Miles-long queues in Girona to participate in an audition for a Disney movie

“Where is the queue?”, asked a desperate father accompanied by his daughters in La Devesa park in Girona this morning. He was running around like a headless chicken trying to guess the end of an endless line. His sight couldn’t reach any further and the stress on his face was more than palpable. 

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It was 10:30 AM and the casting call that Disney had organized at the Palau de Fires for the filming of the new live-action adaptation of Tangled, based on the tale of Rapunzel, had only just begun half an hour earlier. A fiction with flesh-and-blood characters that will star actors Teagan Croft, in the role of Rapunzel, and Milo Manheim, who will play the delinquent who wants to change his destiny.

The casting call organized by Disney today in Girona, seeing the kilometer-long queues, will have exceeded all expectations. Both for the organizers, who are looking for between 1,500 and 2,000 extras to participate in a part of the filming that will take place in Girona this summer, and for the prospective extras, who stoically awaited their turn after several hours in line. 

The Disney phenomenon, boosted in current times by social media and influencers, perfect loudspeakers for publicizing this mega-casting, has left an unprecedented image in La Devesa, the green lung of the city, with thousands and thousands of people gathered awaiting an opportunity.

Among the attendees, who sought shelter under the shade of the park’s centenary plane trees, there were mothers and fathers with young children, grandmothers with grandchildren, boys accompanying their girlfriends, dance groups… The call was very open.

Professional and amateur dancers between 4 and 70 years old, of any origin, could participate, as well as men, women, and children up to 80 years old with no artistic experience. A call as broad as the interest it aroused, with thousands of people arriving from all over Catalonia and beyond. In La Devesa, residents from Barcelona, Manresa, Terrassa, Figueres, Selva de Mar, Madrid, Murcia, Andalusia, Valencia, and even the Canary Islands gathered…

The early birds arrived this Sunday shortly before noon and spent the night outdoors. The queue began to form at dawn, and by eleven in the morning, there was more than a kilometer and a half between the first and the last person. A queue that moved very slowly. An hour and a half after the doors of the Palau Firal opened, only about 125 people had completed the casting.

Thus, any pastime was good to make the wait more pleasant. Little Txell Ventura, 10 years old, was doing some touches with her father with a volleyball or sometimes playing prisoner’s base. A theater student at a school in Figueres, this is the first casting she participates in. “I’m a little nervous,” she said.

A few meters further on, Micaela Agüero was teleworking with her computer in her improvised outdoor office. “I’ve left my meetings for the afternoon,” she explained. She left Sant Cugat del Vallès at six in the morning with her friend, Karolina Bartoszewicz, to participate in a casting call in which she has high hopes. “Rapunzel is my favorite princess, in fact, my little sister calls me that, it would be a dream for her and for me if they chose me,” she explained.

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A princess who is also the favorite of Candela Vallejo, a 12-year-old girl from Terrassa, who was accompanied by her mother in this experience. In the queue, there were as many motivations as people. Anna Peñas, from Cassà de la Selva, accompanied her daughters and a niece to the call. All with experience in the artistic field, whether in dance, singing, or ballet. They came well prepared, with folding chairs and stools to rest, also water and food. “If they pick us, great, and if not, we’ll take this experience home,” they assumed.

With the aim of also experiencing a mega-casting like this, Saray, Naima, and Alba, three young women aged 19, 20, and 24, also gathered in La Devesa, spending hours playing with a deck of cards. One of them, from Manresa and with a two-month-old baby, spent the night in a hotel in Girona. 

Also from Manresa came the couple formed by Queralt Martínez and Arnau Farré, who got up very early to be in the city shortly before half past eight. “The difficult part was finding parking; the public ones were full and the private ones too, in the end, we were lucky at the fourth parking lot we went to,” he said. 

A city that this Monday noticed traffic congestion on some roads due to unexpected traffic. Other notable events were added to the casting, such as the eviction of an occupied block on Ronda Ferran Puig, one of the entrances to the city. 

In the queue, many children and teenagers skipped school. Like the second-year high school students, Cristina Caula and Paula Parés, who spent their time reviewing notes for tomorrow’s Latin exam. “The story of Rapunzel brings back many childhood memories and the importance of pursuing dreams,” they explained, sitting on the floor.

They still had many hours to access the fairgrounds. They did so in groups of about fifty people who, after handing in their identification document, awaited their turn. Today’s casting was limited to a few photos of each aspirant. Some who came as companions eventually opted to participate. This was the case for Jesús Maldonado, from Selva de Mar. “My children got me into this,” he said. He met a highly valued requirement for men: a thick beard.

Filming in Girona, which will focus on locations in the Barri Vell, will take place between July 13 and 29. Previously, filming will have taken place in Alicante, between June 24 and 30, and in Tarragona, from July 1 to 10. 

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