In the short distance there is no trace of those dark characters that he embroiders on the screen and that have led him to success. The corrupt Cabrera (El reino) and the policeman Ezequiel (Entrevías), the decline of the junkie (Cell 211) or the anger of the villager against the Frenchman who vetoes his dream in As bestas, his consecration.
His demeanor is cordial and he exhibits that irony with the retranca of his land. He has charisma and it was a matter of time before he went from being a luxury secondary to acting as a stellar protagonist. Today, Luis Zahera (Santiago de Compostela, 1966) feels like "the mountaineer who conquers a peak". And to the public. All you have to do is walk next to him and see the reaction of those who recognize him. He greeting, selfie and loving compliments. His response, affectionate and grateful.
He arrives in Barcelona by train from Zaragoza and the Magazine picks him up at the station. He suitcase in hand, sporty outfit and cap over his tousled hair. Despite his tired air, he walks quickly; It's Sunday but the day doesn't forgive. Just a few hours for the photo session, lunch, the performance of his Chungo monologue and the return to Madrid, where he lives. And the interview? In the car, on the way to the Gran Hotel La Florida, where the fashion report illustrating these pages is being produced.
A busy schedule...
a lot I finished El correo de Calparsoro, Pájaros de Pau Durà, the third season of Entrevías and now I'm going to the Dominican Republic to shoot a film with Rafa Cortés about the play Cancún, by Jordi Galcerán.
Does he embody a good guy, finally?
Well yes, it was about time. It is a surreal comedy. We are all pretty good people.
Was he afraid of being pigeonholed?
No, the problem would be not working. You have to be humble. In Spain it is very pigeonholed, but I was not worried. I like to work and luckily I'm already in shape, a few months ago I felt bad...
What was wrong with him?
I had arrhythmias and ended up in the hospital three times. They gave me the spark. Has it ever happened to you? It looks like you're going to die. It coincided with the madness of As bestas, but stress is one thing and ending up in the hospital is another. I went to a doctor that Peris-Mencheta (the actor) sends us to, and he told me: "Your kidneys are bad." Cortisol (that which is used to escape from lions) "is generated by the adrenal gland" and something was not working well. He advised me to change my habits: “From 7 pm to 10 am, don't eat. Do it for a year.” I based 6 kilos in 9 months. Now I eat like a bird after sports, I eat like a lion and I don't have dinner. I ate too much. We were educated to “eat, eat”. With the war, food was a gift; my mother went hungry.
She had a lot of influence on him being an actor, right?
Yes, I was a bad student, and discovering the theater was a divine illumination. My mother saw that this amused me. She always asked if you were having fun. My family, with four older sisters, was a matriarchy. I wish women would rule. Decision making is better, at least from what I experienced. My mother and my aunts were great factotums, very focused, hard-working girls, in that terrifying post-war period. The Zaheras gave me a very good example.
'As bestas' reflects a female model of resolving a conflict without violence.
The movie raises many things, and there is something of that in its second part. How the French holds up..., that ending is beautiful. It is what impressed Sorogoyen when he learned of the event. The day I met him, at the casting for May God forgive us, he already told me about that. I thought: this guy is a freak in the head, he was already spinning the story. He raised it very well, hence the result.
What has he removed from himself to become the actor that he is?
As you grow up you lose your fears. I was naive, very fearful, timid. When I started in amateur theater I wasn't able to go to castings, then I lived in New York for two years and woke up. You evolve, you love it, you calm down. Maturity is good, the bad thing is that you lose the illusion of the beginnings. It was wonderful. But over the years you see your flaws and improve. This profession is a martian, it is very rare, you depend on chance. I was lucky that Sorogoyen chose me. He changed my life.
How about the ego?
The ego is the devil, and the devil doesn't exist, it's oneself... I like that phrase, I don't know whose it is. Thank God this happened to me when I was 57 years old, maybe if it happens suddenly, and you don't handle it well, you can twist yourself, you can hurt yourself.
A virtue.
I am a hard worker, my sisters always tell me so. For all. I painted, did the removals, climbed the ladder... I would earn the lentils however it was, although it would be better to work in a profession that I am in love with. "Son, you are very willing" my mother told me.
His sisters teased him...
(laughs a lot. It was his toy, in Chungo I tell it. It's funny because they don't remember it and they tell me: “you made that up, we never told you that”. Once they made me believe that Orense was a foreigner and, of course, I made a fool of myself in class.
A defect.
I am a junkie at work and my way of working is very chaotic, I make changes in scenes, I improvise... I always thought that being a chaos as an actor is an effect, but now I see that there are people who appreciate it, who value themselves. As Saramago says, "chaos is an order to be deciphered."
How do directors fit those changes?
A script by Sorogoyen has 11 revisions, he is an extraordinary author, he does not allow changes. But there are some television scripts, which my dear God, if you don't mess with them, it's your responsibility, you can make a fool of yourself.
What irritates you about others?
The violence that I practice in fiction despairs me in reality. This political confrontation, thick phrases, that there is my God!
What is this moment in your life like?
Sweet, very sweet. I really like the work I do.
And the personal? He only talks about work.
They brought me up like that, I don't know. They used to tell my sisters “bring your boyfriend to eat”. Instead, they always talked to me about work, not about my girlfriend. I have my relationships, but my job is what focuses me the most. I feel like the mountaineer who reaches a summit, not the super-summit, but what he wanted. And I'm really enjoying this moment.
How is your 57 years doing?
Good! I play sports, I get up at 6:30, I run my two hours, my little weights, you have to have a background in this job, if not, there are shoots that can laminate you. And I'm conceited, you don't play sports for 'mens sana in corpore sano', but because you're a conceited crazy person.
What role does love play in your life?
Now I don't have a partner, a year ago or so we left it. But I maintain a good relationship, this morning I spoke with her. When she triggered this maelstrom, I was in Madrid, she in Galicia, and things fell apart. She was four years old. I don't know, everything in life is important. This interview, other things, love... well, I don't know.
Did success complicate the relationship?
No, no, man, right now I'm living is very nice, being a bit fashionable, as people tell me: "You're fashionable!". When it goes well, this trade only has good things. They take you, they bring you, they applaud you, they pay you very well, you see countries, you entertain people... It's all blessed glory.
Freer like this, without a partner or children?
I could not tell you. I have actor friends who have been married for 25 years and are doing great. I was not this type of individual, at my age you are assuming it, you enter another phase, of being calm. And whatever comes up, without thinking too much about it.
Do you regret not being a father?
Yes, I regret it. I was so hooked on work, such healthy ambition, that I turned down some wonderful offers from couples I had, who wanted children and I didn't want to. I think it was a mistake. We will never know.
Did you put your career first?
I don't know, these absurdities that you think... Then you reach that success, and you're alone, sometimes that's what hurts me from not having created a family. You say ostia, they give you the second Goya, you get to the room and you're alone. Everything has its good and bad part, my sisters, who all have children, tell me: "You have no idea, you weren't worth it as a father, you're fucking childless, shut up and go ahead." You see, for everything in life there are two versions and both are valid.
What encourages you in low moments?
A friend, a good restaurant... But me, man, I live like a maharajah. Bad moments... those of the rock that has two churumbeles and they don't give them the numbers, in this era of people hooked on mobile phones, algorithms, this collective schizophrenia that exists. I live like an artist, to my movement, everything is wonderful. Like today: they make you handsome, they interview you, they take you to the suite where Bruce Springsteen stayed... It's gold! It would be very selfish to complain.
From that privileged status, do you support any political cause or activism?
All that I can. I am privileged, a person from the left who earns a lot of money and I am in favor of raising taxes, because roads and schools must be built. I think you have to believe in the public in this age of absolute selfishness and consumption. Capitalism is engulfing everything. It would have to be reinvented. But my God, we are not doing very well on the left, what comes next... (the interview was done before the general elections).
He has a good relationship with Feijóo, the leader of the PP. He imitated him, messages are sent...
Yes, we have a healthy relationship on WhatsApp, we talk about things, press articles, it still tells me something about this interview... Look, Feijóo's speech, well... a liberal, a right-wing man, it doesn't scare me , but Vox, honestly, does scare me. I vote for the Galician Nationalist Bloc, because the essences are not lost. I grew up with Castelao's drawings, I like that romantic idea of taking care of the local, that globalization is destroying. I have always voted for them. Feijóo knows... he knows mine and I know his (laughs).
How does it take to be fashionable?
At first the ego, that internal demon makes you think: When will the first interview be? Will they give me a Goya one day? Things happen because one day Sorogoyen noticed me and today he is the enfant terrible of Spanish cinema. At the time, everyone wanted to be an Almodóvar boy. Today everyone wants to be a Sorogoyen boy.
What is success?
It is with oneself and with the public. It is when people thank you: "I was half depressed, I went to the theater to see you and you made my day." That is success. That moment of hypnotism that you create, that something that is a lie in that moment becomes true. It's beautiful to brighten people's lives.
Who are you happy? Who do you want to work with?
I am happy with very little. Working. I would like to meet Tosar again, we are good friends. With Bardem, with whom I had a little moment in Los lunes al sol, Eduard Fernández, the greats, the immense ones, Karra Elejalde, Antonio de la Torre, Nathalie Poza, with Susana Dans, Camila Bosa...
Are you a believer?
No, my parents were. I studied at the De La Salle brothers, it was a very violent education. I would like to believe, like my mother, that "the good is yet to come." But you have to be honest in interviews... So no, I don't think so.
How do you enjoy your free time?
Reading, for example. I'm passionate about Stefan Zweig, now I'm with Spirit Healing. Or I throw myself in bed and do nothing. Or wander aimlessly. Wow, kid, how I like it! I go to the Rastro, to second-hand markets. I dress there, I don't buy new clothes, seriously. Look, I loved this watch, this bracelet, it's one of those that when I was a child they said balanced energy.
Travel? Listen to music?
Travel too, of course. Now I am very excited about the Dominican Republic. As for music, I'm not a fan. I listen to the radio. I'm nothing of networks either, I should put the batteries. But now I don't have free time. I'm in fashion, one day this will drop and I'll do other things. I am building a house on the island of Arousa, the work is carried out by my friend Nelly, and I focus on working, working and amassing money...! I have friends who call me Uncle Scrooge.
In an interview, he expressed concern that young people rarely go to the theater and the cinema...
And they don't have a penny. As my nephews say, this is not a time of change, it is a change of times. I don't know what can be done, I'm not a sociologist, and I'm digitally illiterate, I don't even know how to look at Renfe timetables. It is the time of the young, perhaps they will discover the theater later. What I don't understand, I don't think. And I don't want to demonize young people. I discussed it with them and they told me: the movie is worth 9 euros and with that we spent the day on the beach. Some have a career and earn a pittance. It's very complicated.
Who fears?
I am concerned about climate change, because I perceive it, at what speed is this going..., the future that we leave behind and that so many people do not believe it. It's complicated. I say complicated when I don't know what to say.
We arrive at the theater where, in an hour, Chungo performs his monologue. As a farewell, a few kind words: “I am healthy envy of Barcelona, of Catalonia, of how you work, you take care of the culture, the language. Now there is tension over politics, but the cultural, cosmopolitan part, I love. It scolds me”.
