Susana Hornos has lived on the other side of the Atlantic for a long time, although also with interruptions to work on projects in Spain. For fourteen years he shared his sentimental and professional life with Federico Luppi, an Argentine director and actor considered one of the greats of acting. After Luppi passed away (Ramallo, Buenos Aires, February 23, 1936-Buenos Aires, October 20, 2017) he decided to settle again in Madrid, and since then he has participated in different projects, including I am alive, the La 1 series starring Javier Gutiérrez, with which we still enjoy being still in programming.
How is your character in I am alive?
It is mysterious. Guiomar Puerta, the actress from Bilbao, said in an interview: A very bad one is coming. But no, it’s not that bad. He is one of those characters that one enjoys working a lot because he is full of edges.
Did you like it when it was offered to you? Because it is in one of the most interesting series of today, according to specialized critics …
I loved it, but the writers have a bit of a complicated head … Just kidding! While we were recording the information was dosed and we were discovering our characters little by little. I think it’s the same thing that happens to the public. As Elena Gamboa, which is what my character calls, begins to appear, everything begins to turn upside down. Elena makes sure that nothing is what it seems. I have enjoyed a lot because I have been able to play with this woman. Having a character with these characteristics is very important for an actress.
Are you and Elena alike?
What is it, is someone very foreign to me. She is an ambitious woman and has power, but she also has her heart. I think he is a very well designed character. Sometimes they scare us about ambition, but it’s also good to have it.
As in everything, the good and bad of ambition is in the space that is given to it in life, right?
Exactly. Being ambitious is not always bad, it may be that what ambitions are goals in life, objectives to be achieved.
It seems that Elena Gamboa is her gift for 2021.
And I did not expect it; maybe that’s why she’s even more satisfied. This year has been very hard for all of us who live to be actors, technicians or directors. In general, it has been hard on humanity. However, it seems to me that my life has suddenly been filled with gifts. At first there were only a couple of chapters, but later the character grew in the scripts and Elena Gamboa reaches the end of the series.
What has made the character grow?
Everything. When the casting began, the series was still being designed and I didn’t really know where I was getting myself, but in the end I discovered the pleasure of developing the entire arc of a woman who has so many nuances that even I was confused.
Once the series is over, do you have any new work projects?
I have not had time to do many more things. In February I finished shooting a movie in Bulgaria and now I have an episode of a Movistar + Nasdrovia series, that’s why I’m talking about gifts. I’ve done a series, a movie and now this little job for a platform comedy. It’s like falling on your feet, because I haven’t been in Spain for long. I am in a little ant for a moment and we are going step by step, walking, although the road is very difficult and the times are not good in some professions, but I do not complain.
How long have you returned from Argentina?
In the last twenty years, my husband (Federico Luppi) and I used to come to spend some time, but our house was there. Two years ago I returned, although I returned to Argentina for three months and then I went to Los Angeles. To stay still, the pandemic has forced me.
You are from Logroño, how did you land in Buenos Aires?
When I was 17 I went to Zaragoza to study Law and theater. In that city I started working in a company and in a law firm. I started to see Argentine cinema and I fell in love with all the people who made possible that magic that the screen transmitted. And I wanted to go there. I got on a plane, dropped everything, and went on an adventure. All because I fell in love with Argentine cinema.
An adventure that has lasted a long time and that has given him many things, including love.
Exactly. In Argentina I worked and Argentina I fell in love. It is a country that has given me so much and that I love so much that it will never be far from me.
A welcoming country for those who love acting?
You can’t even imagine it, or at least that’s what I can tell. I have been surrounded by the best, I have worked with the best actors and actresses, and I have also had the opportunity to direct theater. The last Argentine actor I directed was Federico Luppi, and he also directed me. The professionals I have worked with have supported me and given me lessons, even in spite of themselves.
Despite yourself?
Yes. One of the things that I have to thank many people who have worked with me and who are great actors and actresses is that they do not pontificate. They help you, they are companions and they support you, but without the intention of saying that they are there to teach you anything, because they are by your side in a very generous way. Imagine yourself in I am alive, where most of the scenes were with Javier Gutiérrez, Alejo Sauras or Jesús Castejón, a real marvel. And Fele Martínez too. You say to yourself: Oh my! I am working with the best, I am learning and they do not even realize how much they are teaching me.
One of his most special works has been the play María Teresa y el león.
It is a pity that we could not have made it more extensive. I am waiting for everything to progress in a positive way with vaccines so I can do a tour. We were in Madrid with this text and you have to see how the critics and the public behaved. But only Madrid for me is not the theater, I need to do tours, which we always did in Argentina. I have not known tourist Argentina, I have known Argentina from theater tours.
What was the last one you did?
In Spain, the last one was with Federico Luppi and we were all over the country: Basque Country, Andalusia, Madrid € We were absolutely in all the theaters and it was very exciting. I want more of that. I think that a character like María Teresa León has to be known. The person has to be known, more than the character, his world of exile, his Alzheimer’s, his passion for writing € She is a vast woman who deserves to be known.
Many people hardly know about her as Rafael Alberti’s partner, which makes her a shadowy woman.
That’s right, and oddly enough, she placed herself in the shade. From her is the phrase I am the tail of the comet. When asked in an interview what he was doing, he would take a back seat and say: No matter what i’m doing. Ask him, the poet is he. Look at the type of woman she was: brave, brave, intellectual, daring, from the country, a woman of her house € At this point we have to emphasize and bring to light those women who shone by themselves, but in a certain way They stood behind them, behind the men.
You also lived next to a genius like Federico Luppi …
Exactly, and you don’t live like you’re next to a genius. What happened outside has nothing to do with me. We were partners. I know that for that outside he was a genius, or quite the opposite, but indoors, inside the house, the Federico that I remember was the one who got up at six in the morning and began to make mate while cleaning up the kitchen. At seven thirty in the morning he would knock on the door and bring me breakfast. I remember that he always hummed some tango, very badly sung, with the mate ready to start the day. His genius for me was being a life partner € I still have a hard time talking about him. It’s been three years since he left and I’m still excited to talk about him.
Personal
Age: 49 years.
Place of birth: Logroño.
Family: For 14 years she was married to the Argentine actor and director Federico Luppi.
Training: After finishing his law studies, he began to work in a law firm and in a company in Zaragoza.
Trajectory: He met Argentine cinema and left everything. In Buenos Aires he worked with the best directors, including Luppi, with whom he was until his death three years ago. On his return to Madrid he starred in the play Maria Teresa and the lion, a character behind whom is Rafael Alberti’s wife. He also gives life to Elena Gamboa in I am alive.
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