Judit Martín: "I feel very comfortable being more of a geek than a diva"

BarcelonaJudit Martín i Dolcet (l’Hospitalet de Llobregat, 1976) is a laughter-making machine. Between subtlety and delirium, she unleashes unpredictable humor to imitate, improvise, and build worlds and characters. She has demonstrated this in theater, on radio, on television, and also in hospitals as a clown for Pallapupas. About to turn 50, one of the best Catalan comedic actresses is premiering her first film in a few days: the romantic comedy Pizza movies, directed by Carlo Padial and starring Judit and Berto Romero, a couple who love each other and make themselves loved.

A man in the audience has just said that it seemed strange to see you dressed in everyday clothes, as a person. You must have seen yourself in the mirror in so many ways...

— I used to love dressing up and now I'm getting the hang of it. It's true, I loved putting on wigs, things, and now between little and too much...

Making a living by making people laugh is the best thing there is, I guess.

— Yes, of course, for me yes. But it is also a poisoned gift. It is often said a lot about how you manage to go on stage when you have had bad news. For me, these are the easiest days, look what I'm telling you. It's like an escape valve. The issue is when you are very exploited or you exploit yourself. I have found myself with some whirlpools that, all of a sudden, what you need is to be at home on the sofa.

Is this a moment when you feel self-exploited?

— Yes, the truth is that I have to take a short break, get things off my chest.

Do you feel like you've been in control of your career or have you been drifting here and there?

— I feel like I have my career a bit all over the place, but I've been very lucky. I've been offered very cool things. I've said yes to terrible things, which have helped me see what I won't do again. And now I'm also at a point where financially I can say no, and that helps a lot. If there's a financial need, you say yes to weddings, baptisms, and communions and to companies that subsidize the war in Gaza.

Speaking of cool projects, on May 15th Pizza movies premieres, your first film and as the lead. What went through your mind the first time you saw yourself on a big screen?

— Terrible, terrible. It was at the Malaga festival and I only saw myself as ugly and a bad actress. You look at yourself egocentrically as if with a microscope. I didn't follow the film, I only saw myself. I did notice that the audience's reaction was very good and when I saw it for the second time I went to enjoy it, at the D'A festival, at the Aribau cinemas in Barcelona.

In the movie, you are an overwhelmed cultural journalist, who earns less each day, and decides to quit and open a pizzeria. Would you say that the pizzeria is her desire or does she see it as the only way out?

— It's like a revelation, a dream he has. She is fed up with her job, but it is very human to imagine impossible projects or businesses. Afterwards, there are very few people who manage to do it.

In many cases, an economic crisis leads to a relationship crisis. Here, no. You and Berto Romero love each other!

— When you see a couple at the cinema, you're already waiting for the moment the argument, the crisis arrives. It's a couple that stumbles together and decides to move forward with a crazy and senseless project.

The film will be released in cinemas throughout Spain. Many people already know you in Catalonia, but is succeeding in Spain an objective you have?

— No, but I would like to work in Spain to try new things. Now it is a marvel to leave Catalonia, through any border, and for no one to know me. I would like to keep that, from a personal point of view.

If this means moving to Madrid, would you like it?

— Well, no. Firstly, because I've already lived there for a few months and everything was perfect, but I almost ended up in Alcoholics Anonymous. It's a typical cliché, but it happened to me: there was a party every day. Do you know what I would really, really like? To be the eternal supporting actress, like Chus Lampreave, who might only have three lines in a movie, but they are memorable. That seems like the ultimate goal to me.

There is a myth that when you performed at the Feroz awards you moved Almodóvar, who kept asking who that very good girl was. Give me some more details.

— No, I don't know anything else, there was no conversation with him. It was at the party afterwards that they told me Almodóvar had been looking for me. I sent him a message through the organization and he replied to me. I'm really a big fan of his.

And Rosalía came to see you at the theatre.

— To me, no, huh! To the whole company, when we were doing From fandom to trolling, by Berta Prieto, at the Sala Beckett. I didn't imagine I would get nervous because she was there. Not only did she come, but she talked about it on a podcast, she wrote to us, very nice.

Do you like people?

— Ha ha ha, well not much. In what sense?

If you notice a lot, that you live in the center of Barcelona surrounded by many people...

— Oh, yes, yes. I like it for a little while and, on the other hand, it's much harder for me to be loyal. Always meeting with the same people, it's harder for me.

Do you prefer preppy girls or chonis?

— Do you know what's happening? That I know chonis too well. And I lived for many years in the upper part of town, in Mandri. I discovered the pijo world and I find it much more fascinating. The choni world is what I've lived, I've been a bit choni, and even though I've wanted to escape it, I've had my most choni phases. Those years in the upper part of town were wonderful: going shopping, going to the bar downstairs, it's all a fauna and flora that blew my mind and I had a great time. On the radio I did Nunú, because I like that profile of a woman with a very hoarse voice, who is probably still smoking in secret, the decadent pija , who is very much from Mandri, I love it.

And isn't there a point where these two worlds – the pijo and the choni– meet? For example, a Cristiano Ronaldo.

— No, no, no. He is a nouveau riche. Cristiano Ronaldo has no pedigree. It also happens a lot in Catalonia, that those who have a lot of money do not show it. Here we do not like to show off or say that you have money.

Let's go to the chonis, because you told me you know them better. What did your parents do?

— My father was a bank employee and my mother cleaned in a bar, in a dental clinic, various jobs. I lived in a neighborhood of l’Hospitalet that was born in the 70s, in the center, but also a bit on the outskirts. I was the Catalan, because my mother had 8 surnames from Hospitalet. But I had family in Vic and when they heard me speak they thought: “This choni-girl...”. At school we all spoke Spanish. Catalan was taught to us by a woman from Valladolid, Catalan! Everything was in Spanish and my brain is totally divided, that's why I mix the two languages so much when I speak.

Before you made a living with comedy, what other jobs had you done?

— Wow! The first thing I did in high school was babysitting and tutoring; handing out flyers on the street; I was a telemarketer for a few years: Retevisión, Eres Más, Amena, Terra, none of them exist anymore. I did telemarketing, technical support... This traumatized me, I really dislike talking on the phone. Since I couldn't stand it, I created my own characters. There was one that worked very well for me: it was me, but a sweeter version of myself. [Sweet voice] "Hello, I'm Judit Martín, calling from Eres Más"...

Then, you should have sold!

— I came a lot. They made me employee of the month several times. I also worked at Frigo, on the night shift, on weekends. And more jobs: as an administrative assistant in a mechanical workshop at Citroën, in Bellvitge...

What would you say is the best thing that has happened to you in life?

— Pizza movies, he he. I'm not kidding. I've been incredibly lucky, I never intended to be an actress. In fact, I studied Fine Arts. The best thing that happened to me is that improvisation [improv theatre] came into my life. I love improvising and I put a lot of effort into it. I was kicked out of an improv company for being bad. And it's true, I lacked the tools, but I wanted it so much that I worked very hard at it. And for all this to have led to this movie, well, that's great!

And what is the worst thing that has happened to you in life?

— No, I won't tell you that. But one of the worst things, where I literally wanted to commit suicide, and that's not a metaphor, was a herniated disc. I suffered from it a lot and for a long time. It was unbearable pain, until I found a way to control it. It was horrific. What's more, there's no rest. Sitting down is terrible, you can't sleep... The last crisis was in 2017, it will soon be 10 years.

In December you will turn 50. Have you thought about the future, have you had a reflection like "at a certain age, I won't do it anymore"?

— The only thing that worries me is not playing certain characters that are cringe, as the young people say. But otherwise, I feel like I've gotten better. Professionally, I'm doing cooler things all the time, I know what I like. I want to be an Angela Lansbury, a Christopher Walken, in the sense of being 70, 80 years old and still making people laugh and playing strange, secondary roles and unexpected things.

In Pizza movies you have the leading role, but you've insisted twice during the conversation on being a supporting character. Why?

— Because it's like a very big responsibility to be the protagonist.

Don't you want to be number 1?

— But it's not out of false modesty, eh! Normally, the supporting actor is the one who gets more applause than the one who's on the front lines all the time. Maybe it's out of ego, eh. I find it's a lot of work, a great responsibility, and it generates more stress to have the main role.

For many people, right now, you are the best Catalan comedian. If you look back years, you have Santpere, Lloll, Sardà... You are not Martín! Are you comfortable with this anti-diva touch?

— Martín, how intense! It's true, I'm not Martín. But I don't want to be an anti-diva either. Everyone is who they are. It's because I feel very comfortable being more of a geek than anything else. And I think that's also detected.

Do you feel more comfortable being a geek than a diva?

— Yes, yes, totally.

[A person intervenes, from the audience] “Have you been offered to do Judit Martín's show on TV, with Almodóvar as producer?”

— Look, I've spent two months recording a program for 2Cat, which isn't Judit Martín's show, but it's close. I'm very present in it, very. I'm a reporter in the streets and I can assure you that okay, I had a great time, the result might look good, but it's been very crazy. I'd tell you it's not my life's goal.

What would you like to happen with Pizza movies when it premieres?

— It's already happening in the screenings we've done: constant laughter. In what movie do you see people laughing all the time? People laughing a lot in a cinema seems fascinating to me. It's a small movie, it should be a public secret, that people recommend it to each other. It's the first, and may it be the first of many.