The effect “China” Suarezthat sort of collective obnubilation installed around her charm, is out of tune with Eugenia in front of the recorder. Probably, we have to look much further than the thousand layers of makeup and the latest denim outfit that the protagonist of Lindadebut film by Mariana Wainstein with a theatrical release on September 19.
“I’m not someone who is interested in looking pretty for everyone all the time. I’ve always thought it was exaggerated how others see me,” clarifies actress and singer Eugenia “La China” Suárez, deactivating the “junket mode” and debunking the first myth of the day.
La China takes on a new role: that of an occasional Sanjuanian domestic worker and single mother, with nuances rarely seen in her film history.
“The idea was for Linda to be a reserved, distant woman who relates to the world from that place,” she says about the role that gives action to the plot, when a cousin falls ill and she must replace her as a favor in a well-off family’s house.
The second myth to be demolished is confirmed rather than dispelled. China (or “Euge, as many still call me”) does not stop even to gain momentum.
And with the same speed that she lives, “the life that I know and choose,” the actress who participated in “Cris Morena Day,” went back and forth from the prestigious Toronto Film Festival to present Linda and has already started recording In the mudthe sequel to El Marginal, makes it look simple.
For “La China” Suarez, the fathers of her children -Nicolas Cabré and Benjamin Vicuña- are untouchable. Photo: Ariel Grinberg
“I am quite restless, but organized in my chaos. From Corner of Light (2003) When I was 10, my mom would pick me up from school with a lunch box to go filming. She was the typical girl with a bag and changes of clothes for the whole day,” she recalls.
High self-esteem and life in jogging
-How many backpacks are you carrying today?
-All. I find it very difficult to receive and ask for helpI’m always thinking about what to do. When I was traveling with my two-month-old son Amancio in the backpack, Magnolia in the stroller and “Rufi” on a skateboard that was attached, I said: how exhausting. But I really like movement. I can also spend a whole day lying in bed without any guilt, watching TikTok and I’m happy.
-The film you star in presents beauty and attraction as a mechanism of power. To what extent does the stigma of the hegemonically beautiful girl haunt you?
-I never took responsibility for that. It’s not that I say: Here I am… Some people think I go through life with a much more man-eating and sexy attitude..
My children’s parents see that I live in jogging and I am very relaxed. I love myself very much and that is how I have self-esteem, but because of my personality. Beyond the fact that in 2024 they still want to impose some patterns on us.
Two Chinese girls. Eugenia Suárez and behind her, dressed as Linda, for the film of the same name. Photo: Ariel Grinberg
-Another pattern was set by Grisela Siciliani (also in her debut with Enviouson Netflix), is the still low percentage of female protagonists in audiovisual productions. Have you been lucky in that sense?
-It’s true, I just got this and another project that I recorded for Disney (The Bastard), which the title has to do with her, who carries the story. But it happened to me more when I was older, because I was always part of choral stories. And I like it better in a team. Or on a stage, When they put ballet flats on me I feel more comfortable.
-You belong to that generation of Cris Morena, including Peter Lanzani, who quickly transcended the more naive world to grow in the cinema. Did you shut many mouths?
-Hahaha. Look, even if you don’t believe it, I still feel that I have to keep proving myselfThere is a lot of prejudice. Anything that involves acting, singing, dancing, I always have extra pressure. I really feel it. I still have that look on my face of: “Oh, I didn’t know you acted.” I had a lot of pressure on my first film Abzurdah. But it happens to most women, in any field, and to me in particular.
Linda, a different role
“La China” Suárez, as Linda. In the film she plays a domestic worker from San Juan and a single mother.
Coached by her director, at the service of a role that is silent more than it says, the former Almost Angels There is barely a smile in the forty hour duration of the drama that has Juliet Cardinals, Rafael Spregelburd, Minerva Homemade, Felipe Otaño y Augustine Della Corte in its cast.
Now he does it. Between sips of diet soda with ice and laughter. Closing the gap with Clarionbut also showing her training to reset her gestures. “I make a thousand faces a second. I see myself and I get sick of myself,” she admits.
-How did you manage to tame it?
-You hit the nail on the head, because at first it was difficult for me. It was a search for the smile, not showing the teeth. He doesn’t open his eyes that much. But he has a heart. And I was worried that people wouldn’t empathize with the character.
-Your scenes with Julieta Cardinali play on the edge of permanent sexual tension. Is that construction more difficult than a more classic sex scene? Like you had in “El hilos rojo” or “Abzurdah”.
-I felt very comfortable knowing that it was directed by a woman. It’s very different. Because of the look, the perspective, the subtleties, and I trusted blindly. When I’m involved in a project I give myself to it, otherwise I prefer not to. It’s not that I get carried away afterwards.
Julieta Cardinalil and Eugenia “La China” Suárez, in “Linda”. They have scenes of strong sexual tension.
-Now there is also the Intimacy Coordinator.
-Yes, filming Objects In Spain I became friends with Maitane, an actress who studied for the role. I had scenes played since I was very young, but it was always good experiences.
-You starred in the last Polka strip (ATAV) that moved the ratings needle, but television is not the same. How do you see that space that was your home today?
-We have to adapt to the new times, there is no other way. I think that those who do not updateis left out. And new platforms will emerge. But I grew up with TV and I miss it.
-You weren’t always “La China”.
-No, when I was a child I was “Coquito”, “Coco”, because of the drawing Cocomiel. That’s what my family called me on my father’s side. And at school I was “Maru”, “Euge”. Many people still call me Euge.
Video
The film stars Eugenia “La China” Suárez.
A girl with a vocation
-You sometimes remember your childhood at castings. What is it like to see it today through your mother’s eyes?
-Very crazy, because my family is not made up of artists. My grandfather sang, but always at home. He sang opera, he sang in Italian and he was in the church choir when he was a kid and I grew up singing with him. But my family didn’t want to know anything about the medium. So I started with a gig and I tried it out. Rufi is 11 and he’s still looking. I had it clear since Amancio was 4 years old.
-Agustina Cherri, who participated with her daughter Muna in the “Cris Morena Day”, said that Cris asked her for work. Is it similar with Rufina? Could she have been a “Margarita”?
-Yes, he asked me. A couple of years ago we spent a weekend in Carmelo and he said: please, I love Rufina. And it was a resounding no.
-From Nico (Cabré), from “Rufi” and from me. But it was anecdotal, because Rufi is not interested. My mother still tells me: “It was crazy what you did.” And thank goodness it turned out well.
“La China” Suárez says that she doesn’t move as freely in music as she does in acting. Photo: Ariel Grinberg
-Getting along with your children’s fathers (Cabré is the father of Rufina and Benjamín Vicuña of Magnolia and Amancio) is another thing that went well for you.
-It is essential. I respect them a lot and all decisions are made by two people. Every trip, every change of school, is always a team effort. And each person plays a role better.
I find it more difficult to organize tasks because I am more lax, so “Nico” takes care of it. And that is how I think it should be.
Singing with Lali and the marginal pavilions
-You and Lali grew up together on TV and were even neighbors. Do you still see a collaboration as a distant prospect?
-Yes, we were neighbors. And it would make sense. But Unlike my confidence in acting, the world of music is difficult for meBecause the industry tends to want to lead you towards the commercial, which is what suits. And I have a lot of duality. I like to sing more ballads. It’s not easy not to be influenced.
On parallel routes, the reunion with Sebastián Ortega – “with whom I worked when I was 14 before Almost Angels”- is another novelty. “We did Househusband (2006) with Carlín Calvo and I was unrecognizable,” says the new addition to the women’s team. In the mud.
Rafael Spregelburd and Eugenia Suárez, in a scene from “Linda”.
-Did you imagine yourself in those pavilions?
-Never! I watched all the seasons of The Marginalbut I didn’t even think about it. There are very good actresses. When they called me I said: whatever the date, I want to be there. I always remember that on the set, in 2006, I had a bad headache and Sebastian told me: “Go home.” That gesture stayed with me.
-Also coming out is Luis Ortega’s “El Jockey.” Is it true that you were close to filming it?
-Very close. But then she started dilating and I got pregnant with Amancio. But I don’t regret it. I saw them at the Venice Film Festival and said: how nice. Yes, I felt sorry for them, but I always think that things happen for a reason.
-You have mentioned the idea of making a reality show about your life.
-It’s an inside joke… My team wants to do it, because they can’t believe how many things happen to me every day. People would think it was rigged! But my life is so bizarre.
“La China” Suárez will work on “In the Mud”, the sequel to “El Marginal”. Photo: Ariel Grinberg
-Would a Sunday at your house be worth portraying?
– We are always the same. But not just anyone can come into my house. I am very jealous of my privacy, of my energy, of my things. I think that is for another time in life. When I am older. There are people much more interesting than me.
-However, you are always under scrutiny and every little thing of yours becomes content. You said that your son likes you to wear your hair down and it was viral.
-That makes me feel tender, because of my followers. I make my children part of it and they love it, Magnolia asks me for her look, Rufi for her makeup. Yes, there are things that make you look like an idiot, like you say: the country is on fire, people are starving and I feel ashamed, because they take it out on you. You upload something everyday and they say: China’s domestic accident. And you got dirty eating something! But I already understood that this is how it works and I can’t do anything.
-Did you also understand that whoever gets angry loses?
-No, I don’t understand it yet. I still get very angryIt’s my essence, how I was raised. It’s not that I have enemies, but I remember everything.. I may not remember names, but I see someone who was mean to me, who spoke badly of me or was cruel…
“La China” Suárez, in “Linda”. A film in which she surprises with her terse character who rarely smiles.
-It’s not that I don’t forgive, it doesn’t exist. I don’t like to be greeted or spoken to. I don’t share space. I’m not at all lukewarm and I find it difficult to cope in an environment where you have to please everyone.I am very loyal to those I love, which are few.
-My children, the parents of my children who are untouchable, my best friend Agustina and her son, who is my godson. My brother, his daughter. I am very Italian in that sense and I inherited it from my father who taught it to me. I can tell the president of a company or business to go to hell, and for me it is the same. I have no qualms about that.
-Lately you’ve been telling more committed or drama-related stories. Has your criteria for choosing characters evolved?
-I don’t know if it has evolved. I choose a lot by intuition. And I still do.
