Lucía's day-to-day life runs between her job as a computer scientist under the orders of a despotic boss and taking care of her elderly father. When her company goes bankrupt, the girl sees the opportunity to start a new life. She becomes a taxi driver, falls in love with her neighbor and has a friend, the first client to get into her taxi. It seems that things are starting to go well, but... Antonio Méndez Esparza has made the film Let Nobody Sleep, the disturbing novel by Juan José Millás, with Malena Alterio in the role of the optimistic Lucía; Rodrigo Poisón, as her attractive neighbor, and Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, in the role of a brand new friend who knows how to listen.
The film has passed through the Valladolid Film Festival, where it competes in the official section and has achieved applause from the public. Méndez Esparza and Poisón take a break from their busy schedule at Seminci to chat with La Vanguardia about the details of filming Let Nobody Sleep. "I fell in love with the novel when I read it and also with the difficulties that its adaptation posed, because I wanted to focus on the most realistic part and that forced me to close some doors," explains the director, who wrote the script fourthhand with the Catalan filmmaker Clara Roquet.
Méndez Esparza and Roquet focused on Lucía, because "she is like an angel, a person who is willing to give herself in everything, capable of creating beauty and being beautiful at the same time." The director immediately thought of Alterio for the role "because of his sensitivity and his sweetness, although his character will have to accept betrayal and decide if he opts for revenge, I love that, because I am a fan of revenge," adds the director.
Méndez Esparza wanted "natural actors" to complete the cast and began a casting process that included Rodrigo Poisón, well known on the Madrid stage, but less so in the cinema and who has proven to be one of the great surprises of this film. for his interpretation of Braulio, the neighbor, an actor by profession and opera lover, who falls in love with Lucía. "I went to the casting without having read the script, Méndez had only given me a piece of the story and with that I had to compose the character, so I imagined many things, but in the end they were of no use to me. Antonio gave me some keys, who were the door to dare me. Working with him you never know where you can end up," says Poisón.
The actor already knew Malena and got along well with her, but the film contains some complicated sex scenes and both performers had to adjust: "There was an intimacy coordinator who made sure that no one felt uncomfortable during the sex shots and to ensure that that they could be filmed with a lot of respect and also with a lot of truth." It worked, because "now I have much more trust with Malena," says Poisón. The director agrees with the performer and concludes that "the actors were very generous in the intimate scenes, in which they worked with maximum dedication, which was a gift for me and for the film."
