That of the actor and theater director Andrés Lima (Madrid, 1961) is one of the great names of the contemporary Spanish scene. Among his most recent works are: Murder and adolescence, a poetic look at the violence of youth and All the daughters, a leap into the future Bernarda Alba’s house from Lorca.
How did you get into the theater? Coincidentally, at school, as I walked through the door, a teacher told me: “You, go to the theater group.” We made Aeschylus and Antonine Artaud, when we were 14 years old. I didn’t understand anything, but she bit me with the poison of the theater and until now.
Does a theater director have to be like a general with his actors? Not at all. Theater is opposed to war, and especially to the army. The military is based on obedience, the theatrical on trust.
Who are your particular heroes? I am not a mythomaniac, but if heroism has to do with sacrifice, I have always admired Salvador Allende, who gave his life for justice. And to Paul Gauguin, who gave his own in the search for beauty.
And what is your war? Do you feel like a veteran of any? War only interests me as theatrical material. In fact, I’m working on a montage about the Spanish Civil War. It is frightening and worthy of constant reflection that human beings are characterized by their relationships through violence. The love of Romeo and Juliet is still a utopia… but that’s what it’s about, pursuing utopia. I am only a veteran of the theater, and as I told you, it is the opposite of war.
What is the best compliment you have received for your work? The hug of a spectator.
And the most extravagant? I don’t know if it was a compliment. Many years ago I was doing a series on television, and on the street I heard someone referring to me: “Look, that’s the one from that series.”
What is the last book you read and liked? A book about texts by Antoine Gimenez, a militiaman during the civil war: Of love, war and revolution. His story from the front is shocking, and his libertarian and desperate vision of love and sex in those three years of struggle is very moving.
The one you have open on your nightstand right now? The fascism of the anti-fascists, by Pier Paolo Pasolini.
One you couldn’t finish? Some.
Your favorite movie of all time? Lawrence of Arabia. There is something very magnetic and captivating about Peter O’Toole. But I’m quite a cinephile and I wouldn’t remain calm without mentioning Fellini, or would I?Red phone? We fly to Moscow, with a unique Peter Sellers, or The executioner, either wishing to loveor many others.
What was the last series you watched in one sitting? The Messiah
What song would you choose as a self-portrait? Me and Bobby McGee by Janis Joplin. Rock And Roll by Led Zeppelin.
In which museum would you stay to live? In the Sorolla museum, which is a beautiful house on Martínez Campos street.
What is the historical event that you admire the most? The French Revolution.
What assignment would you never accept? The one that doesn’t arouse the slightest interest in me. Although I always look for the crack to turn it around.
What is socially overrated? The result, the pleasing, the happy ending.
Which actor would you give an Oscar to? And which playwright received the Nobel Prize? The Oscar ex aequo to Lucía Juárez and Jesús Barranco for my editing Murder and adolescence, artists in a state of grace who have nothing to envy of any Oscar winner. It’s sweeping home, but sometimes we don’t value what we have. And the Nobel Prize undoubtedly goes to the Palestinian people, about whom a terrible and shameful tragedy is being written.
If he had not dedicated himself to theater, he would be… I always liked medicine, and I wanted to be a surgeon, but I would surely have been a good nurse. And if not, ethologist, who is dedicated to the observation of animal behavior and is the closest thing to a theater director.
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