At 18 years old, Pau Gimeno (Barcelona, 2004) has just finished the exams, like thousands of young people throughout Spain. What is not so common among boys his age is that he has spent years combining studies with sets and stages. the boy who was billy elliot in the theater and the one we have recently seen in the musical of grease has grown and has just released the second and final season of Paradise, the fantastic series set in the 90s that stars in Movistar Plus+in which he fights against supernatural and evil forces to protect his own.
In Paradise He plays Javi, but in principle he was going to play another character, that of Álvaro.
Yes I did all castings to play Alvaro. But since they didn’t have Javi, they took me for the group scene rehearsals. In the end, no actor fit for the character, but they did have one who could play Álvaro, so they changed me.
Would you say that this second season of Paradise is it darker?
Yeah, I think they’ve taken it a bit further, sexually, horror-wise, adventure-wise… It’s been a while and the characters and the plot have evolved.
Paradise It is a series that throws a lot of nostalgia, with references that those over 40 will know. But do you think it is more difficult for you to connect with your generation?
No way. I think they have found very well that point of a youth series that deals with issues that adolescence brings, such as first love, friendships, adventure, but at the same time, being set in the 90s, makes an older person too be reflected.
She started taking dance classes very young, when she was 6 years old. Did her family have artistic precedents?
My family has always been very involved in the Cercle de Gràcia, since my grandmother.
Did they act?
In the amateur theater. My mother and father have participated in many plays and musicals, so since I was little I have always been closely linked to this world. And my sister, who is older than me, also started dancing when she was very young.
And was it difficult to combine studies with musicals?
I was very lucky with the school, the Oriol Martorell in Barcelona, where they mix primary and secondary school with dance. You can do math and then go to ballet. That’s why I was in contact with dance from such a young age. But it was also very hard. when i was doing billy elliot It was leaving school and rehearsing until nine at night, so I had to study when I could, when I got home or woke up earlier.
Was it at school where you realized how much you liked to get on stage?
Yes, when I started dancing and noticing that I wasn’t bad at it, that I was in a world where I felt comfortable, I pushed forward and thanks to that I also discovered acting. I had taken theater classes at the Cercle de Gràcia but when they took me on for Billy Elliot I began to develop as an actor as well.
Do you think you missed out on things from your childhood because you started so young with musicals? Because at the age of 13 he had to go live in Madrid with his father to star in billy elliot.
First I was with my father and then he took turns with my mother for 15 days. And we also lived with two kids from the construction site who were from outside, so it was cool. It was complicated, but it was what he wanted. Although I have not been able to live normal childhood situations but I do not regret it, because it is what I chose and what has made me continue as an artist.
Related news
Now that you have finished your studies, do you plan to continue training? Or do the tables throw him more?
I don’t want to stop studying, but I plan to give myself a break because I’ve been working for almost seven years. Also, so I can focus more on castings and in other projects that come to me. I don’t know what career to take, but I do have to continue training. I like this world, so I will surely study something that, if it is not acting, will be direction or script.