He has filmed the life of the comedian Eugenio.
His training period: how he became a comedian.
Didn't it mean to be?
Very shy, he protected himself from the public.
As?
Smoked glasses, drink and cigarette...
And a cross on his chest...
He was a goldsmith, he made it himself.
Did you feel safe with your Conchita?
Her absence leaves him alone on stage and he begins to tell jokes. It worked.
I have had his joke notebooks in my hands, his son showed them to me.
They are the ones we see in the movie.
Which Eugenio joke is your favorite?
Two drunks: “Shall we set up a bar?” one proposes. “What if it goes wrong?” the other objects. “Well, we open it to the public!”, ha ha. Anyone's dream!
Eugenio meets his wife, Conchita, on a bus, in the film.
And he fell in love with his joviality. He was sad. It was like this.
His parents met that way, I heard him say.
My mother was the daughter of the inn in Madrid where my father, a traveler, stayed. Years later they passed each other on the street and my father greeted him and...
What happens between two who fall in love?
That they feel that they complement each other.
How many children did your parents have?
I was the last of eight children.
Does that mark?
Since I was a child I learned to negotiate disagreements: how many meatballs per head, who goes to the bathroom first... Knowing how to live together is the primary civic virtue, for me!
What have you inherited from your parents?
I aspire to Dad's people skills... And Mom's, her anti-hysterical serenity.
Illustrate this virtue with an example.
I cut myself on glass, I was bleeding, I had to go to the hospital, and my mother said: “Dad is on the roof fixing the antenna, let's not scare him!” Serena, she begged him to come down.
Another mother would have screamed...
And dad would have fallen and broken his head...
...and you would have grown up an orphan.
This is how lives are written. My mother has always spread well-being around her, she has avoided bothering anyone.
What a great lesson.
A vital mission: to spread pleasures around. I intend to spread pleasures with my books and movies. Not save the world.
It's a way to save it, I think.
Pío Baroja said: “Are those who want to save all men able to help only one?”
Does humor help?
Humor is seeing yourself laughable. Take distance. It encourages tolerance: it borders on the sacred, in my opinion.
Does it allow total freedom of expression?
Yes. I am a libertarian in that.
And if someone insults you, what?
He who insults another portrays himself.
TRUE.
He may be someone who envies you, I understand! My mother taught me that, too. It is ridiculous to expect justice from others!
But we all wait for it...
A mistake. Do your thing without focusing on trends or waiting for awards. “In any situation I am me, imperturbable: this is my character,” Eugenio said.
Imperturbable: he never laughed.
“Only when I get paid,” he once said.
What did you want to tell us with your film Know that?
That behind the mask is always the person.
What person was Eugenio?
One that wanted us to laugh. Those moments of pleasure are miracles! Being imperfect... we have the capacity for plenitude.
And tragaderas: I have also seen his political documentary Sagrada familia.
I wanted to explain myself to Jordi Pujol and his family, with lights and shadows: I have seen that his ideal pushed him... and he tolerated inappropriate behavior.
What is your verdict on Pujol?
I do not judge, I prefer to understand some truth behind each mask.
What are you up to now?
I have written Los guapos, a play that in January I will direct, first, in Madrid; then, at the Beckett, here: I'll let you know.
Why theater?
I need to try different things. If you bind yourself to your mask... you will be unhappy. Repeating myself is boring me. I only have one life!
What do you aspire to in this life?
I already know that success and failure are accidents. I aspire to temperance... and to continue getting the most out of life. And let things happen!
We lack time...
It's not true, if you feel that way it means you allow your time to be organized by others.
Do I organize it around culture?
Culture is the catalog of other people's experiences that expands you and teaches you tolerance, it is the network that saves your life!
