The young Nacho Vidal had the qualities to achieve his youthful dream of becoming an international porn star. "He had confidence, a lot of desire, he was handsome, beautiful eyes and a crazy desire to succeed," recalls Juani de Lucía, who is still in charge of the Bagdad room in Barcelona, founded together with her husband – now deceased – back in 1975.
Vidal also had a monumental cock, worthy of the prose of Camilo José Cela, Nobel Prize winner for Literature, and one of the best work tools.
The series Nacho (Atresplayer Premium) evokes, in the Barcelona of the transition, the beginnings of the actor, who showed up for the casting one good day –they continue to be done, there is no lack of vocations, assures Juani de Lucía–, by the hand of his girlfriend, Sara Bernat.
The Bagdad theater, where part of the series was filmed, has changed little. Or nothing. It is a relic of the rogue Parallel and of the changes and what was understood as yearning for freedom, when the city of Barcelona stayed up late and word of mouth spread the exploits of the Baghdad cast, inspired by the model of the Hamburg theaters.
Everything looked good for a 22-year-old willing to be admired, except stage fright. Baghdad is not the Santiago Bernabéu stadium but it imposes its own. The public surrounds the stage, scrutinizes, drinks, laughs and connects –or not– with actors who follow one another and cannot resort to pretending. It was not enough to have a huge penis or curves. They had to become the owners of the stage.
One, two, three... Up to fifteen days – at a rate of three daily shows – Nacho Vidal gave the trigger when he was beginning to take over the world in his own way. “Whoa, he would get angry, he would come back from the stage very pissed off,” recalls Juani de Lucía, played on screen by La Terremoto de Alcorcón. I was always sure that she would get over it because she liked being seen by the public. It happens to everyone at first: they get blocked. And Nacho soon became a crack”.
–And you didn't think of trying another couple to yours?
-No! On the contrary, porn actors perform better with their real life partners.
The series reflects the interlinings of a type of show with the future behind it. Eight chapters. Based on real events. Nacho Vidal is played – except for a close-up of Nacho himself's virile member, a parody of self-homage – by the actor Martiño Rivas, while Andrés Velencoso plays Toni Ribas, the other rooster in the yard and porn star of the moment.
"The rivalry between the two, who had become friends, was true," says the owner of the Bagdad. Curious story, very revealing that everywhere and everywhere there are things that do not change because they sting. Nacho Vidal and Toni Ribas entered into a spiral of jealousy and rivalry for his partner, the also porn actress Sophie Evans, another Baghdad icon.
–Porn actors are like any other person in their private life. And that's what I've never gotten into. And I can't get in.
Inside, in the room, open every night from 11 pm to 5 am, the shows follow one another. The public is complicit, so complicit that some agree to go on stage to be surprised or surprised (their companions, for example).
Porn stars have followed one another in the room. Like the long-awaited Holly One, a dwarf, who was so upset when Juani de Lucía proposed to have another actress of her stature as a partner in a number. “But she's a dwarf!” she complained. Today, one of his stars is Rob Diesel, muscled and tattooed, who wins over audiences with childish antics while performing on any imaginable terms.
The series is broadcast on Sundays. It already hits the day, with its afternoons of swing, soccer or salt and pepper. Nacho Vidal, yes, he came to stardom in porn movies. The rest is another story.
