreams and also gave me a home, a son and a love.
-How do you define this moment of your life?
-I have no idea! (laughs). I feel like life goes by so fast that I can't stop to think about where I am or how I'm ... I'm happy! My son is healthy, happy, with his friends and his school, and that fills me.
In addition, I work on things that I like, I delve into social situations that are important to me, I premiere a super movie, Almost dead, which is great, and soon the second season of Iosi, the repentant spy, is coming by Amazon Prime. So recontented and with many projects.
-With Almost dead you return to comedy, what seduced you about the character to accept?
-Fernán Mirás! Because when we performed in Re loca, he had just released his debut feature, El peso de la ley, and I was fascinated by it. In addition to adoring him as an actor, I loved him as a director and said, "Next call me for any role." And so it was!
I loved the idea, the project, the book, but basically his look. It's very funny, it has a very acid humor at the same time, and this movie raises the duality between life and death in a comedy tone. But it is also profound and speaks of four very simple things which are love, friendship, life and death.
Natalia Oreiro appreciates having a good time working. Photo Martín Bonetto
Have fun working
-I asked you how was this moment of your life, because beyond the fact that the film is fiction, you can tell that when you do comedy you are having a good time.
-I'll tell you an anecdote. Many years ago I was doing Only You, which was a comedy, and yet, my character suffered and spent crying because Juan (Adrián Suar), had returned with the ex-wife.
One day I went to a Chinese man who did acupuncture and was an iridologist. He looked into my eye and said, "You're so sad." And I was barbaric, having a good time personally and at work. "Nope. I'm fine, I'm happy," I said. He insisted, "I see you are very sad."
The third time he told me, I clarified, "Oh, I'm an actress and my character cries every day." Then she said, "The body doesn't know you're an actress. You send a signal to the body of sadness and the body receives it." I remember when I told Adrian, he told me: "Oh, but you cry so nice on camera..."
-Seeing you play Evita and Gilda would seem to give you the possibility to build two different personalities, like two versions of you.
-Yes. They were two much-loved projects, but very different. Eva was a character that seemed unattainable to me and when ten years ago I was offered to do it for the first time, I said: "No, I can't tackle it". At that moment I felt that I was going to have a hard time composing it the way I felt it had to be composed.
And, in addition, many actresses had already done it masterfully. I was afraid I couldn't live up to the story, the character...
A total diva. Natalia Oreiro poses like this for photos, for the rest of her life, pure common sense and empathy. Photo Martín Bonetto
-Fear of criticism?
-Fear of me, first of all. The worst criticism is the personal one, but it's also the reflection of knowing your own limit and saying, "I can't today."
Ten years later I was summoned to the casting of Santa Evita and that gave me security because I said: "Okey, I prepare myself and if you see something in me it will be because it was a test and not because they called me because of my career, so to speak". And I was very dedicated to doing the three casting scenes. When they told me I was left, I trembled!
-This is where a myth collapses: Natalia Oreiro casts. Because one believes that a figure of international level never does.
-Yes! And for Iosi I did too. Casting is a good resource for actors and actresses. Why? Because for me there are no bad actors; There are directors who choose their actors badly, because we can't all do all the characters.
The connection with the characters
-Gilda was united by music and your status as a fan. Do you also have a connection with Evita? Are you a Peronist?
I am a lifelong socialist. I come from a socialist family. With my aunt, above all, there was an accompaniment from the ideological and the social political. I come from a very particular neighborhood of Montevideo, El Cerro, and that also marked me.
Although I arrived very young, when you come with that head you have a bit of a hard time understanding Argentine politics; I have also lived here for thirty years, so now my head is in that sense Argentinized. What I admire about Eva is her social cause, she really gave – in my interpretation and in the search for my character – her life for her people. At least the Eve I wanted to build was that, the Eve of the people.
Gilda is a character I always wanted to do, I loved her and I accompanied the whole process of the film. That's why, when she finished, I had a hard time letting her go.
Natalia Oreiro smiles when she talks about the war between Russia and Ukraine. Photo Martín Bonetto
-In Russia, for example, for you they had already learned to speak Spanish and from Gilda's film they sing their hits.
"Yes, that's beautiful. Hearing them sing or seeing them dance cumbia is very strong.
The Russia-Ukraine War
-In 2020 you were granted Russian citizenship, how does the war impact you?
Russia is a people I love deeply. We've had a bond for over twenty years and it's exciting how we communicate, having such a different language and history. And what happens today... There is no person who is not impacted and does not hurt. I have no words to express the feeling of sadness that it causes me. It is a very sad moment for all of humanity.
-Before you mentioned El Cerro, the neighborhood where you grew up, why do you say it marked you?
-One is childhood, that's why early childhood is so important, we are always what we were in the first 6 or 7 years of life. And El Cerro was that, although in between, when I was very young, I lived two years in Spain. But my memory is always El Cerro.
It is Grandma Hilda's house, playing in that shed hours and hours when she came back from school running with the moña (ribbon on her neck) untied, sitting at her sewing machine.
Or when I went up to La Fortaleza (the castle at the top of the hill), to look among what there was some discovery there. I remember the freedom of being children. El Cerro also has a particularity: you see the sunrise and sunset in the water, because it is a bay, with its beaches and its factories.
Natalia Oreiro told how she met Ricardo Mollo, Photo Martín Bonetto
-Are your parents still living in Uruguay?
-Yes, we were now with them at my sister's (Adriana) birthday. They come and go, because they also have their grandchildren: Ata and my two nieces, Mia (16) and Bianca (6).
-When you released Gilda's film, you told me that you wanted to play Juana Azurduy, do you still have that desire?
-(Surprised) Yes, it is a very big project, we have been working for a lot with Benjamín Ávila (he directed her in Infancia Clandestina and was a producer of Gilda, I do not regret this love). Last Monday, precisely, we met again. Hopefully we can do it.
-Let's talk about Hollywood and you. Is it true that, among other proposals, you said no to Tarantino and recently, to a series?
-It was never an objective or a search to work anywhere other than Argentina and to act in a language other than Spanish. It happened to me with music too. I have received several proposals to live there, even in Los Angeles, and it always seemed to me a place of great solitude ...
And it's not that I'm refused to work in another language or eventually go and shoot a movie, but move? No, never. I lived the uprooting from a very young age, it was a choice, but it was hard, and to live it again with a culture as different in a country as different as the United States is something that was never in my plans.
Natalia Oreiro says that her son Ata studies trumpet, because as a child he made him listen to Miles Davis. Photo Martín Bonetto
-In Almost dead, Mary is given a month to live, how do you get along with death?
-Since I was a mother I stopped doing a lot of things, like the trapeze on the fly. I started to be afraid of flying, although I fly by and in one day I take three planes. I became a fearful person and I wasn't like that. And I think it's a horrible burden that I have to take off, because it's not something I want for my son.
Before I became a mom I thought I was going to be super, because I was very free, hippie... But I became re-controlling. I'm afraid that something will happen to him, I'm afraid that something will happen to me and not be for him... It's like it changed my axis and I became someone else.
-¿A Ricardo le pasa lo mismo, aunque él tiene dos hijas grandes?
-No, nada que ver. Él es mucho más relajado. Siempre me dice “relajá”. Soy de las que... “¡ponete una campera, Ata!”. Todo el tiempo sé dónde está, qué está haciendo. Vivo pendiente de él, nunca puedo cortar.
-¿Cómo hacés ahora que Ricardo está en gira por los 35 años de Divididos?
-¡Malabares! Ata me acompaña, pero también quiero que sea un niño con amigos. Hoy está en casa con tres compañeros y con Blanquita, que es como mi mamá, imagínate que me acompaña desde los 18 años. La conocí acá cuando vine y nunca más nos despegamos. Me ayuda, pero no vive con nosotros.
Ricardo is a present father: when I work in Uruguay, he stays, and when he goes on tour, I stay; sometimes she takes him on tours, but Ata is 11 years old, he's in sixth grade, and he shouldn't miss school, because there's a regularity we want him to have.
Natalia Oreiro says that she always does castings and that she thinks it is very good for the actor. Photo Martín Bonetto
The talk is interrupted because Luli Gimelli, his stylist, has to leave. Natalia asks him where he kept something. "Now I'm telling you so you can see what I'm talking about," he says.
Once the gold chain hangs again from his neck, he says: "This is my son's first tooth, I always have it on, but for productions or when I work I take it out. The other day Ata asked me, 'Why are you taking it out to work?' I said: 'Because, for example, in Almost dead, Maria has no children and they are going to say: What is Natalia doing with a tooth hanging? or Whose tooth is that?'
And Ata said, 'But it's good for people to ask questions and not find answers.' He's right, of course. He's always right."
-You say Ata, for Atahualpa, but his first name is Merlin.
"He chose Atahualpa! His name is Merlin Atahualpa and the two names were chosen by Ricardo, first Merlin and then Atahualpa. But I always felt that his name was Atahualpa. And I remember clearly when Ata, with two years, answered the taxi driver who greeted him with a "chau, Merlin!": "Atahualpa. My name is Atahualpa."
Ata speaks since the year, at 14 months I started a conversation: "Yes, my love, your name is Merlin Atahualpa, let's go", I hurried him. Ata corrected me: "No, mom called me Atahualpa, Merlin is my baby name."
-Do you play the guitar?
"No, he doesn't sing, either. He learns trumpet, he likes Miles Davis, because I always played him the Tutu record.
-Is it true that among your musical influences, until you met Ricardo, was not Divididos?
-Yes! Divided I liked it, but I was not a fan, I was more rich.
Natalia Oreiro, with the director of "Casi muerta" Fernán Mirás and the actor Alberto Ajaka. Press Photo
-There it is explained why when you were introduced to it you did not realize who it was.
"Oh, what a mess! Show me... When I met him, the first thing I saw was a smile. Ricardo has something magical, which our son also has: a very ... from someone simple.
-Did you meet at a yoga center?
-No, at home. I did yoga with a group of musician friends at my house and we had a mutual friend, a guitarist, who introduced us. But we actually met somewhere else, by that same person who introduced us, at a show in a basement that is no longer there.
We met again at a festival in London where Divided played. I came from singing in Israel and Gabriela Torres, my music teacher, sang at that festival. I accompanied her and there I crossed it again. The next day, I was walking through the neighborhood of Candem, I had the feeling that I was going to cross it and it appeared. It was a flash: "Look if Ricardo is there," I thought. And tuc, there it was.
We met again at the airport. And already in Buenos Aires he appeared in the yoga group he had at home. We became super friends and, although I was dead for him, I never said anything to him because he didn't give. Things happened to me that he hadn't registered.
-Maybe he found it strong to date Natalia Oreiro.
-You would have to ask him, hahaha. But it was not strong for him to come to my house. He brought me tourmaline (stone "of truth" that is usually used in meditation). That's why my third album is called Tourmaline. Then, instead of tourmaline, he would bring me chocolate.
Natalia Oreiro says that the age difference with Ricardo Mollo never weighed on her and that he is a "luminous person". Photo Martín Bonetto
-Did the age difference never weigh on you?
- No, on the contrary. He does me good, but I don't know if it has to do with age really (she's 46 and he, in August, turns 66). Ricardo is a very luminous person. He is very wise in his way of seeing life and that makes me fall in love. He has a lot of character, he is really a leader, and if you see him on stage you do not imagine that he is so calm. However, at home it is very relaxed, very harmonious.
Why did you choose Fernando de Noronha, the remote island of Brazil, to get married?
-I knew Noronha single, but I was already in love with him, although we were friends. It's a place I love and now we want to come back with Ata. When I went with Ricardo everything happened like that, natural, the idea of getting married arose at the time.
We went to the Cartório, which is the Civil Registry, and since it was closed for the date, it was the end of the year, Marenga, a captain I met on my first trip, told us that he could marry us because he was the authority on the high seas. He married us on a boat, then went to the registry and wrote us down. So we are married under Brazilian law.
-What do you wish for yourself, Ata and Ricardo?
-Time. Time to be more together. Good time not for quantity, but for play, enjoyment, laughter, cooking, being with family.
-If you close your eyes now, what image appears to you?
-That 8-year-old girl playing with the sewing machine. It's like a time without time. With childhood, one has no dimension of time and all dreams are possible.
The film
Natalia Oreiro stars in Casi muerta, the new film by Fernán Mirás. Adaptation of the Basque film Bypass, it tells the story of a woman who was given a month to live and combines love, drama and a lot of (black) humor. With Diego Velázquez, Paola Barrientos, Ariel Staltari, Alberto Ajaka and Violeta Urtizberea.
Natalia Oreiro, in a scene from "Almost Dead," which opens on July 6. Press Photo
Thanks
Hair Production: Matías Giachino @giachinomatias Makeup: Karina Camporino @karinacamporinomkp Styling: Luli Gemelli @luligemelli River coast photo: Dress/petticoat: "El Camarín" @elcamarin Photo bank: Pink suit with flowers: "Mila Kartei" @milakartei Inside photo: Wool sack: "Maydi" @maydi_az Embroidered skirt: "Mila Kartei" @milakartei Acknowledgement: @veronica.bonomo @bliss.com.ar Malloy's Bar. Sebastián Elcano 1718. Martinez @malloysbardecosta
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