From San Sebastián, where she is filming a new production, Inma Cuesta answers the call with that mix of closeness and concentration of someone in the middle of shooting. Her joining Berlin and the Ermine Lady was not part of a calculated strategy, but rather an unexpected breakthrough: a proposal that arrived in the last days of the year, when work no longer appears on the immediate horizon and everything seems to shift towards the domestic.
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In the first scripts she found a different tone: a role “very fun, very different,” within an already established universe with a very marked identity, heir to the phenomenon of Money Heist. “I jumped in,” she sums up. On screen, that intuition translates into a character who moves with ease. Cuesta explains it straightforwardly: she felt she could offer things to it and, above all, she enjoyed it. “I played it a lot and I really enjoyed it.”
In the first scripts she found a different tone: a role “very fun, very different”
That impulse to explore other places is not limited to acting. In parallel, the actress is developing with her partner a personal project, a lesbian romantic comedy that partly arises from the absence of references and the need to tell stories she has not found as an actress. The script, in which she will also participate as an actress, has been built over time, through versions and adjustments, and marks a significant shift in her career: from embodying others’ stories to starting to write her own.
In the first episode your character takes justice into her own hands a bit… are you like that too?
No, I am not vengeful at all. I am a bit resentful, though. I recognize that it is something I have to work on and that I am still working on it, but when someone deeply hurts me, it is very hard for me to forget. I forgive, but I do not forget. And I don’t like it, you know? But yes, I am not one to take revenge. I have never taken revenge on anyone. I am a very empathetic person, I always try to put myself in the other’s place, to understand that we can all make mistakes. But I admit that when someone deeply hurts me, I do not forget.
Is it true that actors enjoy characters more the less they resemble themselves?
Well, I don’t think there is a rule. I think we have fun when there is room for play. In this character I had the opportunity to improvise a lot. And then there were very powerful, very funny situations, like this revenge one, which was very tough. I think it was one of the hardest shooting days of my career. It was very cold, I was in a tank top, it was early morning, five or six in the morning, it was raining… it was very complicated. But when you have the chance to do things like that, it is always more fun.
Earlier you said that December when you received the call to do this role you were juggling a thousand things. Was one of them writing the film you will sign with Ángeles Maeso?
Well, the film we have written has been brewing for a while. It has several versions, suddenly something works, something doesn’t. And it is something we feel very proud of. We think it is very necessary that a lesbian romantic comedy exists, because there are very few. And when there are, they usually have a more dramatic connotation. We wanted something light, beautiful, normal, like the heterosexual romantic comedies we have seen since we were little.
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No, I am not vengeful at all. I am a bit resentful, though”
It also has to do with the lack of references.
Of course. What you don’t see doesn’t exist. You can’t identify with something you are not seeing. And in my case, also, when you are a mother, there is a responsibility to your children to honor who we are, to honor our family, to normalize it. And then you are amazed at how children naturalize it.
Have they stolen things from your life?
Yes, of course, absolutely. The starting point is quite real. And then, of course, you fictionalize. There are things from reality that work and others that are more fun to exaggerate or magnify. And then there are stories from friends, things you have seen. It’s a mix, but there is always reality.
How has it been writing with four hands?
Well, very fun, really. Ángeles is a screenwriter and knows much more about structure. But we have been very hand in hand. I have been reading scripts for many years, analyzing them, and I also wrote texts, poetry, ideas. And for me it has been one of the most fun things, especially dialoguing. Reading it. I needed to read it out loud. We laughed a lot while writing.
Did you think of specific actors while writing?
Yes, yes, yes. We imagined who could do it. In fact, it helps a lot to think about actors, how they interpret, how they do comedy.
Have you thought about that betrayal of the actor to the text?
Yes, I think you have to be generous and open to the text being transformed. Sometimes someone comes and makes the scene bigger with something they propose.
Has your way of receiving a script changed?
More than from writing, from raising projects with our production company, Loba Loba. Now I have a much more global vision. I understand the time and effort it takes to raise a project.
Have you become more demanding or more flexible?
More flexible.
My favourite things
If I were to steal a painting it would be: Although since adolescence I was an admirer of Van Gogh, I choose one of Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits.
Last movie you liked:Three Goodbyes, by Isabel Coixet.
To disconnect: Having two children and an old dog it is very easy to disconnect. The day to day, school, the house… you don’t even remember who you are.
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