Carles Martínez: "I don't believe in suffering or self-torture to achieve certain results."

BarcelonaActor Carles Martínez (Terrassa, 1966) has honed his craft and his passion remains undiminished. Since his debut in 1988, he has participated in nearly 150 shows, as well as several films and television series. A man primarily of the theater, he has just received the Butaca award for best supporting actor by The inheritance -considered The best show of 2025 by the ARA—. If there he shared the stage of the Teatre Lliure with 12 actors, now he returns teaming up with some twenty performers in The ferrymanA production directed by Julio Manrique about an Irish family experiencing a disappearance. "I've just finished a major production and I'm going on to do another one," says Martínez, aware that there aren't many shows of this scale on the Catalan stage. The ferryman It's a play by British playwright Jeff Butterworth, set in Northern Ireland in 1981. At the Lliure Theatre, it's being performed with a cast including Roger Casamajor, Marta Marco, Mima Riera, Ernest Villegas, and Anna Güell. It's one of the season's major premieres and will run from February 5th to March 15th. The text is also available in bookstores, published by Comanegra.

The ferryman It is located in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, in the early eighties.

— This show tells the story of a family at a pivotal moment in history. It has the ability to simultaneously portray the most intimate and the most epic aspects of one of the darkest periods in history. It was a turbulent and incredibly cruel era, far darker than the one we live in now. Thatcher and Reagan were in power, and there was talk of finding life on Mars so that a privileged few could go and live there while the rest remained on Earth as slaves.

In The ferryman You play an uncle in the family, who lives on a farm and is involved in a disappearance. How do you develop each character?

— I call it passing the MOT test of versatility: using common sense with the viewer in mind, trying to make it believable. I look inward a bit, but there's also an element of imagination. It all depends on each production and each director. In the case of this story, realism and a seemingly more spontaneous naturalism are very prominent.

You also coincided with Manrique in The adversary (2022), where you played a man who murdered his entire family. Did you also work on a film like that?

— The adversary It was such an incredible story that, if I sought absolute credibility, I could end up like Anthony Perkins in PsychosisWith characters like this, the problem is psychodrama. It wasn't about a hero; it was a situation of profound pathos that evolves into tragedy. The work relied heavily on the text and improvisation. In that case, I don't believe in suffering, but rather in playing to move the audience. In fact, I don't believe in suffering or self-torture to achieve certain results. You have to work intensely, but the essence of fiction is that the seams shouldn't show.

What tools has experience given you in this profession?

— As a young man, I had the feeling that there were a number of things I hadn't yet experienced. As I've gotten older, I've realized, for example, that perhaps to play Chekhov you have to be more jaded, more jaded. But in your youth, you can discover magnificent things intuitively. The instinct of that age is wonderful; I wish I still had it. Then there are a number of things that come with experience and time, like a sense of humor and the ability to manage complex emotions.

What was Carlos like as a young man starting out on stage?

— I remember older actors telling me, "Don't suffer so much, don't do so much exercise." Before going on stage, I'd do 20 laps around the stage, push-ups… to warm up my body and burst onto the scene with maximum power. Sometimes, I was so hyperventilated that I couldn't even get a word out. It was too much. All of this had to happen, it's natural. Young people also have that honesty in their work that we should never lose sight of.

Sometimes, settling into a job can be very easy.

— But in art, you spend your money. There are cases of incredibly talented actors who already have the knack and just keep going… Look, no. In this profession, you're only as good as your last performance. Yesterday's work is already gone, especially when it comes to an ephemeral art like theater. If you rest on your laurels, you'll fall flat on your face.

You've worked on nearly 150 productions. How have you dealt with professional demotivation?

— My motivation is closely tied to the success of the stories. I always give it my all, but sometimes—don't ask me why—I just sense the ship is taking on water. However, my ethical and artistic responsibility is to defend to the death the story I've signed a contract for. It's incredibly draining. And then people come to see you, and some reviews save your skin, but others cut you down.

We've seen you in film and television, but you've dedicated yourself much more to theater. Why is that?

— He's beloved. The theater is a vast field of exploration and freedom for the actor. We all love it for that reason, because it offers us so many more possibilities than the world of film and television. In film and television, you're perhaps just one more ingredient, although some roles are played with intention and reach levels of transcendence. When I see what Scorsese, Al Pacino, or Robert De Niro do, oh my God!

Who are your role models in theatre?

— There's one artist I've admired for many years: Ingmar Bergman. I was able to see two of his plays, and they were among the best I've ever seen, with a remarkably simple approach to directing actors. His entire body of work consists of lessons and reflections on the world of theater, film, and artistic creation. For me, Bergman is on another level. I've kept him very much in mind when studying and working.

Do you have any unfulfilled professional aspirations?

— I'd like to work a bit more in film, but it depends on the project; it has to live up to my expectations. When I was 29, I had a golden opportunity to break into film, and I turned it down because I thought the script was awful. I prefer to continue doing theater.

Do you regret it?

— At that time I had done some work in Terrassa and was settling in Barcelona. I was lucky enough to participate in a casting call and Joan Ollé cast me in a leading role in The time for goodbyesFrom Narciso Comadira. After that, work started coming in, and then they approached me for the film. Sometimes I've wondered how things would have gone if I'd done that job, but in reality, the film came and went without much fanfare. On the other hand, I've been able to access roles that I'm proud of and that I've enjoyed immensely.