Look at the image above. Cartier's panther, among garnets and diamonds, climbs Victoria Luengo's middle finger. The actress would like to embody a similar beast, her cousin the jaguar, which does not roar, but only hisses and purrs. She is honest: she knows that they think she looks more like a squirrel, agile, clever, with huge eyes. He is aware: right now he is a headless chicken. The conversation starts and stumbles. She has just remembered that she kept something in the safe of the hotel where she was staying and there, in a closet in Rome, while she, on the phone, goes to the airport, it has remained hidden. Several calls and a friend runs out and works the miracle. The treasure has been recovered. Catastrophe avoided.
This doesn't usually happen to her. He never forgets his duties. He is "super responsible." But he has been rolling on the red carpets of festivals for a year, posing in front of the cameras of newspapers, television and national and international magazines. On his recent agenda: Bitter Christmas, by Pedro Almodóvar; The loved one, by Rodrigo Sorogoyen; Red Queen, the second season of the adaptation of the novel by Juan Gómez Jurado; Sants, by Miquel Gurrea. Fashion brands invite her to their shows in Milan and Paris. Everyone wants a piece of Victoria Luengo.
The Mallorcan woman manages them. He draws the border between person and character so that the material he works with does not turn out to be self-harming. He had, as in the film in which he co-stars with Javier Bardem, something similar to an "absent father." Good colleagues respect limits. There are things I want to drink and others I don't. "It is not healthy for an actor to always be bringing sensations to a shoot."
Is it easy to become a loved one by Victoria Luengo?
In general I am easy to access, but perhaps a while ago it was easier. As you get older you also have less room to open up to new people. I miss my friends a lot. Especially at this time of promotion when I am traveling from Rome to Paris, from Paris to Albacete, from Albacete to Tudela. We tried to talk on the phone. The space with them is very important because it is the place where I let myself fall. Loose there. I can be me without feeling like I'm going to be judged or singled out. And that seems very nice to me.
It is not very easy to discover who they are or if she is married or if she has a cat or a canary. His Instagram is shielded from the personal.
I don't like sharing my life on networks. I don't judge it, but I only use it for work. I don't have a good time watching it, it doesn't entertain me. The actresses I like the most are the ones I can't understand who they are. If I show you my whole life and you see me eating, having breakfast, taking a photo while I cry, it will be more difficult for me to convince you with my characters. It's because of selfishness.
Before being an actress, I am a person: I cannot keep quiet to ensure that my work continues to be seen.
VICTORIA LUENGO
However, it does position itself on current issues. Can't that mark her?
What will mark is that there will be people who don't want to see my characters. But there are vital and social moments where I think it is extremely dangerous not to take a position. Jennifer Lawrence, for example, said that she has decided not to speak because "certain types of people are going to hate me, they are not going to come see my movies and I change the world with the movies I make." It seems legitimate to me and I agree, but on the other hand, before being an actress I am a person. I can't shut up. I can't help but say out loud that I deeply appreciate Sol's camping trip. And it's not because of me. I understand that when we actors speak, people don't listen to us. What is she going to tell me about the house if I see her dressed on a red carpet all day? They forget that we are people. I have relatives around me who are not able to pay the rent. I can't keep quiet to keep my work seen. When we are in complicated political times, it is a responsibility to try to tell things as they are.
Opinion is today a tribal matter. How do you face the difference?
Frustration activates me first. Then I try to understand that there are many speeches that have to do with hate and that the only way to combat it is by trying to make people reflect with love, not with anger or contempt. Let's find and do one small thing that we agree on for everything we're talking about. I think it's the only way to combat this moment.
It is the one from The Black Ball, with which he competed to go to the Oscars. It's devastating.
I feel very proud of Spanish cinema. They have managed to make the movie theaters full of young people. I can't attribute any negative feelings to it, only positive ones. I don't feel envious because it couldn't be happening to me. What I do think is that they must be exhausted. If I am with the level of promotion I have... I hope they win. I wish it from my heart. Also to explain to all these people who are now wanting to censor "films that indoctrinate" that The Black Ball is a shield against all that. I wrote to Carlos González the other day because he really is wonderful. The film is very well shot and the photography is beautiful. I hope they bring to Spain all the Oscars they deserve.
There's no point in having an Oscar at home if you wake up and are not calm with your life.
VICTORIA LUENGO
That is an unappealable sign of professional success. What are the ones you are looking for?
There is no point in having an Oscar in your house if you are not calm with your life. For me it is not about being making a film with Javier Bardem or that The Loved One is touring Europe. For me, success is getting up and feeling at peace. As an actress, it means being where I am, but not because of the cameras, the photos or the red carpets. The success is that I was a 14-year-old girl who wanted to be an actress and that now I am a 36-year-old woman being able to dedicate myself to what I want, choosing projects and making films that make me feel proud. It is the greatest success I could have. I don't know where the vocation came from because my mother wasn't dedicated to this and she reminds me that when I was 8 years old I already said I wanted to be an actress. It's a crazy thing. And it also, quote-unquote, makes me feel a little poor. I mean: how little he asked for, right? Instead of being an astronaut, which is much more incredible. For a long time now I have more than met the expectations of what I asked of myself. It makes me very happy.
From up there, how does fiction look today? Should institutional morality take precedence over the aesthetic value of a film?
Fiction doesn't have to be moral. If we demand it of her, we are censoring her. But being where I am, in this privileged place where I have so many projects, I wouldn't get involved in doing exactly those that don't make me feel good or comfortable. But I don't think anything should be censored. Art is there to make us talk, to see something and say "damn, I don't want this in my life."
Woody Allen is rolling through Madrid. What would have answered your call?
It doesn't just depend on him calling you. At first, I think I would have said no. But I don't guarantee it. We are in a moment where we simplify too much. Everything seems to have to be extremely polarized. Either you are against or you are for. I really believe that gray exists. And I think that this cannot even be asked so lightly because, for example, my colleagues who are making that film may not be comfortable with Woody Allen. Maybe they haven't worked for a while or they need the money or they're really excited for me to call them, I don't know. It is not good to position yourself in a totalitarian way. You need a certain privilege to be able to reflect. I have learned a lot from Bardem: that you can raise your voice and say "I would never do this" means that you have a privilege.
What happened for Vicky to become Victoria?
I felt that Vicky was starting to feel like a suit that was too small for me. Not as an actress, but on a vital level. I started to think that he was 35 years old and that he didn't want to call me by a diminutive. The reason I named myself Vicky when I was 14 was solely because I felt Victoria was too big of a name. It seemed too much to me. Time has passed and the girl who decided that Victoria was too big a name for her has stopped feeling it. Suddenly it seemed like a beautiful name. My mother calls me that, my friends call me that. I don't want to spend my entire life signing movies with a diminutive.
What are, so far, your greatest victories?
The relationship with my mother, which has not always been easy. I try. Almost always, when there is a premiere here, she comes because she is very excited about it. And when I have free time I go to see her. It has been, like all relationships with fathers and mothers, complex. But when you work on it, it's nice to be able to be so proud of it. My friends are also my great victories. And my achievement when it comes to learning to love myself, which has also been difficult for me.
From Javier Bardem I have learned that to say 'I wouldn't do that' you need
speak from privilege
VICTORIA LUENGO
It's tricky for an actress. Either they lose weight suddenly or, like Emma Stone, they appear with perfect new faces. With your physique as a work tool, exposed, photographed and recorded, how do you handle it?
Well, with all the contradictions with which we all navigate it. I am very aware of my vulnerability and I understand perfectly that people, in the crazy world we live in, with the aesthetic pressure that women have, feel terrible and want to do something to feel better. And even more so in actresses. I also look at myself and say "I would like to have my face like I had it 10 years ago." Of course I think about it. But I have decided that, for the moment, and I say for the moment because I am 36 years old and maybe when I am 45 I will tell you something else, what I want to do is honor my body. And if I want to be honest with its parts, I can't not be honest with my face. My physiognomy can change my emotions and my way of expressing them. I want my little niece, who now also says she wants to be an actress, to see a 36-year-old woman and think "how pretty she is." We have no references that help us think that an aged face is beautiful. It's not about being for or against Botox either. Insecurity is influenced by how self-esteem has been built, the society in which you live, what you do. With my facialist, Jennifer Alonso, I have learned to love myself. I use creams and have Indiba sessions, but I have made the decision not to choose an aggressive treatment. I want to try to love myself like this and grow old with honesty, which will be what I can give to my characters.
Fiction doesn't have to be moral. If we demanded it, we would be censoring it
VICTORIA LUENGO
If that foreign look disappeared, what feature would remain standing?
The people who have always been with you see a face that you don't see. The one I show to my friends is not the one on the rugs and magazines. It is the face for which not everything is going well. You can get confused and think that my life is constantly surrounded by that euphoria. My enthusiasm would remain. Me gusta mucho la vida. I am a very happy and very passionate person. That would still be part of me, even if there was no one to point it out from the outside.
Team
Makeup and hair: María Verano. Photo assistant: Camila Lloris. Styling assistants: María Requejo and Carmen Cruz
