Sílvia Abril: "The magic of this profession is to play"

--- What would you be doing on a Friday at that time if you hadn't made plans with me?

--- Well, probably attending to another media outlet by phone for an interview, because I've had a few weeks, not to say months, of brutal promotion.

--- I have the feeling I see you everywhere.

--- It's the year of the book Pérdidas de risa, the presentation of the series Mamen Mayo, the tour of Las Asambleistas and El Tenoriu, and I've also voiced a character in an animated series. With all this, I would surely be doing another interview.

--- Do you not know how to say no, or do you not want to let things slip away?

--- It's very hard for me to say no. Not out of fear, but because everything interests me. For example, if they invite me to do something I've never done, holy cow! It's very hard for me to say no. I'm very curious, and this compulsive curiosity about life makes me think things through a lot before saying no, because I always think I'll discover something new.

--- Books, advertising, interviews, theater, solidarity causes, gigs, podcast... It's as if people are rediscovering Silvia Abril.

--- I don't know. I think I'm reaping what I've sown, because I've been here for so long and I've done so many things, that they can place you anywhere now.

--- Would you say you're living a sweet moment?

--- I feel very fortunate, because I'm at a stage of life where many of my colleagues or those from generations older than mine, at this age, were starting to suffer invisibility, and I believe that things, fortunately, are starting to change.

--- Eva Merseguer writes in the prologue of your book that what you do goes far beyond hyperactivity, that it's impossible to keep up with you. How do you do it?

--- I have a lot of vitality. And at 53, mind you! I think doing sports helps me a lot, and I need it to keep having this energy. The day I don't do anything, I arrive at the show exhausted.

--- Do you exercise every day?

--- I try. I live very close to the mountain, Joana's school is next door, and I like to walk her. Once I drop her off, the dog and I go to the mountain and stay for a long hour.

"The moment when popularity annoys me the most is when my daughter is born, because they make her life not normal"

--- Run I can no longer. My knees are destroyed! But I walk fast. And this, added to nature and sport, besides taking care of my diet and taking many supplements, is the key. I also believe there is something genetic in my family, because my sisters are the same, and my mother is also a hyperactive woman, she cannot sit still.

--- Therefore, I cannot imagine you doing nothing?

--- Look, Andreu teaches me to do nothing, but it's very hard for me because stopping, sitting down, taking a nap, for me is a waste of time.

--- Can you move around Barcelona without being stopped every second?

--- Relatively... There's a popularity you notice a lot on the street, but it's not the one that, for example, Andreu suffers.

--- How is it different?

--- He has been around many more years than me.

--- Is it a matter of time?

--- I think so. There is something that unites us that is very beautiful, and that is that people stop us on the street to tell us that we have brightened their lives in delicate moments, for example when they have had a hospitalized family member and we have accompanied them with our television appearances. People always approach us to thank us. There is never a reproach.

--- How nice!

--- Andreu is identified a lot by his voice. They may not see him, but his voice gives him away.

--- Sometimes people are inopportune.

--- Sometimes there are people who invade your space, yes. And many times they immediately take out their phone and take a picture of you.

--- In the book you say that, if you could make a wish, it would be to be able to do nudism again in peace.

--- The moment when popularity angers me the most is when my daughter is born, because they make her life not normal. For a child, having their parents stopped every moment on the street is a pain in the ass.

--- What does she tell you about this?

--- One summer in Menorca she told us: "Why don't you upload a video on Instagram and please ask people not to stop you on the street?" She can't do something as simple as going shopping. This is when it starts to bother me.

--- Do you think people are aware of this?

--- People are sometimes very unempathetic and very misguided. Maybe we are having a family conversation in a restaurant and they take for granted that you have to be pleasant and friendly, because that's what they see of you on TV. But at that moment you might be dealing with managing a conflict with your daughter. This is what I handle the worst.

"To disconnect, when we go on vacation, we need to put quite a bit of distance between us"

--- This also happens to us a lot. They take photos of us and think you're not seeing them, but you are noticing. Of course, we stop them. We don't hold back! We tell them: "Ask us, no problem, but not like that."

--- And does managing all this take a toll on your family life?

--- You try not to let it affect you too much, because think that it can ruin your day. Sometimes it has happened to us that we have a bad day and Andreu, who takes it worse than me, says: "Let's go." There's a phrase he always says: "Popularity has stolen our leisure." That's why, to disconnect, when we go on vacation, we need to put a lot of distance between us. Although you always end up running into people (laughs).

--- Some people think that if you dedicate yourself to the public, this is the price you have to pay.

--- And there are people who tell you that openly. It's a big topic.

--- I've known you for years and I always see you happy. I can't imagine you in a bad mood.

--- Well, I do get angry! Especially with my daughter. I get quite angry when educating.

--- Do you yell?

--- A scream might escape me, yes. And maybe also some shaking by the arm and yelling: "Joana!"

--- My mother used to chase me around the house with a slipper in her hand.

--- And I had been pinched under the arm.

--- Have we gone too far in educating our children?

--- I think a little bit, yes. We have gone too far by not setting limits. A scream or grabbing by the arm doesn't mean you're mistreating a child. You're making it clear that you can't take it anymore. Luckily, it doesn't last long for me, and at home we know how to dismount easily, because we've already built a lot of muscle, we've gotten angry a lot.

--- What else makes you angry?

--- Injustices make me angry, politicians' reactions to certain circumstances. They ignite me, my blood boils. But I can't start yelling around the house alone.

--- How does your daughter cope with living with two comedians?

--- She is very aware that what happens at home is not very normal, but we have managed for her to normalize this abnormality. She has had to manage environments where people want to approach her because she is the daughter of who she is. Luckily, she already sees it coming, because she is very smart.

--- What do people not imagine about you?

--- That I get angry, that there are days when I'm sad, that the face people know is not the only face of Sílvia Abril. I also have moments when I want to be alone, when I don't want to be there for anyone.

--- I didn't know that you had suffered from bulimia as a child. Did your family know?

--- It wasn't bulimia, because I didn't induce vomiting. It was a binge-eating disorder caused by anxiety. It was around 20 or 22 years old, and at home they didn't know until years later. Neither did my sisters.

--- What was it like living in that house with five women?

--- (Laughs) A dream! Everything was very crazy, with a thousand shifts to eat. One would arrive at one time, another would study and eat later. My grandmother cooked at home, because my parents have worked all their lives, and often weren't there.

--- What did they do for work?

--- My mother had a flower shop, and my father worked with iron and had his own company. I loved living in that house!

"It was us who suggested to my parents that they separate. And they separated, and we expelled patriarchy from the house"

--- In a camping, in Sant Pol de Mar or in Canet. My mother would leave us with my grandmother in a caravan and go to work. I am a camping child!

--- Five women lived in that house, but you have always said it was a patriarchy.

--- Yes, but because my mother decided so. Until one day the movie changed, when we were older, and we suggested to my parents that they separate.

--- Seriously?

--- Yes. It was us who told my mother: "Separate, you don't get along with dad. Why are you together? For us, don't do it." And they separated, and we expelled the patriarchy from home. I had never told this before, but that's how it was.

--- What was your father like?

--- My father, who was from Granada, had a very macho way of being a father and a husband. Also because he came from a family where he had not been taught anything else. At home, Spanish was spoken, although my mother was Catalan and spoke Catalan. But we had a very happy childhood, with a father who loved animals and nature, with many cousins and uncles.

--- You started studying Law.

--- Yes, because I didn't have a clear vocation. I was a village girl, from Mataró, and we never went to Barcelona. I didn't know that theater could be studied. And I chose Law because many of my friends were studying it and because it was a career I could access with the grade I had gotten in the university entrance exam. Law? Well, Law, what does it matter! But a theater school opened in Mataró, and I started to combine it with my degree, with teachers who told me I could dedicate myself to this.

--- And you came to Barcelona?

--- I started training and preparing to take the entrance exams for the Institut del Teatre. We were a group of actors, among them, Albert Triola, and I remember we prepared in secret from our families. He was studying to be a teacher, and I, a lawyer, and secretly we took the exams, they accepted us and, when we told it at home, there was a cataclysm. It was tremendous. Think that at that moment the only one who was studying a degree in that house was me, something my mother had never been able to do. That I decided to leave everything to do theater... imagine.

--- Have you considered finishing your degree? You only have one year left, right?

--- I still have fourth year too! I started it, but I'm sure I have some subjects left.

--- Do you think you would have been a good lawyer?

--- From the moment that, for me, defending someone and believing a story leads you to play a character who believes that person, I surely would have been a great defense lawyer for lost causes. I think I would have done it well, but I wouldn't have been happy. This is the problem that half of humanity has, that many people dedicate themselves to doing jobs that don't make them happy. I switched tracks and the train is still going.

--- How did they live at home as you made your way into the world of acting?

--- I think they couldn't believe it. But the facts confirmed that this was my path, and that makes them super proud.

--- In the series Mamen Mayo, you play a mediating lawyer convinced that in life it's better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission. Does Sílvia Abril also think so?

--- Yes, because I am very daring. I never feel ashamed. I am a troublemaker who now has to control herself, because there is a little person there whom I have to make see that I am not. I do first, and then I say: "Sorry, I just didn't know." Once I got on an AVE by mistake and thought, if they catch me, I'll apologize! (Laughs).

--- And were you able to sit down?

--- I spent the trip in the bar (laughs). It was a mistake and a kindness at the same time, from the man at the door who recognized me and let me pass so I wouldn't miss it, but it turned out I got on the wrong train. I realized when I was already inside. I tried to buy a ticket upstairs, but it was full. And I said: "Well, I'll stay here, and I'll apologize."

"I still consider myself a little girl when I'm on stage, and playing is one of the reasons why I still retain this vitality"

--- Not much. The work already lived is done. In Mamen Mayo, for example, where I am in a totally different register from mine, I look at myself, and I think: "And where is the making people laugh?" It's hard for me to see myself. But at home they are very complacent, I have great admirers.

--- Have you ever cried over a job that didn't turn out as you expected?

--- It's work. I tend to trivialize a bit, give it relative importance, but it also helps to develop intuition more, which is the fruit of experience and time.

--- Whose idea was La Niña de Schrek?

--- Mine. When we were doing Homo Zapping, directed by José Corbacho, many times he would tell us: "Today we have to do anonymous characters," and I remember I had to embody a girl who was looking for her father, and I asked him: "Can she be ugly and dirty?" And it came out of improvisation. It's the origin and the magic of this profession, and it's what we did every night in El Tenoriu. Play!, because I still consider myself a little girl when I'm on stage, and playing is one of the reasons why I still preserve this vitality.

--- Does it bother you that there are more and more candles on the cake?

--- No, not at all. I like it. I'm not afraid of getting older. I think a day will come when it pisses me off, but the passage of time doesn't worry me much, I squeeze it so much!

--- How do you take care of your mind?

--- By doing therapy, and also with nature, with sunbathing...

--- With these interviews I'm discovering that everyone does therapy.

--- It's wonderful, super healthy. You get all your shit out and you empty yourself with someone who doesn't judge you, but gives you tools. I wish everyone would do it.

Doing El Tenoriu with Andreu was a discovery. I have rediscovered my life partner, and I pee myself laughing!

--- Generosity. Besides, he's a guy I've always admired and still admire. For me, he's one of the great communicators in the field of humor, very intelligent.

--- What would you say he has learned from you?

--- To be more playful. To let everything slide more.

--- You make a good team.

--- With El Tenoriu I've made reflections like: "Do you realize how people buy into you and me being a couple?" We've sold out the tickets! It's an enormous satisfaction and gratitude. It's also a lot of responsibility. Andreu, who is the cerebral one, says: "Responsibility, what we do we have to do very well," and I tell him: "But how cool is it!"

--- You had done many things together, but not theater. How has the experience of sharing the stage every day been?

--- Well, it was a discovery. I have rediscovered my life partner. I laugh my ass off! We have a great time. I would even say we're a bit annoying, because we've been together for almost 20 years and we go on stage and I still laugh.

--- Random question. If you could choose to time travel for a day, what would you choose, past or future?

--- Future. I've already lived the past. I'm more detached.

--- Not even to reunite with people who are no longer here?

--- Oh man! If you put it that way, I'd sit down with Tati (journalist Tatiana Sisquella) for a vermouth.

--- How do you imagine life in twenty years?

--- I want to be a hot grandma, a dirty old woman. This thing of the naughty girl.

--- How do you know Ellen Degeneres? I'm so jealous.

--- Well, look, I had a small disappointment.

--- What happened?

--- She wasn't too kind to me. When I was introduced to her, I went to shake her hand, and she said: "I'm sorry, I just washed my hands". And we hadn't lived through the pandemic yet. I found her to be an excessively aseptic woman, and she disappointed me with that gesture.

--- Has this happened to you with other people?

--- No, on the contrary. I've met Jorge Drexler, and he's wonderful; Coque Malla, and he's wonderful; Serrat, and he's wonderful; Jamie Cullum, and he's wonderful. I would say it hasn't happened to me with anyone else.

--- Would you see yourself doing a show like Ellen Degeneres'?

--- Yes.

--- Have you proposed it?

--- We've tried. A mix of Ellen Degeneres and Drew Barrymore's show. I would love it.

--- It's the only thing you must have left to do.

--- It will come.

--- As if you didn't have enough work, you've gone all out and organized a solidarity campaign to collect toys for the children of Paiporta.

--- Yes! The solidarity is being incredible! We are collecting new toys at several points we have set up, and we will celebrate a Christmas party in Paiporta.

--- How did the idea come about?

--- With a Paiporta native we have in the Terrat family, Esther Paredes. Her parents were up to their necks until they managed to save themselves, and her sister lost the cafeteria she owned. She suffers a lot about what Christmas will be like, because people are very depressed and sad. And I tell her: "Do you want us to set something up? Do you want me to call people and friends, we collect toys and set up a party in Paiporta to celebrate Christmas?" And I have created a whatsapp group with 144 people, those I believe can feel motivated to help us with this initiative. Many of those involved in the group have started working as if their lives depended on it! We just need a worthwhile cause, and we become invincible.