We are not going to spoil it, but today the second installment of one of the highest-grossing Spanish comedies of all time, Campeonex, premieres. Directed by Javier Fesser, it tells again, and in a delusional way, the story of overcoming and inclusion of a group of athletes with disabilities. And among the enormous cast of protagonists are two young promises of Spanish cinema, Elisa Hipólito and Jelen García.
They are two outgoing, fun women with a lot of energy and an enormous desire to show what they are worth. They have prepared thoroughly and are ready to succeed.
Elisa is 21 years old and was born in Madrid. The daughter of famous actors, she showed a concern for acting and dancing from a very young age. She started at the theater at ten with Sonrisas y lágrimas, then Billy Elliot and Grease followed, and she also appeared in a chapter of Vota Juan, but her important role has come with Campeonex, in which she plays Cecilia, "a young girl who has just left school where he has studied sport: his great passion. A character very different from that of Javier Gutiérrez (a first division basketball coach), a rookie with a lot of desire for everything, but who is labeled jinxed, and for that reason suffers many adversities, but what defines her is her desire. , Nonetheless".
Jelen is 29 years old, from Madrid with her feet in Barcelona, although she goes back and forth between the two cities. She wanted to be an actress from a very young age, but her life took her on other paths until she began to act in the theater at the age of 24. Her first audiovisual project has been a series for Disney, La última, but, as she says, Campeonex is a role that has marked her: she plays Andy, "a social integrator who works in an occupational center where they spend the day and some of the champions are staying, including Brian. She has a totally inclusive worldview, she does not focus on disabilities but on abilities. She represents a very important support for each one of them because she knows all their needs and simply offers them what they need to guarantee their autonomy and full rights. She accompanies them so that they can fulfill their dreams ”.
In the film, they create a very special relationship that makes them accomplices of the Los Amigos team. They connect very well but, as in real life, not everything is easy, they must overcome many conflicts that unite them even more. “Many people can feel identified” because “it is a very real relationship” they affirm. We will see it on the big screen, in the second part of Fesser's award-winning Champions -it made a box office close to 30 million euros-, which even had its own North American remake, with Woody Harrelson as the protagonist.
They tell us that it has been fun working with the family of champions, but doing it together has been a real discovery. A great complicity is perceived between them, who have connected, so much so that they have dared with a fun shooting carried out by the photographer Andrés García Luján. This is their first serious contact with the world of fashion, and they warn that they want to repeat. According to them, these clothes have a lot of Cecilia's character and Andy's energy.
How would you define your style?
Jelen is clear about it, “I really like fashion, dressing for a premiere or an event is like a ritual, that's how I show myself, I think you'll only know me in five minutes and I want to show myself like that”. "I like to mix the classic with the modern, classic high-heeled shoes and wet hair, and at important events I usually wear black and see-through" and "I try to wear clothes that don't have a lot of gender, that identifies me from somehow". "My references in the way of dressing are the actresses Kristen Stewart and Winona Ryder, they dress very sober but have class". And among her favorite designers is Vivianne Westwood, an icon of the punk movement and a pioneer in the world of fashion. sustainability, and it is that "both Elisa and I are zero wasteful, we leave our clothes behind, we recycle... as Vivianne would do with her friends" "But I don't have a closet full of clothes."
Fashion, on the other hand, is Elisa's pending subject, "I have no idea" but "I think I'm quite classic to dress, I don't wear flashy things, although for special occasions, like a premiere, I love to wear something that I wouldn't wear In life, I like to dress for the occasion. When there is a special event, I let myself be advised", although "I really like colours, I love green".
A fetish garment
Hipólito: "I have a t-shirt that I used for the Campeonex casting, I wear it for what matters most to me because it gave me luck, it is maroon in color with a drawing of an abstract face," says Elisa.
García: "I have a kimono that my sister brought me from Japan and that I wear for special dinners, like for a date." "I like vintage fabrics, and this kimono reminds me of them."
A wardrobe staple
Hipólito: “A black top, I can never miss it, always, and you combine it with everything”.
García: "A sweatshirt because I'm very cold, make it oversize, make it good to sleep, to go get bread, to go out...".
Do you like to go shopping?
Hipólito: "I love shopping, what happens is that since I'm very demanding, I love trying on things, and I like many of them, but I have to be 100% sure, because if I don't know if I'm going to use it, I don't buy it, I am very saver. If I have something it's because I really like it and because I'm going to wear it”.
García: “We are like that, we went shopping together and it was to kill us”, and at the end they say “let's leave our clothes”. "And it's also fun to have a piece of clothing, for example, I love blazers that can be combined, one day with tights and a heel, and another with vintage pants and it looks like another look." The best thing is "to mix, suddenly an extravagant piece with your usual clothes, it is not necessary to always buy".
What projects do they have?
Hipólito: "I do have a project, Grease, with which I am going on tour in Spain, but I would like to stop for a moment and think about everything that has happened to us, because everything has been very intense, very suddenly", and "of course I would also like to continue training, I have a lot to learn. I am happy working and this profession is so hazardous that I would love anything they propose to me. I hope this movie brings us beautiful things".
García: “My project is to continue doing the plays that I am doing until another wave arrives, if it comes, and if not, this is a long-distance race so there is no rush. We are quite hard workers and we are not waiting for them to call us. But if I could choose, I would like to go back to making a film with social overtones, like the one by Campeonex, it's something that fills me up and that's why I started to be an actress, really, if I started studying dramatic art it was to make social cinema because I love it, I enjoy it, movies that remain in the memory, those beautiful stories that are not always told”.
