Although she says that she did not achieve popularity because she was secretive about her private life, the truth is that his face is known to everyone. And it is that Leonora Balcarce She stood out in each of the roles for which she was called, both in film, theater and television. All you need to do is look his last leading role on the big screen, “Come to my house this Christmas”to check.
“It was a dream for me. “It doesn’t happen that many times that you get so excited about a project,” she says about the film directed by Sabrina Campos which saw the light in December. This time, he had to reverse the concept of a Christmas movie installed in the public, “that American thing of joy, light, decorations, snow…”, he explains. Show that not everyone experiences the holidays the same way. In dialogue with EPU, the actress reflects on her work, but also on other issues that go through her.such as mandates, the passage of time and new challenges in your career.
–It has been a long time since you filmed movies and in “Come to my house this Christmas” your character is present in 99 percent of the scenes. How did you experience this return?
–Sabrina is an incredible director of actors. We rehearse a lot, with an extreme level of detail: how to say things, how to move your mouth… Nowadays it is a luxury to have a person who directs you so much, because there are directors who relax a little more in acting and are more attentive to photography or something else. We work on it a lot.
–The film is responsible for showing the b-side of Christmas, right?
–It shows something that happens to many of us at parties, that feeling that you have to be happy, although there is a climate of anguish and uncertainty. Not everyone is well, and you have to spread joy and good vibes. My character, Inés, is in a quite unstable situation with her job, she is 40 years old and does not have a partner, she does not have children, so everyone begins to question her until at one point she does not know who she is. Later she realizes that having a family does not give you happiness, but rather it is what everyone goes through in life. Oh well, Something happens to her that I think happens to all women at a certain age, that according to the mandates we should be in a certain situation..
Now that is changing, but if you are not in a relationship or do not have children by a certain age, it is like you are not complete. And many times that is a decision, or it is not something that happens so easily, right? There is a question that I have also been asked, which is very frivolous, It’s like asking if you’re going to buy a phone when it’s actually something very profound. Many women have to experience that, women who do not choose to have children, or they do, but it has not yet happened.
–Every Christmas, Inés must be asked the same thing. When did you realize that you had to choose your path regardless of the opinions of others?
–Bueno, I always wanted to be a mother, I always wanted to take care of and be a mother, but I didn’t have my children at the “ideal” age, you see? I had them in my late thirties. So, I experienced all those kinds of questions. I was in a relationship and they told me “how strange that they don’t live together”, “how strange that they don’t have children”, things that always fall more on the woman.
And well, I got angry because they are very deep questions, do you know where I come from, why I don’t live together, why I don’t have children? It’s not okay for people to ask you those things, especially if you haven’t empowered someone to do it. You have to live with those things, they also mess with motherhood, but hey, I think the important thing is to try not to do it to others, to filter, understand and be empathetic..
MY PRIVATE WORLD
–Speaking of those types of questions, we don’t know much about your private life. Was it a decision you made consciously to preserve yourself?
–Actually I was never an extroverted person, to tell things about my intimate life, because it seems to me that they can’t even be interesting. I was never interested in showing myself from there, but more from work. I have been used to working since I was very young, and the notes I always made were to talk about my projects. Maybe that made it unpopular.and if I had opened up, it would have been different, but hey, it’s my way of being.
–You just mentioned the moment you became a mother, how did it go through you?
–When my children were born, I was totally focused on that. and the only thing that mattered was being with them, so it was a great thing. I was also overwhelmed at times, I slept little with both of them so little, but I never felt like I was missing something outside, I wanted to enjoy that moment to the fullest. Today, luckily, I can manage my work hours and decide what to dedicate myself to most, that is a great privilege.
–Let’s go back to acting, because you started in cinema with Adolfo Aristarain. You also worked with Lucrecia Martel. What were those experiences with those great directors like?
–The first day I left filming “Martín (Hache)” with Adolfo Aristarain, I left with the feeling of “I want to do this.”. I remember I was waiting for the taxi leaving filming and I felt like that was my thing.
–And on TV you also did popular cycles, in fact, you started in “Montaña Rusa.”
–TV is great, but it’s really difficult, and now that it’s all series and platforms: more. To make a daily strip you have to have a lot of skill, because you have to solve it in the moment, it’s done and bye, you don’t have time to rehearse like maybe in the cinema or the theater. So there I feel that you have to have very skillful mechanics to be able to solve and succeed in the scenes. I’ve had a great time on TV, but they are very different things.
–How do you experience the issue of the passage of time in relation to the demands of the industry?
–I don’t think about it much, suddenly you have to play the mother of a child of I don’t know how old and that’s it, that’s fine. But it’s not something I stop to think about. I believe that everything has its time and I accept it, and I also look for parallel things to do that do not depend on someone else, that are not just acting, or yes, but self-generating things. Being older, I no longer want to depend on someone to decide what I do, where I act, how, with whom, and I’m working on that.
–The last one about the film, since it talks about Christmas: What is your connection with the holidays?
–None, in fact, until now I had never put up the tree and this year I did it because the kids asked me to. Before, this date was a little more conflictive, because the situation in my life was not ideal and the celebration depends on the moment you are in. It is a date that marks many things for you: the passage of time, who is there, who is not there, what happened during the year. Without a doubt it is something mobilizing.
Photos: Courtesy Tomy Pashkus Agency
