Supporting actor Esteban Viaña

Esteban Viaña plays Javier, the former boss in the shop where Luis worked.  Luis lost his job because Javier, a somewhat older man, decided it was time to retire and he closed the shop.  This was right before the economic crisis;  Javier explains to Luis he had no idea there was going to be a crisis.  He closed his shop at just the right time out of pure luck.

The scenes with Esteban are an important part of the story of Domino:  Caught in the Crisis.  They not only explain why Luis is out of work, but they show how people who are favored by fate -- close their shop just in time, have the money to run a shop to begin with, etcetera, can be insensitive to those around them who do NOT have such good fortune.

Esteban Viaña as the former boss, Javier.

 
Viaña lives in Jerez de la Frontera, and began his acting career at a young age, when he was in grammar school and there was an activity called "Oration and Recitation."  He loved it, and has been hooked on acting ever since.  He has acted in dramas, religious plays, and many other sorts of productions but his favorites have always been plays directed towards children, for which he usually takes a comic role.

Esteban Viaña, yours truly and Antonio de la Malena...checking out the script.

The highlights of his acting career to date include the husband of the lead character in a play by Federico Garcia Lorca called The Prodigious Shoemaker (La zapatera prodigiousa) which was first produced in various smaller venues but later, brought to the main theater in Jerez de la Frontera (a theater with several thousand seats).

He also had a supporting role in a play by the famous Spanish playwright, Alfonso Pasos and more recently, was featured in a production of On this Island, There Are No Cats (En esta isla no hay gatos) presented by the theater company Tras el Trapo.  Tras el Trapo, you may remember, is a theater company co-owned and operated by Javier Padilla, which provided Domino with a number of actors.

Esteban Viaña as Publius Cornelius.

And just this past month, Viaña joined Domino actor Nicolas Montoya in a special production in the old Roman theater at Baelo Claudia (near Bolonia, on the Atlantic coast).  The play was an original work, written to bring to life the history of the ancient city.  Titled The Nights of Isis (Las noches de Isis), he played the role of Publius Cornelius, one of the two Roman governors of the region at the time that the city was an important Roman port and manufacturing center for the luxury article garum (made out of salted, dried fish).

The old Roman theater at Baelo Claudia (with the seats covered up--don´t know why).

And just to be sure he doesn´t get bored, currently, in addition to acting, Viaña has taken up a couple of musical instruments:  the saxophone and the accordion.

OUR NEXT POST will be about supporting actor Javier Padilla.

Interview with our star, part 2

This is part two of our interview with Antonio de la Malena, star of Domino:

Eve A. Ma (EM):  What scene did you like best, from the point of view of your interpretation? 

Antonio de la Malena (Malena):  There´s one scene with which I particularly identify.  It´s the scene in which I´m tearing up the lottery ticket, and the image of my face at that moment is like a mirror of my own life. 

EM:  What did you like best about the direction?  What least? 

Malena:  What I liked best is the director´s discipline.  I really liked that.  What I liked least is that I feel she needs more assistance, more assistance to be able to properly realize all of her creative projects.   It made me unhappy seeing she lacked that.  

Malena with actor Esteban Viaña and crew.

EM:  In thinking about the film itself, what part did you like best?  Do you think it fairly reflects the current situation in Spain?  

Malena:  In general, I liked everything about the film.  There aren´t things that I like best, and others that I like less well--because it was all done with the heart, and the soul, and with real sympathy for what is happening right now in Spain. 

EM:  What scene did you like best, from the point of view of your interpretation? 

Malena:  There´s one scene with which I particularly identify.  It´s the scene in which I´m tearing up the lottery ticket, and the image of my face at that moment is like a mirror of my own life. 

Malena with actors Jose Luis Martinez and Santiago Moreno.

EM:  What did you like best about the direction?  What least? 

Malena:  What I liked best is the director´s discipline.  I really liked that.  What I liked least is that I feel she needs more assistance, more assistance to be able to properly realize all of her creative projects.   It made me unhappy seeing she lacked that.  

EM:  In thinking about the film itself, what part did you like best?  Do you think it fairly reflects the current situation in Spain?  

Malena:  In general, I liked everything about the film.  There aren´t things that I like best, and others that I like less well--because it was all done with the heart, and the soul, and with real sympathy for what is happening right now in Spain. 

De la Malena with crew, director, actor Nicolas Montoya and others.

EM:  I understand that you had to shave off your beard several times because the director decided to add more scenes and to re-shoot others.  Now that you are free to grow your beard, have you done so?

Malena:  Well, yes, but it didn´t bother me to keep cutting my hair and shaving off my beard because the scenes were good ones and besides, I figured I was going to be earning more money.  

OUR NEXT POST will be about one of the supporting actors, Esteban Viaña.

Interview with our star Antonio de la Malena, part 1

Now that we´ve finished shooting Domino, I decided to interview our lead actor, Antonio de la Malena, to see what he thought about the whole process and the movie itself.  I´d planned to put it all here but since it´s a bit too long, I´ll break it up into two posts.  Here´s the first half -- unedited, but translated from Spanish.

Eve Ma (EM);   Now that the filming is done, what did you like most about playing your part?  And what least? 

Antonio de la Malena (de la Malena):  What I liked most is that I´m trying to adjust myself to the task of being an actor and I think that with the help of the director, I am able to do it and will be able to do it again, should the opportunity arise.  It´s very difficult, it´s not easy, but I try to put myself into the mind-set of the protagonist so that in my interpretation, my emotions are real, and appropriate. 

De la Malena in the scene in the pawn shop.

EM:  Since this was the first time you acted in front of a camera, how does it differ from your normal role of performing on stage? 

de la Malena:   Usually, when I´m performing on stage,there aren´t cameras that are filming you first in a close-up and then in a long shot.  There aren´t any cameras close up, in front of your face, and you don´t have to repeat everything so many times.

EM:  Did you feel well prepared to act before you started out?  Do you feel well prepared now, if you´re asked to do it again? 

de la Malena:   The truth is that you´re never really prepared.  It´s a kind of work that makes you feel embarrassed and is nerve-wracking when there are a lot of people around and you need to play the part of someone else, but the more you do it, the less stage-fright you get.  It´s one of those things that you have to get used to, little by little.  

De la Malena in the scene where he talks on the phone to his wife.

EM:   Did you feel any personal affinity with the character you played in Domino?  Why, or why not? 

de la Malena:  Yes, I put myself in the position of my character and there were moments in which it seemed so natural that I thought the character was actually my real self.

EM:  How did you feel, working with the other actors?

de la Malena:  It was a very nice experience, and I saw that everyone was learning from it. 

OUR NEXT POST with be the second half of this interview.