After having been proclaimed the winner in the first edition of the contest in Spain Mask Singer, actress Paz Vega returns as “researcher” to the program and thus adds one more experience to her television appearances, which help her to be discovered by a generation of Spaniards who did not know her.
This is how he tells Efe in an interview, shortly before the premiere this Monday of the Antena 3 contest (inspired by the Korean format King of Mask Singer) that the actress won last year with her Catrina mask, singing and misleading an audience that remained incognito until the end.
Despite being one of the most iconic actresses of the first decade of this century with films such as ‘Lucia and sex’, ‘Only mine’ or ‘The other side of the bed’, it is these programs that are bringing it closer to the new generations and letting her children’s school know that she is famous.
Four years after his return to Spain, after a decade and a half living in the United States, Vega (Sevilla, 1976) assures that he is happy to have made this decision and that he has not stopped working since his arrival. In addition, he does not hesitate to participate in shows like this because, in his opinion, an actor has to be worth everything.
What does Mask Singer have to be such a frequent show?
It is a very white format to watch as a family. There are not so many programs that you can sit down with your children to enjoy (…) In addition, the viewer puts fifty percent of everything. That is what we appeal to, that the viewer is investigating with us and that they enjoy each success and laugh at each error.
Acting in these programs, without a script, has it allowed you to discover capacities of yourself that you did not know?
I had another experience, at Masterchef, where I also had to step out of my comfort zone and push my limit on many levels. That’s when I realized that suddenly I could work without a script because I’ve always been very afraid of that, not having a script, not having anything interesting to say, not being funny when you have to be … Having a script I go safe. In this program there is nothing, we are the same as the viewer is at home. We see the clues and we each have to elaborate our theory and improvise.
Are these types of ‘prime time’ contests making you reconnect with the Spanish public?
The truth is, yes, because there is a generation of young people and children who have no idea who I am because they have not seen my films and because it is not appropriate. So you do this program or the one I did on TVE and you enter the heads of many children who did not know who you were. And at my children’s school they are suddenly told “it was your mother.”
How does Paz Vega feel today, professionally?
In a pandemic, which has been a very difficult year for everyone and for all sectors, I personally cannot complain because I have shot two films (‘The mud’ and ‘The snail house’), we have recorded this program and the first edition as Catrina. Luckily I do not lack work and I give thanks to life because it has been a very nice return to Spain and I have felt welcomed and loved again.
His appearance in the first edition was one of the great surprises of the contest. Why were you encouraged to participate?
I already knew the format. I was in Mexico as a visiting researcher. I was amazed at the program and saw the American format. I already knew and was a fan of the show. When they called me they told me that it was difficult for them to reach certain people, but I said “if the program is the best, how can people say no to something so cool?” They should be grateful to do something in which you also do not expose yourself, you do not get burned, because you never go out. It’s only you the moment you take off your mask.
But it seems that not every famous person dares …
But they will fall, because this second edition is going to break many barriers (…). I think that little by little people are going to beat themselves up to enter because it is a beautiful experience.
Today and more than ever, does an actor have to do everything?
That is the ideal. In the Anglo-Saxon world, in the United States, actors do everything to you, they sing to you, they dance to you, they make you a ‘sketch’ on Broadway or a documentary in the Himalayas. And it should be like that, the actor should be able to sing, dance… Not that he sings and has a prodigious voice, but if you have to do it, you have the tools and the preparation to do it (…). And it is no longer preparing but not being afraid, that they offer you something and say: ‘why not?’.
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