Vicky Luengo: “An actress has to have mystery. If I showed my life on networks I would make my job worse” | Famous | S Fashion

Vicky Luengo is an ectoplasm. She has no face. She has no body. That is, she does have it, and she is recognizable, but she is as malleable as liquid mercury. Terminator 2 We all saw it in the series Riot gear, by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, where she played a tough internal affairs police officer. Or in Suro, in which she was Helena, the urbanite transplanted to a forest. But I realized after watching his monologue Prima Fascie, in which she plays a fierce lawyer who is raped. After seeing her bring an entire theater to its feet, I went out for air. I was going home when I heard someone shout my name. In a corner, wrapped in a huge anorak and under a hood, there was a body waving at me. He looked like Kenny, the cartoon South Park, but it was not a cartoon, but a little person who spoke to me in a soft voice. The voice of Vicky Luengo. I had just seen a hurricane on stage, a woman who had to be at least eight feet tall, with a torrent of voice, who was this young woman speaking to me?

Luengo is a Houdini of acting. She does what she wants. And she makes you believe it. After years of hard work in theater, film and television, she has now premiered her most international series, Red Queen, which adapts the successful novels by Juan Gómez-Jurado, and will be available in 230 countries. For an hour he reels off his work, his latest readings—he quotes Luis López Carrasco, bell hooks, and Graham Greene—with a torrent of well-structured words and ideas, and then he leaves. Where and where to? Don’t know. He has done it again.

His role in Red Queen It’s something of a superhero, it’s different from other things he’s done. For starters, it’s a blockbuster. How do you feel about the turn?

One of the most difficult things has been bringing this sensation of superheroine to reality, because Antonia is a woman with extreme depression. The challenge was to audiovisually portray her head. It’s been a lot of fun because I’ve filmed car chases, monkey attacks, I’ve never filmed anything like that. It was like an amusement park. I learned to shoot effects with chroma keys, without there being even an object, having to imagine. Although now that I think about it, being in the middle of a green set is a lot like theater, because you have to make the viewer imagine that there is something there that doesn’t really exist.

What did it mean to you? Riot gear?

I am lucky because I have never lacked work. But I do remember that my professional life before Riot gear I was very tired. Because it is very frustrating to feel like you have to start over every time, no matter how well it went, you never quite relax. I realized later that my success was that I had been working for 10 years. Riot gear It has brought me a small feeling that I have entered an oasis of tranquility, which may last a year or two more or end tomorrow. I have been able to stop having the feeling that they are not going to call me tomorrow. But it can come back to me, we have seen it a thousand times.

She has said she wants to be called Victoria, not Vicky. She also wants to do roles in which her character is happy. Does it have anything to do with it?

It has more to do with how I see myself than with others. I chose Vicky when I was 14 years old to play my first role because Victoria seemed like a lady’s name to me, but now that time has passed I’m starting to get nervous about signing projects as Vicky, it’s starting to seem like it’s not me, although I don’t mind being call Vicky. My family calls me Victoria, so does my boy. As it is a matter of self-perception, I also realize that I play many roles in which I suffer a lot, I would like to play others where I am happier (laughs).

Is it a coincidence that you are offered roles in which you suffer so much?

Until very recently I have not had the privilege of choosing my roles. I would like to give you a more elaborate answer, but it is somewhat intuitive. Choose my body more than my head. It happened to me with Surowith Prima Fascie. They tend to be projects in which I feel morally and politically identified. Let it be something you haven’t done before, physical comedy, for example. And that I can play a character surrounded by people that interest me: script, cast, direction.

How has it been working with Hovik Keuchkerian again?

In Riot gear We only had one sequence and Sorogoyen asked us, since it was an interrogation, not to talk to him or the rest of the actors beforehand, so we had a single rehearsal but we didn’t talk. And on the day of filming we were in different rooms until it was our turn to film. He has said that at that moment he thought: “I have a bull in front of me.” And I thought the same thing, he has such powerful energy… In Red Queen It has been great. He is very down to earth, very loyal, one of the most loyal people I know. Very hardworking and very fun. It was a long shoot, six and a half months, very tiring. When you lack strength it’s great to have someone make you laugh.

Before, actresses and actors did not have as much exposure as they have since networks have existed. Many actresses show their home, their privacy, their body. There are many people who work both as actresses or actors and as influencer. It is not your case.

I have been in conflict with the exhibition for a long time, I anticipated what they might demand of me. I am hooked on the networks like many other people, and without judging what others do, it seems to me that an actor or an actress has to have mystery. If you see me in all the moments of my life, when you see me in a movie you will always see me behind the character. I would be a worse actress if I showed my life.

He also doesn’t play much to show his physique.

Although it may seem self-help, when I began to love and accept myself, things began to go well for me. When I was 19 or 20 years old I went to castings and I wore a padded bra, I put on a lot of makeup, I tried to be the actress that I thought others wanted. They called me to castings of series to make protagonist Stunning and I don’t fit into that pattern. As a result, I had more physical insecurities than ever. While doing theater I realized that what stood out about me was something else, and I started to use it. For him casting of Riot gear I went with a bun and a washed face. I’m more conflicted now with how we sell femininity in the film industry.

What is it referring to?

It is not so much physical as ideological. I question how we sell what a woman is, beauty, eroticism, sensuality. In that sense, what I’m trying to do is be consistent: what doesn’t seem right to me is going to a premiere in February in sandals and a sundress, while my co-star is calmly wearing a suit and I, on the other hand, get the flu. If I want to wear a heel, I can wear it, but be as consistent as possible with my well-being and my health.

In Prima Fasciethe text and her acting work bring her into conflict with contemporary debates about consent, sexuality and what a woman is today.

Through Prima Fascie I have explored these topics a lot. It’s a huge melon. Should I, as bell hooks says, make men see that they would gain if they internalized the teachings of feminism? I question it a lot. At least I have learned to have an opinion about which contemporary feminism I want to collaborate with.

And which one is it?

Since we are talking about equality, for me equality also includes responsibility. I am in favor of helping through love, through communication, so that people open their eyes. But I will do it if you accept as a man the same responsibility that I accept as a woman in being a feminist. In Prima Fascie I say, “The law has been shaped by generations and generations of men.” Well, the image of what a desirable woman is too. So, as a woman, I want to generate the image of the woman I want to be.

How do you prepare each role?

Each character asks me to do a different thing. With Antonia Scott (the protagonist of Red Queen) I wanted you to believe her within the code of the series, to see that girl in her house, with agoraphobia, anxiety, who is afraid to go out. That drives the series: Antonia’s pain. For that I read all the books there are about people with high abilities. Many times they are bothered by noises, loud sounds or labels on clothing, you can see in the series that sometimes I scratch, I hold on to those things to create the character.

Is it different in theater?

In Prima Fascie I learned the text first and then created a map of the body, an emotional map. In one scene I’m going to try to see what happens if my belly hurts, in another my hands are sweating… It was about finding physical sensations, because for me the question that the play raises is what happens to a body that has been sexually assaulted. In the theater the information has to be in the body, on TV it is in the eyes.

What is your dream as an actress?

An Oscar, a Goya… and above all a movie with the Dardenne Brothers. It would be amazing.