Simón Andreu (Palma de Mallorca, 1941) is a regular on the big screen. His works with Eloy de la Iglesia or Fernando Fernán Gomez as well as his mastery of the stage in the theater have led him to be present on the Spanish scene since the 1960s and his command of English and French have led him to participate in works International with Milos Forman or Paul Verhoven, in short, a life full of successes.
“Will you let me sing you a happy birthday?”
–Hey, there are still fifteen days left. Let’s see if I get there. This is very dangerous, very screwed up.
-Do not annoy. Of course it will come.
-I’ll try. I am wearing the mask.
– How do you face an 80th anniversary with which you are falling?
-As I am getting old, I am facing it with the philosophy of the old, that is, I am going to try to take advantage of what little I have left. But I plan to make good use of my time, so I will take care of my health. Today I had an appointment at the funeral home because a friend of mine from the choir in which I sang has passed away. I have asked for my condolences because I am not here to go anywhere. I walk where there is no one. I can’t get together with 30 people, neither in the funeral home nor in the choir. I am not here to catch a virus. Anyway, my wife, and my daughter knows it, is prohibited from announcing my death until after they have burned my body. I don’t want to screw anyone.
– Especially being one the protagonist.
– Not the protagonist, because you don’t find out. Nowadays it is so well invented, and with the euthanasia law it will be even better, that you die and do not know it, there sedated. Death does not scare me. I am afraid of catching a disease of those that make me suffer. I have already told my daughter: “Since you don’t unplug me, I disinherit you.” I don’t want to be plugged in.
– With the years one becomes more skeptical and disbelieving?
-Of course. As soon as you have the ability to analyze you become a disbeliever unless you refuse to analyze. You stop believing in fantasies.
– Will you be vaccinated against COVID?
-Clear. I’ve already done it with the flu. I believe in science, not gurus or prophets.
– And in the politicians?
– Yes, and also in the president of the community of owners, and in the gardener.
–I am sure that someone born on January 1 has some anecdote about it.
-That they only give you a gift at Christmas. Kings, birthdays and Santa Claus are three in one.
–Al Pacino, Pelé, Ringo Starr and Andrés Pajares are also 80 years old. Who would you have a few beers with?
-Al Pacino to stay in New York with The Godfather, which is not my favorite movie. I like Pelé, much more than Maradona. I don’t admire Maradona, I feel sorry for him, he was mistreated. Ringo Starr makes me envious, because I couldn’t sing with him, I don’t have enough quality. And Andrés Pajares, poor thing, has made himself ridiculous so many times that it is also sad. So I would take them with Ringo and Pelé, one playing the drums, the other kicking and me in the middle, singing.
– At 80 there is work in the cinema?
– At 80 there are more than at 40. At 40, when you go from gallant to mature man, if you don’t become an entrepreneur, like Arturo Fernández or Xesc Forteza did, not even your father hires you. Well, Arturo Fernández did a couple of series, one of them with Paco Rabal, in which he was phenomenal. But this is sporadic. Then you have to wait ten years for them to call you back. I was in the first season of Amar in troubled times, in 140 episodes, and I had to wait almost six years for them to call me back. Deep down, either you have a little corner or you are ostracized.
–Your last work for the cinema was with Muero por Volver, a short film by Javier Marco. Eager to get back in front of a camera?
-No. As I don’t need it financially and artistically I think I have fulfilled more than enough … I have not won an Oscar or a Goya, well, I did win one or two of those awards that were given before the Academy, the Actors Guild, but I don’t care, because I have won the affection of countless people with whom I worked.
– Why haven’t they given him a Goya?
“Because maybe he wasn’t in the movie he should have been in.” In addition, I have been removed from the Academy, and I do not know the reason, perhaps for lack of payment. I changed direction and since they don’t know if you exist or not, they suddenly realized that I owed them two years. That they would have claimed it from me at the time. “We will call you”, they told me. That was about ten years ago. I don’t know if I belong to the Academy.
– How would you like the public to remember you?
-Watching movies at home, because now you don’t have to go to theaters to see movies. They don’t need to remind me, they have to see new things.
–How has it been seen in The Mallorca Files, the BBC series shot in Mallorca? Did you like it?
–I haven’t seen myself. I don’t usually see what I do. The first thing Netflix did in Spain was The Cable Girls, a series in which I was in the first six chapters. Well, I haven’t seen that either, because I’m not a subscriber and I don’t have time. I go for a walk, I study, I read … I don’t have time for Netflix.
– How has the profession changed since then?
-The technique has changed a lot. Before, it took at least eight weeks to make a fairly drinkable movie, and now in eight weeks they can make three movies. Today, with a match you illuminate a set, and in the past to illuminate a face you needed five spotlights, and if the face was Sarita Montiel’s you had to use eight spotlights and a half to blur the wrinkles. But without a phone today they make movies for you!
– What is the most beautiful thing that cinema has given you?
“Some nice papers.” A curious thing, I learned to do theater in the cinema. I went from the cinema to the theater, to the Eslava Theater, with an impressive performance of Tomás Moro, A Man for Eternity, directed by Luis Escobar. I thank the cinema for having taught me to do theater.
– What roles changed your life?
-None. My life has been changed by the people with whom I have related: my wife, my children, my friends.
– What films do you consider key in your filmography?
-The ones that were a magnet to take me to others. For example, the director Luciano Ercoli saw me in a movie that had no special value and while in the producer’s office he blurted out: “Isn’t this actor the one who was in that movie? Well, I want it for my film that I’ll make in Rome ”. Those movies are the ones that influence your life.
–This 2020 Sean Connery left us, the first 007, a saga in which you also participated, in Die Another Day, along with Halle Berry. Was the Scottish actor the best James Bond?
–It was my favorite but there were also great actors in the saga. I worked with Daniel Craig, we shared a dressing room, for a series I did in Russia in 1992, Sharpe, which also featured Assumpta Serna. I found him very nice, and a very good actor.
–He has been under the command of Eloy de la Iglesia, Fernando Fernán Gomez, Agustí Villaronga, Milos Forman, Paul Verhoeven and other greats. What did you learn from them?
–With these people you learn everything. When you are with Villaronga, for example, and you offer him the range of possibilities that you can do, “a, b and c”, he tells you, “well make me d”. And you say, “shit, this guy has opened a new door for me.” They kindly reject what you offer them up front and make you do something else that you hadn’t even thought of. It happened to me with Milos Forman. I thought that my role, a director of a madhouse, had to be a little crazy. He told me, “It’s true, but if he’s crazy, he has to be crazy a lot, a lot.” We did a rehearsal alone, he giving me the reply, and each time the madness was greater. Milos took the challenge and multiplied it by two.
“Speaking of unbearable people, you saw it coming.” “Nothing good will Trump bring,” he warned. Are you expecting something from Joe Biden?
The United States scares me very much. It seems like a dangerous society to me. America’s unjust wars have not only been fought by Republicans.
– The Spain of Sánchez and Podemos also has you scared?
“I’m less scared than the other one, of course.” Sánchez needs to come together with five or six different mentalities, and that is good. That we can live with people who do not think the same, is fine, and should be mandatory.
– Does Simón Andreu have a homeland?
Yes, humanity, people, persons, human rights are my homeland.
– Are you in favor of a republic?
I’m an ancrat, that doesn’t matter to me, I don’t care. If they ask me to vote, I will be for something that can be chosen. We did not elect the monarchy, it was imposed on us.
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