The Spanish Film Festival is hitting Perth this month and who better to represent it than iconic Spanish actress Elena Anaya?
Anaya has been appearing in films since the 1990s, gaining international acclaim for her portrayal of Belen in ‘Sex and Lucia’ in 2001. Anaya has gone on to star in a number of notable films, and playing one of Dracula’s brides opposite Australian actors Richard Roxburgh and Hugh Jackman in 2004’s ‘Van Helsing’. In 2011 she worked with the legendary Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, starring in the thriller ‘The Skin I Live In’. Now she is visiting Australia to promote the release of her new film ‘They Are All Dead’ as part of the Spanish Film Festival. She spoke to OUTinPerth from her hotel room in Sydney and explained what it’s like to be an ambassador of Spanish film.
“It’s kind of weird, you know. Because it’s a little bit of responsibility all over my shoulders. I’m just trying to think ‘This is it, I’m here, I’m very proud’. This year went pretty pretty well. And also I’m very happy, I’m proud of the movie I’m presenting in this festival. It’s a new film from a new, upcoming director, Beatriz Sanchis and I’m very proud of being part of this movie and of course an ambassador of the movies of my country.”
In ‘They Are All Dead’, Anaya stars as Lupe, a former rock star who has not left her house in years, living with her long-suffering mother and her teenage son who resents her. Anaya said it was the complexity of the character that attracted her to the role.
“For me it was beautiful to have the opportunity to with this character, with this film make a tribute to life, and to play a character who re-emerges and comes alive after so many years being trapped and so many years of ostracism. When you read a script that completely attacks you and you read the script that talks about a broken family but with an immense and spontaneous and natural point of view that provides a magnetic tenderness to the whole story, it’s like ‘wow!’, you know? It’s difficult to find a story, a script and of course a character that allows you to play so many notes in your keyboard.”
As is indicated by its title, the characters in ‘They Are All Dead’ must each come to terms with the realities of death. Lupe is confronted by this when she is visited by her deceased brother Diego, who was her creative partner in the rock band that made them stars. Anaya said that although death is a prominent theme in the film, it is primarily a celebration of life.
“As far as I understood this story, for me it’s completely a tribute to life, even though with the dark side of life, which is death. Because my character has a Mexican tradition, because Lupe’s mum is from Mexico, they have an understanding of death that my culture, Spanish culture, we don’t have. We normally don’t talk about death and we don’t think it’s part of our lives and somehow when you realise that it’s absolutely part of everyone in this planet and somehow I think you make a good balance, and then you understand that we are just here for a while, and it makes you more alive and it gives you more courage to live. At least that’s what happened to me when I read the script and I played the character.”
One of the integral relationships in the film is between Lupe and her teenage son Pancho, who is resentful of his mother’s agoraphobia and is beginning to question his sexuality. Pancho is played by first-time actor Christian Bernal, who Anaya said rose admirably to the task.
“It was so beautiful being with an actor that has never acted before, because he was so pure. He’s a person that has no idea how to lie so everything in himself was completely true. So that’s a big treasure for an actor. And also for the actor who plays in that actor, who in that case was me. For me it was like I had a very pure person, completely honest, truly about anything, everything in himself was true, his eyes, his look, his body, his words, his voice changing, everything was so true… at the beginning our relationship was pure fight, almost like brother and sister, you know, two teenagers fighting. The difference is like he was a teenager but I was his mum, almost trapped in that kid that doesn’t want to grow up. It was beautiful to see in how Lupe recognizes her position in life, her position of being a mother, playing a mother and not a friend or a sister or whatever. She has to be the mother of this kid and she has to take care of him and she has to be there for him like all mothers should do. It was beautiful for me, getting closer to him and being able to have difficult conversation with a kid, like for example being gay or having troubles with all the decisions of his group.Just being there and being close to him and being a supporting person for him. That was beautiful for me.”
For Anaya, she said she always considers the audience when taking on a film. This was especially true for ‘A Room In Rome’, in which she portrayed Alba, a lesbian named Alba who has a chance encounter with a Russian woman that changes her life.
“I’d prefer to play a tiny part in a beautiful film than a lead role in a film that I don’t care about.” she explained. “think when I read a story about those audience that will go towards the film I’m reading after I will be playing role and thinking if they will enjoy that film. If that film will somehow change their lives. Movies changed my life. I think about them, and I think if that movie will be worthy of them, because I don’t do entertaining films. I don’t like to be entertained in a movie theatre, of course you get entertained, but it’s not the main thing for me. For me the main thing is I want to get something new in every experience watching a movie, I want something changed in me, I want to learn something after watching a movie. And that’s what I think about audience when they will go towards the movies I’m picking and of course after you play a movie, that movie will belong to your life forever. Somehow, doing this interview with you and you related me to that movie, which I did the most of myself, I left half of my soul in that movie, and it’s there, if anyone can get it and feel it, it’s something I left there for the director and for this audience that hopefully they feel something watching the movie.”
Anaya said she hopes that ‘They Are All Dead’ will have a big impact on its audience.
“I’m so proud of this movie, and normally I don’t like very much the movies I played! But this one I like it so much. I think it’s a piece, and it’s one of those tiny movies that audiences go and enjoy a lot. They could laugh a lot, they could cry a lot, but for sure I think it’s a positive film full of light, full of life, and full of joy, and wow, for me that’s a big gift for a movie.”
‘They Are All Dead’ is featured in a special event screening at Cinema Paradiso on Thursday April 30th. Tickets available at www.lunapalace.com.au
