Interview by Best Actor & Director Awards – New York
Interview with Alvaro Marenco, Outstanding Performance Award Winner for the Short Film ‘Como un Desconocido’, directed by Eric Muñoz
Hi, Alvaro! Thank you for granting this interview and sincere congratulations on your ‘Outstanding Performance’ Award! You played the lead character in the film ‘Como un Desconocido’. What should the audience expect to see?
Well, thank you for inviting me to this interview. I think that the theme that Like a Stranger has, the main idea is to transmit some of the dreams and wishes from these elderly characters that can sometimes be cornered, right, I think that through this story, well, it allows some dreaming for the senior adults.
You’re playing the role of Lalo in ‘Como un Desconocido’. Tell us more about your character. What is his personality like?
Well, to interpret a character like this one that I think that is pretty distant from what I am, right, because even though I am 78, I have not lived those circumstances, right. So, it is a challenge to interpret a character like this one and to take things from one’s interior, the character has this wish to live in quotations because what he is planning is actually his death, right, but he wants to die in peace, happy, dreaming, that there is an afterlife, and that you can do anything in life, right, if one has tenacity.
What did you do to prepare for the role? Where did you get the inspiration from in order to give depth to your character?
Yes, well, the director, Eric, sent me the script, right, and I considered that it was a character that had a lot of flesh, a lot of history, and that motivated me, well like how you study a character, right, but I think it always shows some of that hidden ‘‘Álvaro’’ that doesn’t know what could happen. I prepared myself, well, with the days required to study a script and every time I walk into set and find myself with the camera, well, it’s like I become the characters I’m supposed to interpret. I don’t think I worried a lot, I liked the text, and we did a table read beforehand, I found, for example, that working with people that had not done a lot of things or fanatics quote on quote, but with great quality, this allowed me some spontaneity that they had when we were working.
The actor Alvaro Marenco and the poster of “Como un Desconocido” (Photo credit: Marcela Bertozzi)
Without giving anything away, what is your favorite line and why?
Well, there is this moment when we’re at the funerary, right, when all those caskets appeared, where you come in as Álvaro Marenco into a funerary to talk about which casket he wants, so some of that spontaneity appeared even though it was in the text, I think that was nice moment, right, to see the wooden casket and say oh no, I don’t want that one, it was a nice moment. Then there’s another moment where I do something like this, like extending my arms talking about, well I don’t remember what I said but, I think I’m in the house, it was really beautiful how that turned out.
What did you enjoy the most about playing ‘Lalo’?
Well, I enjoyed, and I honestly tell you, the whole team that was there, that excitement to make a film is really important and I really found that from the directions that the director, Eric, would give me, which I thank him a lot and his producer, Ximena, they set up a whole story, a lot of magic that you usually have while making movies and a whole particular team was generated in the way they were connected and how they knew where the camera was at, we did it really fast, I think it was one or two days, and I think that what’s important from this short film was that spontaneity, the relationship between the character with the other people that were authentically interpreting a role without overthinking it. Sometimes as actors we create a lot of theories about thing but this was not the case, everyone held on tight real good.
Is there any fun facts from the shooting you would like to share?
Well, they were all like a chain of events, like, moments really, really beautiful, really spontaneous, I think that there were some of those moments, right, it was like making movies, like how you are supposed to, like sometimes we stop taking ourselves so seriously, it’s very particular, I told Eric, only a Mexican can see death in the way we’re telling it, meaning, even though we are Latin-American in Costa Rica or in other countries, we are more ceremonial in relation to death. Here we laugh about it, in a good wat, so there is a fusion about death that’s really beautiful.
Let’s talk about the Cast. How was it to play along with your colleagues?
I think I already mentioned it, but to talk about particular cases like the guy who was at the tailor shop, the doctor, the girl was sensational, right, the mom when she says ‘‘Go pay the light bill’’ and I don’t know, everything was like feeling like we were really a family, but we weren’t really a family, because maybe them, but I didn’t know them, you understand, but there is like a fellowship that was accomplished. I think that, that is the success from the movie, because we went to the field and there a group of people also joined in and it ended up being very, very beautiful.
‘Como un Desconocido’ was directed by Eric Muñoz. Did you know him before, or was this your first time working together?
Well, I didn’t know him, I think a contact was made through my son, who recommended it to me, I really like to work with people that I don’t know that well because it’s an energy and a matter of experimenting, like what is going to happen with this guy? I don’t know him, I felt very good because I think it was a team that had respect, that Don Álvaro and those things that I found funny and pointless, but that also gives confidence to do the job and I think that when one works with young talented people, you’re the one that’s wining because you get a breath of fresh air with young people.
What is the message that ‘Como un Desconocido’ and/or your character convey?
Well, I think that it’s a pretty important message because from what I understand, no, I know that it’s like that, there are a lot of families that treat elder people like that and not only that but they put them in a hospice or somewhere like that and this is told with the humor that it was told, I think it’s very important because through comedy you can accomplish things, you can do a lot of things so people can understand, I think that films should be a thing to have fun, to be entertained, it’s a magical thing that I’m here telling stories so you guys can see them, and for you guys to draw a conclusion.
What are you currently working on? Is there any upcoming project you would like to share?
At the moment I’m not doing anything, I have been dedicating a lot of time into commercials, some short things, I’m in a pretty interesting theatre play called The Whales Cemetery, we stopped rehearsing this play in the month of January of last year. Now we are resuming rehearsals online and we made a short film of the process, that’s the project that has me busy at the moment.
Well, thank you so much to you guys, I hope there are more stories to come, because that’s what actors are here for, to tell stories.
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