A: In the movies all of us including myself are completely sincere. I’m completely honest and I always say and write the truth. In our lives we are not so sincere. I don’t mean that we lie. I don’t lie. But I dare to tell you exactly the answer to that question. This is the difference between movies and life. In life we don’t display so much about ourselves and we don’t say everything about ourselves. But in movies... yeah we do.
Q: Would you say Agrado is the central character?
A: She became...in the movie... In some ways it may not be what I thought but I like the fact that you interpret it that way. Although specifically in the movie when Agrado speaks about authenticity she is referring to physical authenticity which is more important and deeper to her. But the idea that you put forth that she is may be referring to an authenticity in the way of being or in not lying or in telling the whole truth and that being a liberating experience. I’m happy you interpret it that way even though it may not be what I had in mind. In all authenticity when she says, ‘one is more authentic the more one appears to be what one dreams of themselves’ is perfect for her but may not be perfect for others.
Q: Do you remember Betty Ford who had all these problems with drugs and would come out and tell people how to live yet she had all these problems?
A: I’m glad you say that because this country is very hypocritical. This country wants all the truth about the rest of the people in the world. They want to know all the truth so they can judge you. But nobody tells the truth. This is the only country where... not necessarily by you -- but when I’m shaking your hand I have to tell you my age, my sexual orientation and what I like to do in bed. And this is part of the process. I’m glad you didn’t ask these things. It doesn’t matter whether I’m fifty, forty or sixty. And it seems that it is an obligation of the artist to confess the age and sexual orientation and if he doesn’t do it it’s like...'Umm Hmm he has something to hide. He doesn’t have the right to do that.' Sometimes I feel like that here.
Q: But you're outwardly gay in Spain.
A: But we don’t talk about that. Nobody in the press in Spain or Europe asks me that. But here you have to be very clear and very direct and you have to say it. This is something I hate. I was educated under a very strict Catholic religion... by priests. And I hate everything that is similar to confession. It seems here you have to be confessing all the time and explaining what you do. This is too much.
Q: How would you describe this film?
A: This is a drama not a comedy. But I use a lot of humor so you can laugh; at least I hope. It’s about motherhood; Very painful motherhood. Because there can be no more bigger disaster for a mother to see in front of her eyes that her son is killed or dying. The movie talks about this pain and the way she recovers from that. She goes to Barcelona because she remembered her son wanted to know his father. So that is the only reason for her to leave and to go on train to Barcelona. Trying to look for the father and to say to the father – because he didn’t know--"You had a baby and now he is dead." It looks like a romance but life is more complex. Of course she doesn’t need this man but she meets many other women with many other problems and she integrates [her] problems with the others and she recovers from that. In the end she meets the father, the father is called Lola and he is a transvestite and many things happen. It’s a complicated story and I can’t only tell you in two lines.
Q: Lola [the father] is a transvestite?
A: I have to say that the Spanish transvestites are very, very proud of their penises. So they describe themselves as women with a cock.
Q: What are some directors that have most influenced you?
A: I suppose I get influenced by everything that I do not only from movies but from things that I do. Influences come from what you experience to the things that you read. There are many, many directors that I like. But I’m not sure that they have an influence on me.
Q: Do you like Bunuel?
A: Oh! I love Bunuel, absolutely. But Bunuel is so close that he is not an influence. He is like part of my family. I mean we belong to the same culture and really that is like belonging to the same family. So for me it is completely normal that sometimes I feel very close to him and I feel there is a similarity in our work.
Q: Most of the films deal with characters in various states of transformation. What is it about this movie that really works for you?
A: If you’re not telling a story that deals with change then you have nothing to talk about. That in itself is the story. It’s very difficult to tell the story of a character who is immobile and who’s not going in any direction. You [also] need tension and problems. This is the natural for storytelling. And you also have to have a plot. ‘Cause I mean someone whose happy I don’t see the plot [laughs]. It’s a rule that the characters you have in the beginning need to have suffered a change or at least there needs to be some kind of change from the beginning to the end.
Matt Langdon
