On the verge of turning 89, Núria Espert is not only showered with big prizes but it doesn't even occur to her to think about retiring: she already has new work in her portfolio. Meeting with the press to celebrate the awarding of the Max de Honor award, which will be presented to her on July 1 in Tenerife in the presence of the entire profession, she announces that with a couple of months left to finish her successful tour with La isla del aire , with which he has made an audience that was accustomed to tragedy laugh, explains that he has already embarked on a new work by Wajdi Mouawad, with whose Fires he already triumphed a few years ago. Not only that, an elated and happy Espert (l’ Hospitalet de Llobregat, 1935) announces that she has also been awarded the honoris causa of the iconic Royal Central School of Speech
About finally receiving, perhaps late, the Honor Award from the Max, the great awards of the Spanish performing arts, he says that “it is a desired award, it has taken a while to arrive because other awards have been given and because other wonderful actors have arrived, So I am very happy.” “I really want it because it is the reward we give to ourselves. Within the profession he has enormous prestige. The profession values it, discusses it, is happy, gets angry...”, she says amused.
And she reflects that curiously the award comes when “I am doing a different job than what I am used to.” “When I was 18, almost 19, I did Medea in Barcelona and the result of that presentation marked my career greatly. I felt tragic myself. And my repertoire was dramatic and I carry it with great dignity and I think I have been very lucky. I have been able to have good jobs, deal with things that had not gone well for me. All perfect. But with The Island of the Air the great, great surprise appears that he is a funny character and that he has been received by my audience who had gone to the theater with the handkerchief to cry, throwing the handkerchief away and bursting into laughter. And it has become a milestone.”
So he announces that he is not stopping: “There is already a project that I have already accepted and I cannot say more than that it is a text by Wajdi Mouawad, and that already has me studying at night and terrified, as I always am, because when I start something I always I am very afraid, very insecure. Then things calm down because otherwise it would be impossible.”
And he adds the surprise of the honoris causa: “Coinciding with Max, they have given me the honorary doctorate from the Speech
Asked if there is any role that she still wants to play, she says with a laugh that Cleopatra, “I've always wanted to do it and I haven't been able to, now I'm going to think better about it,” and after remembering so many exceptional roles like in Electra, mourning suits her well. , Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , The Good Person of Sezuan or King Lear, she says that “I can't choose one, I would choose wrong. I can choose one in which I wasn't good, Prospero from Shakespeare's The Tempest directed by a great director, but I didn't get the hang of it, I wasn't up to par." Is there anything that has made her career different from that of other professionals? She answers confidently: “Luck. And that I am very hard-working.”
