On April 30th, ‘El inocente’, a new Spanish platform miniseries created by Oriol Paulo and starring, among others, by Mario Casas and Aura Garrido. In Espinof we have had the opportunity to chat with the two protagonists about her and below you will find the result of that conversation:
What motivated them about the series and what their characters are like
What motivated you the most to want to participate in ‘El Inocente’?
Aura Garrido: First thing Oriol Paulo. We had both worked separately with Oriol and working with him again I think was the first thing that attracted us both to the project.
Mario Casas: Yes, already knowing him from previous projects, Aura in ‘El cuerpo’ and me in ‘Contratiempo’, he is someone we greatly admire and respect. He is a director to whom none of us would say no, I think we would all say yes, because you know the way he records, how he is, the passion he has for the job. And at the end of the day he is almost a friend to us. And then for the story. I ate with him, he told me he wanted to tell me all eight chapters, he sat me down at a meal and told me the story of each chapter. I was left with the head that I was going to explode. I did not quite understand it, but I said yes, I will go to the end with you, to the death. It was impossible to say no. And behind with a platform like Netflix, how they take care of the projects and you know where it is going to go. It was very interesting.
What can you tell us about your characters to know what awaits us ahead?
Aura Garrido: It is that we can count little. Mat and Olivia are a couple and they are in a very happy moment of their lives, and then everything that they did not have resolved in their past comes back in some way. It’s a bit like this. Well, more is known about Mat from the beginning.
Mario Casas: She goes to work and I receive a call from her phone, a call that will completely change my life, it will change the perception that I had of her in all these years and it gives me a 180 degree turn to the head. And also with the burden that my character has spent four years in prison because he accidentally killed a boy in a fight. And nine years later we find ourselves in the present telling this story, but I think people are going to be pretty knocked out by the series. You will be putting pieces of the puzzle together until almost the last scene of the eighth chapter, where you will find out what really happened. You are in shock with the conclusion of the series.
Suffering roles
Mario, lately we haven’t stopped seeing you suffer in your roles, do these types of characters motivate you more?
Mario Casas: I don’t know, it happens like that. Suddenly projects come to you and you fall in love with them, you don’t think about the tone or the genre, but about what it produces or who is going to do it. Aura and I were talking about how we wanted to do a comedy, I think it’s time to do it and relax. But be careful also with comedies, which also suffer their own, but in pre-production is when you enjoy comedies the most and the most you can fly, create and let yourself go. I really want a comedy and laugh at myself for a bit.
Have you been offered any comedy lately?
Aura Garrido: For many years I did not get comedies, and if one came to me, I had the serious role. I must have an intense face, but I think not. Now I am doing a series that is quite comical, it mixes genres, but it is very comical, and I am enjoying it. If they offered a comedy to Mario and me, we would make it happy. We want a comedy, we are taking advantage of the junket.
In your case Mario, in what you appear in ‘Los Hombres de Paco’, is it more relaxed or will you also have to suffer?
Mario Casas: No, no, I did have a great time there. There I have to say that I have enjoyed a lot, I have laughed a lot with Michelle Jenner, Pepón Nieto, Paco Tous … it has been very very funny. In addition, they are doing something very cool, the format of the series has taken on a beastly quality and I think it has a great tone. I think the people who see it are going to have a great time, because in the end they have the same soul but older characters.
The virtues of the other and what is special about Oriol Paulo
It is the first time that you work together, what would you say is the other’s greatest virtue as an actor?
Aura Garrido: For me there are two very clear from Mario, and I think he has many. One is that he is a very good companion, very generous, very careful, really. And the other is that he is a worker like I have not seen another in my life. His capacity for discipline, work and effort is out of the ordinary. It is amazing to see how constantly he is working, and continues, and keeps looking. Not for ever. It is a commitment to work that is exceptional.
Mario Casas: Thank you. I do not know how to explain it…
Aura Garrido: None!
Mario Casas: No, it is a way of interpreting that they have few actresses, which is that everything they do or the sequences they have, are always good. They have a perfect line of interpretation, they never go under and never fall short. I think he always has a constant line that is wonderful, because he has something innate that great actors have. I can compare her to Anna Wagener. In the end they have that way of interpreting that it is very true and they are always good. That is very complex. Sequence that we had, sequence that you were always good.
Aura Garrido: I do not agree with that perception he has, but thank you very much.
Mario Casas: I think they are actresses that in the long run, and as the years go by, they are an Anna Wagener, who is one of the actresses that I like the most in this country.
The two of you have previously worked with Oriol Paulo, what would you say is special about him compared to other directors?
Aura Garrido: He has a privileged head, what he does is very difficult for anyone else to do, because the control he has over history, no matter how complex, is crazy. He always had all the answers, absolute control of everything. It is a joy for the technical and the artistic, he works with the actors a lot. And one thing for me that is very important, which is that beyond the professional, the attitude you have towards work. The passion and dedication that comes with every day is very contagious. In a job with so much stress, having a captain like that is the bomb.
Mario Casas: Oriol is someone very special. I think he has a capacity for ideas, writing, directing, respecting … I have him in a place that, I don’t know, I have almost no words. I admire him very much, even as a human being. He is someone I respect, admire and if he tells me that he has a movie, even if it is a small character, we would all say yes, not only because of his talent, but because of how he is.