The day Rui Torres stopped being the host of
Art Attack
, the program was never the same. At least in the immediacy. Unintentionally, a young Spaniard named
Jordi Cruz
took his place.
For the viewer it was a voracious change. From one day to another. The crafts program still belonged to the Disney Channel grid, but in an atmosphere of tense normality. The audience sensed that something had happened to Torres, but she didn't quite understand what.
When people began to talk about the physical disappearance of the Mexican presenter, a myth was born that, perhaps due to the rusticity of the primitive Internet, caused confusion for years. On the website it was said that an Art Attack presenter had died, in fact there was news about it, but it was not clear who it was.
The possibilities for the Latinos were three:
Rui, Jordi or Neil Buchanan
, the English driver.
“
There are still people who think I'm dead
,” Jordi Cruz confesses to Clarín.
What is the true story behind this stain that bothers Disney Channel today? What happened to Rui Torres? What was a day of filming Art Attack like?
Jordi Cruz has -almost- all the answers
.
Jordi Cruz, the other driver
For an entire generation of Latin Americans, Jordi Cruz is “the other” host of Art Attack. The one who is not Rui or Neil. The one who came later. The new.
Jordi Cruz started working at Art Attack when he was 20 years old. Photo: Instagram @jordicruzperez
Jordi, unlike Rui, who was more serious, stood out for his talkativeness, his self-confidence, his ease, his expressiveness. And by his voice.
His unmistakable and penetrating voice
. A voice that was not his even though he speaks Spanish and is also a voice actor.
“I always thought that if they had let me dub it it would have been much more personal. I have sometimes heard that voice and thought:
'Please, who dubbed me?
'”, recognizes the Catalan. Who knows why - not even he knows - Disney hired another person to bring his voice into neutral Spanish.
Cruz presented Art Attack practically at the same time as Rui. Initially, his episodes aired in Spain and Torres's episodes aired in Latin America. Jordi was the face of the program from 1998 to 2004, while Rui led it from 2000 to 2002.
Millennials
saw the European only in repetitions
Rui Torres died in 2008.
That's why his stardom in Latin America surprised him. He found out that he was known on the other side of the Atlantic when Art Attack was no longer part of his daily life.
“It was a time when there were no networks, the internet was emerging, etc. Then at a certain point I started receiving messages from Latin America. From people from Chile, Argentina, Peru, Mexico.
I didn't understand anything of what was happening
. I was the presenter in Spain and (the rerun of) Art Attack was being broadcast there, and with great success,” says the host.
Cruz “at no time” thought that the program would come out in all those countries at the same time as in Spain. An Argentine friend let him know: “Asshole, I just saw you on Disney Channel with a different voice
!
”.
-Disney was using the image rights that you signed in the contract, right?
-
Yes, I guess so. But no one told me anything. And, of course, suddenly I find that the program is a success. Besides, I was, unlike the presenters from other countries, the one who physically and vocally could fit best in Latin America
.
The worst news: the tragedy of Rui Torres
Having been discovered on Latin American screens brought unpleasant news:
Rui Torres had been found dead
.
“It was something strange, because when I finally found out what had happened, well… First, a huge sadness because Rui was a fantastic companion,” says Cruz about that fateful February 24, 2008.
It was at that moment when Jordi realized that he had appeared in Latin America as a replacement for the previous driver.
Torres during Art Attack in its Latin version.
The Spaniard found out about Torres' death at the same time he learned that their version was being broadcast in other countries: “That's when I ask and they tell me. Yes, it is true that
at the beginning there were different versions of what had happened to
(Rui).”
Cruz and Torres were not friends, but they liked each other. They had coincided in some days of recording in England, the country where they were filming. “
He was a great guy
. For him, Art Attack was confirmation that he wanted to dedicate himself to this and that there was a place for him in this world. And he was very, very, very very proud and very happy to do it,” Jordi remembers his former partner.
And he regrets: “It was a shame his death because, just as I in Spain can be a figure that brings together the childhood of many generations, he would also be enjoying that award. I am convinced".
-How did you experience the confusion about his death?
-
I remember that the day I found out, I got off a bus, turned on Twitter and saw that I had a lot of messages. It was like in the movies: What would happen if you could see your death? How would people react? It was very real because there were people who said: “My childhood just changed.” Then there were funnier people who wrote, for example, “Are they going to embalm him with concoction?”
.
Rui's obituary when he died in 2008. He was 31 years old.
The information came to him in dribs and drabs and at a time when on Twitter “it was fashionable to kill people.”
About that period, Jordi recalls: “
They killed me once
. The hoax spread, but of course, if you went to Google and put
Art Attack presenter deceased
there was real news, but people didn't go in to read more. And what was being talked about there was Rui.
There are still people who think that I am dead
.”
The day the Spaniard began to take the issue seriously and saw that things were getting "
creepy
", he preferred to stop reading, thank his fans for their condolences and end the rumors by clarifying on Twitter that he was alive.
What happened to Rui only a few know
. Jordi knows “the final and well-told version” of the story and is sure that it “goes beyond what happened to him and his daughter.” It should be remembered that one of the strongest rumors about the Mexican was that shortly before his death he had suffered the death of a young daughter.
-Did Rui's story remain hermetic?
-
He was left in the privacy of his family and his people. I know her because they have been able to tell me about her, but she stayed in her circle. In the end there is a lot of information and if you put it all together you start to get something clear, right?
Jordi Cruz on a day of filming in England. Photo: Instagram @jordicruzperez
To conclude with the topic of Torres, Cruz asked to take advantage of this interview to make a clarification: “
I have never, never, never wanted to steal even the slightest affection that the Latin American public had for Rui
.”
“Rui was the one who started Art Attack. So, without me making any decision, they placed me there. And I understand and respect, but above all I greatly admire that in Latin America the presenter is Rui. Just as in Spain I am and I have that affection there,
Latin America belongs to Rui and will always be Rui's
”, he concludes.
The promise that led him to Disney
Jordi says that he came to Art Attack “through the coincidences of life”, but from his statements he suggests that the reality is different:
he was born for TV
. As a child he played at being a presenter with everything he had at his fingertips. He wanted to be Emilio Aragón.
As soon as he left school, as a teenager, he made his father promise that if he passed the university entrance he would let him have a gap year to do whatever he wanted.
Cruz approved - with all that that entails in Spain - and took the opportunity to look for work on local TV and radio. And she got them.
The day he was called to do the casting for Club Disney, he was in Barcelona and had to travel urgently to Madrid, so he begged his parents to ask the neighborhood bakery for a loan so he could pay for a ticket to the capital.
He arrived on time, he did the casting and a week and a half later they called him to tell him that he had arranged to meet. Since then he has not let go of television.
Or television didn't let him go
.
A young Jordi who was looking to make a place for himself on Spanish TV. Photo: Instagram @jordicruzperez
Art Attack arrived a year or so later, when a Disney director saw him "humming" in the hallways and called him to participate in the casting of a new program. Jordi didn't hesitate. He accepted and had no problem demonstrating his grace to the directors, who were dazzled by his histrionics.
“They got together and before leaving the room my boss told me:
'You are going to present a program on the Disney Channel
.
It is recorded in England
'”. At that time, recording in a country other than one's own was a rarity, so the news surprised him doubly.
For a time he recorded Club Disney and Art Attack at the same time, which made him something of a
rockstar
of children's shows. “That whole adventure was very exciting.”
-Did you have experience in crafts?
-No. I liked arts and crafts, but not
.
On the first day of filming Art Attack, they put a script and a teleprompter in front of him
,
limits he was not used to respecting. At Club Disney his work was more lax, it did not require a script, so he tried to convince the production that they should let him fly. Finally everyone won: the managers, him and the public liked that.
“
I think it was a little bit the key to success
. ”
Apart from the fact that the crafts were great,” says Cruz, who at that time understood that you did not have to talk to the little ones in a childish way, but rather that you had to teach them things “in a normal and ordinary way.”
Behind Art Attack
If you are reading this note it is because you more or less know what Art Attack or
ArteManía
was , as it was also known. Just in case we refreshed you: it was a television program of English origin where a presenter taught how to make crafts. It was aimed at a children's audience, but it undoubtedly also appealed to older audiences.
Art Attack was recorded in studios far from the big cities that were located in “a small town lost in the English countryside” where in addition to the town and the studios there was only a Hilton hotel.
It was a “very English” team. The schedules were strictly adhered to and no one spoke Spanish. Even so, Jordi made himself understood by his expressiveness. During the cuts they played music, gifts were given among the members of the team and Cruz “played” to do the on-duty craft in a single take so that the production would give him and his peers days off.
Cruz is 47 years old and remembers his time at Art Attack with joy. Photo: Instagram @jordicruzperez
-Did you have fun doing it?
-
A lot. Very much. I think that came across the screen
.
-Do you think that Art Attack today could have the same success as before?
-
No, because now, luckily, YouTube exists. There are many creators there who may be better prescribers than me, and I love seeing them. Art Attack is like the beginning of do it yourself.
Times of nostalgia: the affection of millennials
-How do you feel about being identified as “the presenter of Art Attack”?
-
I am very grateful. I believe that if you renounce your origins or those of the programs that have made you famous, it is because really in those origins you were not one hundred percent you, or you were not yet clear about what you wanted to do. In Art Attack I am one hundred percent myself and so I cannot give up my essence
.
Throughout his post-Art Attack career, an entire generation expressed their affection for him. Photo: Instagram @jordicruzperez
When Cruz was filming Art Attack, he never imagined the impact the program would have or that in the future there would be social networks where it could be revisited. Today, twenty years after his last season on the program, he receives the affection of those who grew up and had a good time watching him drive in those spaces.
“A very beautiful wave of affection comes that has nothing to do with fame, that has to do with what takes you directly to when you were happy, which was childhood. And that, I always say the same thing, is priceless. No matter how much I do or undo, have more projects, whether I am there or not, Art Attack will always be there,” Jordi celebrates.
Cruz speaks to people who dedicated themselves to tattooing, studying graphic design or painting thanks to him. And he thanks them: “I always say the same thing. They tell me: 'Thank you, Art Attack', and I always answer: 'It wasn't Art Attack, you already had that inside you and you were lucky enough to coincide in the space-time in which in your childhood there was a program that gave you to that key you had hidden there'”.
The post Art Attack
Cruz stopped doing Art Attack when his seven-season contract that had been closed from the beginning ended. After that period, Disney proposed a facelift that the Spanish version did not join.
“Spain decided that with these seven seasons it had enough to be able to repeat, repeat and repeat,” says Jordi. In his country, the program continued to be broadcast repeatedly on Telecinco and Antena 3 for a long time.
-How did you experience the Art Attack post?
-
Luckily the phone didn't stop ringing
.
Cruz as a driver at a Disney event. Photo: Instagram @jordicruzperez
He continued presenting other television programs in Spain, such as the children's series
Megatrix
and the reality show
Number 1
, and new formats, such as podcasts. “I was beginning to be interested in this whole topic of media content.
I wanted to discover new avenues
.”
However, while Art Attack was broadcast on Disney Channel, Cruz suffered a loss that delimited his professional path: “There is a crucial moment in my life, which is that in 2001 my mother died and then I had a personal
reset
. "I went to live in Mallorca and stopped being in the hotbed of Madrid, which is where all things happen."
From that moment on, he lowered his profile and dedicated himself to teaching crafts classes in Mallorca, although, in an exceptional case, he also did so in Chile in an open stadium.
He is currently recording a reality show for Catalan TV called
When you arrive
, he has his own YouTube channel and is a presenter on the digital channels of song festivals, such as Benidorm and Eurovision.
"The truth is I can not complain. They continue to propose stories and plans that are very fun to do. So I'm in,” she admits.
-Was there ever talk of the return of Art Attack with you as host?
-
Of course, there was a time when Disney decided to make a new version recorded in Argentina. They didn't propose it to me, but there was someone who told me about it. And there I decided: well then someone else has to experience this. Because... I'm inevitably going to compare it with what I experienced. Big Head was not there - he was going to be a palm tree - nor Handyman was there - he was going to be someone else
.
Jordi's next project will be on Catalan TV. Photo: Instagram @jordicruzperez
Epilogue: his strange link with Argentina
Seconds before ending the interview, Jordi recalled an anecdote that closely and bizarrely links him to Argentina.
On the one hand, he's a fan of Miranda! and Fito Páez. On the other hand, he met and even spent New Year's with a world champion:
Carlos Salvador Bilardo
.
“I have a very curious connection with Argentina. One of my best friends is Carlos Bilardo's niece. The first time I set foot in Argentina was on December 31 to spend the end of the year in his country,” Cruz says with a laugh.
And he adds: “He (Bilardo) was there, with the barbecue and everything, telling me the stories of Seville, of Maradona, of all those things, and I was listening to him.” The explanation of the contact is simple: he became friends with Jorge Bilardo's daughter through an Argentine director that he met while recording Art Attack.
-Did you tell him what Art Attack was?
-
I suppose someone must have told him, because if not... What is he doing here, in my house? Where does he come from? Why does he know my niece?