Just half a year ago the name of Enzo Vogrincic was practically unknown beyond his native country, Uruguay, where he has developed his acting career mainly in the theater. Now this elegant 31-year-old performer, with captivating looks and Slovenian descent, is on everyone's lips. Especially among teenagers, for whom he has become an unexpected youth idol thanks to his participation in The Snow Society, the successful film by Juan Antonio Bayona in which he plays Numa Turcatti, one of the victims of the tragedy of the Flight 571 in the Andes mountain range in 1972.
"There are generations that did not live with ¡Viven! -the version of the aerial tragedy directed by Frank Marshall in 1993- and they are surprised by the story because they know it for the first time and it is so exciting and so well filmed and narrated that you catches. And of course, teenagers have a lot of free time and they consume and consume," he says about an unexpected fame that has made him the actor of the moment.
"It's very funny. Sometimes I feel like I'm Justin Bieber. I never would have imagined it! I've gone to a movie theater in Spain with 900 people and people have started screaming as if a famous singer came in. I'm I agree that with my colleagues in the film during rehearsals they asked me what I was going to do when they asked me for a photo and I said that no one was going to ask me for a photo. For me the film goes the other way, on the side of big people. It's about something else, about respect. And they responded: 'Are you stupid? Don't you know who we're working with?' And then I started to think that it could happen, but I never believed that this possibility is what ended up happening."
And what happens is that nowadays there are people who buy "bed quilts with my face, there are cardboard dolls of real height that they wear on birthdays, little cards, there is everything... and it's very funny." Vogrincic maintains that "in Uruguay I can go out on the street without a problem. It is a very quiet place and the people are very serene. We don't have the custom of famous people. But I already know that going to the supermarket means taking a photo or talking to someone. Sometimes someone tells me to come with me and we chat. Yes, I have had to change schedules in places I used to go to. It is not something that is harassing, but it is a tension and a look that is a little tiring and you need extra energy to be there. and sometimes I don't have it and I prefer to stay at home. And it's a shame," he admits to La Vanguardia during a talk with a group of journalists at the Arte de Xcaret hotel, in the Riviera Maya.
Vogrincic is nominated for best actor at this Saturday's Platinum Awards ceremony and has just received the statuette in that category at the public awards. He is the most claimed by the press of all the nominees. Everyone asks for photos. And he responds to requests with a smile that hides great shyness. He will always be grateful for his role as Numa, but after three years on this ambitious project he feels it is time to say goodbye. "The end needs to come. It's been a long time. I'm going to be grateful for this moment to come, although I'm going to miss it too."
He confesses that when he finishes filming "there is always sadness and depression and I go into a hole." For him, acting, a job he dreamed of since he was a child, is feeling "like a fish in water. It's a great channel to get to know yourself." He admits that despite the phenomenon that working on The Snow Society has meant, "I don't get that many proposals" and that he only accepts a project if, when he reads a script, "I realize if I want to be part of it, if it has value for me." I or I have something to contribute". "It's difficult to find good projects," adds Enzo, "and if I don't see something clearly, I prefer to invest my time in other things. What I would like is always a character or story that I feel I have something to tell there because in the end the acting is a place of discovery and exploration and I like to live it from that perspective and not from a commercial perspective".
Vogrincic likes challenges. He is willing to try his luck in Hollywood if the project is worth it. "If I feel that I have something to contribute, I do it in China, Hollywood or wherever they call me. The good thing today is that everything is so globalized that one can live in Montevideo and work for another place perfectly. I prefer to live a block from my friends and in front of the sea". Although he affirms that in acting "what I find is refuge", he also writes and does not rule out being a director in the future. "Now I'm doing a play at home for two people and it's a theatrical experiment with headphones and sound that's just for me. I'm also writing a memoir with a friend and things that come out of this delirious process. I have ideas that I would like to see it filmed."
In Uruguay the film industry has very limited budgets. "Being an actor in my country is absolutely out of passion. There are no subsidies like in Germany," he explains. And he declares that although he has walked on different red carpets, one does not make a living from it. "You're at the Oscars, I wear those clothes that are worth about $15,000 and then I have to return them and I wear my clothes. It's funny because it is generated as an avatar of you that is only what people can see on social networks "This cropped view of the photo is associated with luxury and money and nothing could be further from the truth," he says, laughing.
He acknowledges that he doesn't like to figure, "that's something that happens as a result of the film." Doing interviews is not something he likes either, despite the fact that he carries himself completely naturally and is friendly with journalists. He remembers a conversation with Bayona before the film's premiere in which he asked her "please not do interviews." The response of the director of The Impossible was to laugh automatically: "He told me that the promotion of his first film helped him be where he is today. 'If the film goes to the Oscars you will have about 30 interviews a day,' he told me. I was there I understood and began to assimilate it. It's another thing to work for advertising brands. "It's something that has nothing to do with me or my work, so it puts me in a complicated crossroads. Sometimes they offer you money that suits me very well and I try to choose one or two things, but no more.
Being an actor is also entering a world of competition, and he is aware that the accent "is a very big limitation." "I imagine doing a Spanish accent in a movie and I tremble. I'm ashamed. I'm an insecure person and I need to train myself to do something." He now has a couple of projects in mind that he likes, but they are still a year or two away. "I like to disappear. I like to disappear," she repeats. "I always maintained that the names of the actors should not be said. That part is not important. But we live in a world where there are stars and awards and things that also move the numbers of the industry and that must be encouraged. One ends up falling into those networks and you can't avoid it. Of course, if I had the choice, total invisibility," he concludes with a broad smile.
