Supporting actor Nicolás Montoya

We wrote a blog several months earlier about Nicolás Montoya and his acting.  We´ll use this blog to bring us up to date on his career.  Like Javier Padilla, in addition to his role as the banker Miguel in Domino Montoya has been very active in his career as an actor in theater and television, and in addition, is studying scriptwriting at the film school in the University of Sevilla.

Nicolás Montoya with our cameraman in a scene from Domino.

As an actor, he has played the role of Pajarete in Tirso Calero´s popular series Bandolera, a production filmed in Madrid and aired over Antena 3, a private television station that broadcasts nationally to the entire country of Spain.

In addition, he has appeared in several movies, including two that are soon to be released.  One, called Libertador  (The Liberator), is directed by Alberto Arvelo of Venezuela.  It´s about Simon Bolivar, the revolutionary from Venezuela who liberated most of South America from Spanish rule.  The movie stars Edgar Ramírez and Maria Valverde.  It boasts a very international cast:  Ramirez is from Venezuela, Valverde from Spain, and in addition, Danny Houston (USA) Iwan Rheon (Great Britain) and Juana Acosta (Colombia) play leading roles. 

Montoya in a theater production.

In the scene shot in Jerez, there is a pitched battle between Bolivar´s forces and the Spanish army.  Bolivar wins.

Rain at mid-day stopped the filming but not before they apparently had shot enough footage.  I guess the moral here is that nature is more powerful than armies, but armies (and filmmakers) can be flexible enough so that in the long run, it might not matter.

The other movie in which Montoya recently acted is called El barco (The Boat).  In this one, he played the part of a medical doctor, a very appropriate role since in fact, apart from his acting, he actually IS a medical doctor.  This movie is directed by Juan de Artigas.  I´m sorry to say that I don´t know anything more about it.

Montoya as a Roman legionnaire in front of the Roman theater.

In addition to these two movies, Montoya has acted in live theater, playing the role of Don Ventura in a play created by the theater company Hesperides and presented by the Cultural Division of the City of Jerez to celebrate that city´s history.  His other recent theater role was as the Roman Legionnaire Marco.  This was another production created by the theater company Hesperides.  It was presented in the old Roman theater near Bolonia called Baelo Claudia, in which you will remember Esteban Viaña played the part of duumvir.

Montoya--a busy man, indeed.

OUR NEXT POST will be about supporting actor Salvador Valle, and the following one will be about where is Spain headed?

Supporting actor Javier Padilla

Actor and playwright Javier Padilla, co-founder and co-director of the theater company Tras el Trapo in Jerez de la Frontera, plays two roles in Domino:  Caught in the Crisis.  He plays the friend Manolo, who owns a shop where our hero, Luis, goes to look for a job.  He also plays the drunk in one of the final scenes.

To be sure the audience won´t recognize him in his two contrasting roles, in addition to very different costuming, in one scene he has a bushy beard and in the other, he does not.  A real beard.  We shot the drunk scene first, then he shaved off the beard (not just for us, but it still served our purposes well), and afterwards, we shot the other scene with him as Manolo.

Javier Padilla as the friend, Manolo, in his shop.  Oops! caught him with his mouth open!

We have written about Javier in earlier blogs but wanted to use this space to "catch up" with what he´s been doing lately.

Well, he´s been doing quite a lot.

This past summer, Tras el Trapo presented the opening of his semi-surrealistic, satirical work, Pepa or Josefa:  when Fernando VII wore an overcoat (¿Pepa o Josefa?...cuando Fernando VII usaba paletó). It has played in numerous venues ever since.

Playbill from Pepa o Josefa.

The play deals with a chaotic period in Spain´s history, the XIX century when the country experienced war, revolution, invasion, frequent changes of government, and warring world views characterized by a tug-of-war between monarchists and Renaissance liberalism.  This is the period in which Napoleon conquered Spain but was later thrown out, in which the Inquisition was first disavowed then reinstated, in which kings fled the country or ruled as puppets or were restored to autocratic power....

Pepa and Josefa are two contrasting female characters, one an aristocrat loyal to the Spanish king and the other, her pragmatic servant.   The entire play is carried by only these two characters, played respectively by María Duarte and Ana Oliva.  Javier Padilla, in addition to being the author, also directed it.

Then, even more recently, he along with other members of the theater company have been presenting something they call the Jaramago´s Blues Band to audiences in several towns and cities in Andalucia, in southern Spain.  This is a light, comic work that makes use of Padilla´s talents as both an actor and musician.

Jaramago Blues Band.

The mini-tour was funded by the European Union as part of its program to revitalize local commerce and local business districts by bringing in activities that would lure local citizens out to enjoy themselves ... and spend money.  There were several additional performing companies that were part of these tours, and entrance to all was free.

All this sounds wonderful, but I need to add a short note here, and that is, that I have learned from many people in the performing arts that it is really important that tours and performances such as these be properly publicized and properly scheduled.  No publicity means no audience.   I mention this because especially in the case of tours organized by government entities, inadequate publicity is often a problem.  Then it look like the public doesn't support the arts (so we can cut THAT out of the budget, right?) when really, it's a question of the organizers not having done their jobs. 

On stage, on tour.

But getting back to Javier Padilla:  he long and the short of it is that, as an actor as well as playwright and musician, he has been a very busy man.

And the best part of it is...that he´s even getting paid (as opposed to some tours in which the actors are  promised a fee by a government organ but then the money isn´t forthcoming).

Relaxing before the show (l to r):  Ismael Colón, María Duarte and Javier Padilla.

OUR NEXT POST will be about supporting actor Nicolás Montoya.

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.

The actors

We used a wide variety of actors in Domino, from professionals who are appearing on prime-time TV to a ten year old girl with no experience acting and, to the best of my knowledge, no desire to become an actress.  Each one of them worked hard, each one presented different challenges for me, the director, and each one really did a good job.  Some, in fact, did an excellent job.

It was a great pleasure to work with Antonio de la Malena, our star.  He learned his roles, he took the time to "put himself into the character," and he never complained when I said, "Ok, that take was really good, now let´s do it again, just in case."

Antnio de la Malena, playing Luis, takes a break during the shooting.

I found it truly interesting that he put himself into his role...taking a few moments before each scene and usually before each take, to be in the correct emotional place.  The reason I found it so interesting is that he´d never acted before and certainly had never heard of Method Acting, or Stanislavsky.  On the other hand, flamenco singing (and he is a flamenco singer, a cantaor) requires exactly the same kind of emotional commitment, which is why I chose him to be the lead, in the first place.

Other actors I want to point out are Nicolas Montoya and Javier Padilla.  Both appeared in several scenes, both were very professional and very prepared, and both also helped me in other ways.  Nicolas Montoya (who is in the popular television program Bandoleras) found me an actor when I needed one, and also found the location for the bank scenes.

Nicolas Montoya plays Miguel the banker.

  Javier Padilla played two roles, one a small one but needing someone with good body control.  (He has a beard in that scene, a no beard in the other, so he looks like two different people.)  Javier also found at least three other actors for me.  Every time I called and said "I need someone of a certain age and capable of a certain type of role," he would find me that person...or rather, he´d give me several people for me to choose from.

This brings me back to our lead character.  Antonio de la Malena is, along with Javier Padilla, responsible for helping me with the casting.  He found more actors for me than I can count.  I haven´t been in Jerez long enough to "know everyone," and without him, and Javier Padilla (plus Nicolas Montoya), well, I don´t know if I´d have been able to produce Domino.

Other actors include Salvador Valle, Esteban Viaña, José María Martinez, Rosario Heredia and Luis de la Tota.  I enjoyed working with all of them.

Salvador Valle plays Salvador the neighbor, who offers Luis a few hours´ work.

 The last one I especially want to point out, however, is that 10 year old girl, Marta.  She is a bit shy, and certainly not used to memorizing lines, putting herself in character, or anything of the sort.  She was very willing, however, and like all the rest, she never complained (except once, and that was not a complaint but in the first shoot, she got exhausted and started crying.  We called it a day, and thought of ways to keep her from getting so worn out in future scenes.)

Marta, seen here with Antonio de la Malena, plays the daughter of Luis.

Domino is the first real narrative I´ve ever directed.  It has been a real learning experience.  One of the most pleasurable memories I´ll carry with me from it is these actors....  Thanks to you all.

OUR NEXT POST will be an interview with our lead actor, Antonio de la Malena.

Which is working best, California or Spain?

Well, I got back from Spain about three days ago.   The weather is gorgeous here in the San Francisco Bay Area.  A bit hot yesterday afternoon, but still, gorgeous.  The bay is beautiful.  The birds are singing.  The sun is shining.  All is right in the world, at least on this side of the Atlantic, right?

Marin headlands and the Golden Gate Bridge

Well….

Housing prices are going up again in the Bay Area.  Many people think this is good news.  “Many people” does not include those who’ve lost their homes, or people of modest incomes.  But we’ll let that one pass, and pretend it’s a good thing for everyone.

Some of California’s major cities have gone bankrupt.

What?  Bankrupt?

The lagoon near the Berkeley Marina.

 My own city, El Cerrito, is suing the State of California.  Why?  Because the State of California is demanding a huge chunk of money from it, money that came from the city’s redevelopment agency…and the State of California eliminated all city redevelopment agencies last year, and then said the cities could use the money remaining in the redevelopment accounts for other purposes, and the City of El Cerrito allocated these monies for other projects, and the State of California says that no, they’ve allocated too much and so need to return millions to the State of California, and, and, and…..

I have no view on the legal issues involved, since I don’t really KNOW the legal issues involved.

Why is the State of California requiring money from the cities?  (And this is absolutely not the first instance.)  Because the State of California is in dire financial straits.

So here I get back from Spain, which “everyone” considers to be a basket case, and I find…

…things in California aren’t going so well, either.

But it’s a beautiful day, and the bay looks gorgeous.

View of the bay from the hills.

 

I think I’ll go out for a walk.

OUR NEXT POST will be about the actors in Domino.