Leonardo Sbaraglia: «I was too entertained by playing the gallant”

Cam 20 years leonardo sbaraglia (Buenos Aires, 1970) coming quickly from Argentina every time they propose an appetizing project. As was the series ‘Félix’, by Movistar +, or the film by Pedro Almodóvar ‘pain and glory’. And the last one by Pau Freixas, ‘Everyone lies’, it was too. With which, in the midst of a pandemic, he did not hesitate to take a plane and lock himself in a hotel in Barcelona from which he only left to record. And in which he had all the time in the world to rehearse with Irene Arcos, the actress who brings his wife to life. He tells it during his visit to Barcelona, ​​between sips of mate.

In fiction, he plays the husband of Macarena (Irene Arcos), the teacher who sleeps with her student and the scandal comes to light when a video is broadcast on the internet. Nestor is cerebral, stable and calm, which has something to do with the fact that he is an expert in psychoanalysis. But psychoanalysts also suffer.

It is very difficult to talk about this series, because the plot is complex. It’s hard not to do spoilers..

Dresses? This is a series that touches on many issues and becomes a fiction that, by contrast, suspense, humor, and depth, ends up being very complex and with which people identify a lot. The melting pot of performances, of records, of the actors makes it very beautiful to be part of it.

His character is a real mystery until the last minute.

You can’t say anything about Nestor in particular, because whatever you say reveals it. It was also very difficult for me, because my character has more information than the viewer has.

And how did it get to you?

Pau Freixas had the idea that I should do the character. We were always worried, because we were in the middle of the pandemic. At that time he was in Argentina and he hadn’t worked for seven or eight months. And he didn’t know what he was going to be like. If he was going to be able to come. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to go back. We didn’t know what was going on. It was weird. No one was traveling at the time. I was one of the first people to take a transatlantic voyage. And grateful. Because he did me a lot of good to go back to work.

Tired of the lockdown?

I didn’t have a particularly bad time in 2020, being at home. It came in handy for many things. But I realized what I needed to work on when I was already working (laughs). Than I needed to be with partners. It was very cute.

Irene Arcos says that they were able to rehearse a lot.

Irene and I were the two of us who were away from home, staying in the same place. We practically lived together and that gave us the opportunity to rehearse a lot, work with each other. That is why it seems to me that there is a lot of truth in the scenes, because we have given each one of them a lot of thought. The work I did with Irene is very nice.

In this series everything is unpredictable. Perhaps the only predictable thing is that the psychiatrist is Argentine. Or that the Argentine is a psychiatrist. Explain to me what Nestor is like.

He is a guy with many tools to be able to understand the feelings of others, empathize. A psychoanalyst puts himself in the place of the other and treats that what is making him suffer does not feel like something that is right or wrong, but as something that is happening to him. That is a reality in his psyche. And you have to treat it, observe it and help it. But if this affects you in your essential place or in the project that you have achieved and built for so many years, that’s where the contradictions come in. I always say that psychoanalysts also suffer. And therein lies the interesting point of the character. He has the fears and insecurities about him, like everyone else, although he has more tools.

You perhaps know it better than anyone else. His father is a psychoanalyst, right?

Yes, I know from dad and also from so many years of my own analysis.

Are you psychoanalyzed? What a question, in Argentina it is something very normal.

Yes, it helped me. I don’t know if you believed my character. Do I look like a psychoanalyst? (Laughs). In fact, I like it a lot. I could have studied and I don’t even rule out doing it at some point.

In fact, the actors are something of psychologists, is not it?

Yes. It is important to have an open mind and a porous body to learn and understand.

The scene between Irene and you, a sequence shot with deep dialogues, is priceless.

I loved that scene. There are wonderful ones. The focus is very much on the performances. The narrative is that. In other series or movies it is more focused on the fast-paced montage, but here it is much more focused on what is happening to the characters. Although there is also suspense.

And how do you see Irene Arcos?

This has been very important to her and I hope that she will be seen in the cinema and on TV more and more, because she deserves it. She is very talented and very beautiful. I hope he works more.

Natalia Verbeke, Ernesto Alterio, Juan Diego Botto, Leonardo Sbaraglia… What a squad of Argentines!

There is a lot of Argentine cast in the series, yes. Although both Natalia and Ernesto and Diego play Spaniards.

The female characters are very strong in the story..

Yes. The accent is very much on women. In what happens to them.

Most of the series he has done in Spain have been suspenseful. It’s been a while since his gallant profile has been exploited.

Actually, I’ve come out of that a bit. That theme entertained me too much (laughs). At 20 years old I got out of it. I went the other way.

Twenty years is precisely the time that has been dropped by Spain.

It is a privilege that I appreciate a lot and I take care of it and feed it. I feel like a privilege.

Whenever they call him, he doesn’t hesitate.

The way the world is, working in two countries in a practically equivalent way, as if it were the same territory, is a gift.

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