She does not mind being the last representative of a long line of actors dating back to the mid-19th century and including her grandmother Irene Gutiérrez Caba and her great-uncles Julia and Emilio. With more than 25 years of career in film, theater, and television, Irene Escolar has written her own story and still has a long way to go.
By critical and popular acclaim, she returns to the stage with one of her personal projects, the play People, Places and Things (from September 19 at the Teatro Español in Madrid, and November 29 at Temporada Alta in Girona). If in the play she brings to life an actress in detox, she confesses to being addicted to acting. In October we will see her in Ashes in the Mouth, by Diego Luna.
Irene Escolar has written her own story and still has a long way to go
As Paquita Salas would say, you are a “360 actress.” If you had to choose one title in each of the three fields — theater, film, and series — in which you have worked, which would they be?
It is very difficult to answer because everything happens in very different periods of life and at each moment you are a very different actress. I am not the same actress I was five years ago, and then there were many important projects for me. In theater, I would have to choose People, Places and Things, because I have learned a lot by being involved from the beginning in creatively putting it together, alongside Pablo Messiez, who directs it, and with Alicia Calôt, who is with me as a producer. In television, it is harder for me, because there is Tell Me Who I Am, with which I spent eight months filming almost every day, but also The Route. I loved the first season, and being with two characters in the second was another very nice challenge. In film, I would say the movie I am preparing for by learning Catalan… I think it could be another one of those experiences I will carry with me forever. But I can’t say anything…
Do you think that, as an actress, you already have the reins of your career?
That is very complicated because there are always external views that decide, actresses are made to feel dispensable, one can be like another, except when they have written the project thinking of you. When that happens, it gives you a lot of hope because it is not usual.
But it has happened to you several times.
Luckily, yes. Pascal Lambert wrote Sisters thinking of me and Bárbara Lennie. The same with Finland. I have been lucky to be considered when imagining projects and also that they have wanted to work with me again, that also makes you feel good.
I have learned to understand those moments of pause, to make the most of them as I can, to save, and to organize my life
Photo session for the ‘Magazine’
Coming from six generations of actors, have you ever tried to escape your destiny?
No, the truth is no. It is a profession that, if you know it as a child, has to do with play… and who doesn’t want to play? It is very magical and captivates you a lot because there is a constant adrenaline of discovering new things all the time, of putting yourself at risk and challenging yourself, because you are always starting from zero. I always go to work very enthusiastically. It is a place where I want to be as long as necessary, and I don’t think that happens to everyone. Then there is also the constant uncertainty: only 8% of actors live from their profession in Spain.
Have you had any dizzy moments, waiting for a call?
I have been very lucky, but of course I have gone through moments when you feel that the things you wanted are not coming to you. In 25 years I have gone through many phases and learnings. At first, my profession was everything. But I have learned to understand those moments of pause, to make the most of them as I can, to save, and to organize my life accordingly.
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Now that you return with ‘People, Places and Things’, what have you learned about addictions?
A lot, because although in the play I am an actress entering a rehabilitation center, the truth is I knew very little. I read some books like A Line?, the essay by David López Canales, and above all I attended several therapy groups for four months. There I realized that there are as many cases as people. You cannot generalize. As Leslie Jamison writes at the end of The Recovering, if we see people as people, we will start treating them as people. The play talks about the life experience of a woman who has arrived there due to circumstances that the audience discovers. It is beautiful to experience it, to see what has happened to her, what process she goes through to try to get out of there. Although I do not consume, I can identify with her or with people in the therapy group. How they feel in loneliness, their family circumstances, or how they inhabit this compulsive society, etc. That is why the world should not be divided into addicts and non-addicts.
Do we live in an addictive society?
A compulsive society. It was the most mentioned in rehearsals, what I thought about the most, because that compulsion also has to do with acceleration, with the rush we are in… It leads us to very harmful and painful behaviors, where there is a lot of emptiness. If you try to fill it by consuming anything, drugs, clothes, or face products, it doesn’t matter, it has no end. The same with the phone. Who can say they don’t have a problem with them? They are designed to trap us. Sometimes I see myself there and say: “What am I doing? I’ve had the phone in my hand for an hour… What a waste of time!”
That constant overstimulation generates fear of stopping.
Fear of stopping and listening to yourself, even thinking. There is a deep fear of thinking. That is why it is important to go to the cinema or theater and be silent for two hours, listening, receiving things. It is a way to broaden the vision of the world because art sees things that we do not see and puts them there. I love the ending of Hamnet, both the book and the movie. She can mourn thanks to what she sees on stage. That healing capacity through identification with the other only art has. Right now, going to the cinema or theater seems revolutionary to me. They are safe spaces where you will see things that can change you. The collective will save us, that is another idea that is talked about a lot in the play and in therapy groups. It is the other person who saves you, who holds your gaze, who listens to you and cares about what you are telling them.
I am very curious about the Manoir de la Moissie, in Dordogne (France), a very beautiful area where you stayed to prepare the role. What is it like to live in an artist residency?
I also stayed there to prepare Finland. In a space like that, in nature, away from noise, you lower your frequency a lot, and everything enters you differently. It has nothing to do with memorizing in the city. You meet people from other disciplines who feed back into your process. Next to me was a painter, I saw her working so many hours, choosing colors with so much dedication and care… That leads you to build in another way. There I have made great friends, like Ariadna Chez, a wonderful visual artist; Cris Lizárraga, singer of the group Belako, and Julia Llerena, a fantastic painter. Those encounters have inspired me a lot and have been important in my life. I would love to do something with them.
My favourite things
A book: A Common Destiny, by Lucrecia Martel. It would be a dream: to make a film with her
A movie: Viva, by Aina Clotet. It has a very genuine tone and is very brave. She is extraordinary in all registers, and finding a woman who has produced, directed, and starred is something that stands out
A vacation spot: Cantabria, to escape the heat and eat well
An accessory that never leaves you: Rings. Some are from my grandmother and others were given to me by a jeweler friend who makes very beautiful things
Photographer: Jesús Isnard / Photography assistant: Alejandro Vaquero / Stylist: Isabel Ottino / Makeup and hair: Lucas Margarit @lucas.margarit for Armani Beauty / Production: Agnes&Co
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