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 machine for making people laugh. Between subtlety and delirium, she displays 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 are lovable.

A man in the audience has just said that he found it strange to see you dressed in street clothes, like a normal person. You must have seen yourself in the mirror in so many ways...

— I used to love dressing up and now I'm starting to get tired of it. It's true, I loved putting on wigs, things, and now... let's not get carried away.

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 always said a lot how you manage to go on stage when you have had bad news. For me, these are the easiest days, look what I tell you. It's like an escape valve. The issue is when you are very exploited or you exploit yourself. I have found myself in some whirlwinds that, all of a sudden, what you need is to be at home on the sofa.

Is this a time when you feel self-exploited?

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

Do you feel like you've been in control of your career or have you been going from here to there?

— I feel like I have a somewhat crazy career, 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 will never 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 great projects, on May 15th premieres Pizza movies, your first film and as the protagonist. What went through your head the first time you saw yourself on the 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 under a microscope. I didn't follow the movie, I only saw myself. I did notice that the audience's reaction was very good and when I saw it a second time I went to enjoy myself, 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 who 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, very few people actually 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 movies, 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 premiere in cinemas across Spain. Many people already know you in Catalonia, but is succeeding in Spain a goal you have?

— No, but I would like to work in Spain to try new things. Now it's wonderful to leave Catalonia, through any border, and not be known by anyone. I would like to keep this, from a personal point of view.

If this implies moving to Madrid, would you like to?

— Well, no. First, 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: every day there was a party. Do you know what I would really like? To be the eternal supporting actress, like Chus Lampreave, who perhaps only has three lines in a movie, but they are memorable. That seems like the ultimate goal.

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

— No, I don't know more, 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. I'm really a big fan of his.

And Rosalía came to see you at the theater.

— To me, no, hey! To the whole company, when we were doing Del fandom al troleig, by Berta Prieto, at Sala Beckett. I didn't imagine I would get nervous because she was there. Not only did she come, but she also 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?

You pay a lot of attention, you live in the center of Barcelona surrounded by many people...

— Ah, yes, yes. I like it for a little while, and on the other hand, it's much harder for me to be loyal. That of always meeting the same people, it's harder for me.

Do you like pijas or chonis more?

— Do you know what happens? That I know chonis too well. And I spent many years living in the upper area, on Mandri street. I discovered the pijo world and I find it much more fascinating. The choni world is what I have lived, I have been a bit choni, and although I have wanted to escape I have had my most choni phases. Those years in the upper area were wonderful: going shopping, going to the bar downstairs, it's a whole fauna and flora that blew my mind and I had a blast. On the radio I did Nunú, because I like this profile of a woman with a very hoarse voice, who surely still smokes in secret, the decadent pija , who is very much of Mandri, I love it.

And is there no point where these two worlds – the posh and the choni– meet? For example, a Cristiano Ronaldo.

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

Let's go to the chonis, since 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, doing various jobs. I lived in a neighborhood of L'Hospitalet that was created in the 70s, in the center, but also bordering the outskirts a bit. I was the Catalan, because my mother had 8 hospitalense surnames. But I had family in Vic and when they heard me speak they thought: “This choni-xava... [xava for the typical accent of Catalan from Barcelona]”. At school, we all spoke Spanish. The Catalan was taught to us by a woman from Valladolid, the Catalan! Everything was in Spanish and I have a totally divided brain, that's why I mix the two languages so much when I speak.

Before making a living from comedy, what other jobs had you done?

— Wow! The first thing I did, in high school, was babysitting and tutoring; distributing flyers on the street; as a teleoperator, for a few years: Retevisión, Eres Más, Amena, Terra, none of them are left. I did telemarketing, technical service... This has traumatized me, I really don't like talking on the phone. Since I couldn't stand it, I created my characters. There was one that worked a lot for me: it was me, but it was a sweeter version of me. [Puts on a honeyed voice] “Hello, I'm Judit Martín, calling from Eres Más...”.

You should have sold!

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

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

— Pizza movies, haha. I'm not kidding. I've been incredibly lucky, I never set out to be an actress. In fact, I studied Fine Arts. The best thing that happened to me was that impro [improv theater] crossed my path. 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 really hard. And for all this to have led to this movie, well, how cool!

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, that I literally wanted to kill myself, and it's not a metaphor, was a herniated disc. I suffered a lot from it and for a long time. It was unbearable pain, until I found out how to control it. It was horrible. What's more, there's no rest. Sitting down you're terrible, you can't sleep... The last crisis was in 2017, it will soon be 10 years.

In December you will turn 50 years old. Have you thought about the future, have you had a reflection like “depending on what 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 more and more great things, 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 continuing to make people laugh and playing strange and supporting roles and unexpected things.

In Pizza movies you have the leading role, but you have 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 gets more applause than the one who's on the front lines all the time. Maybe it's out of ego, eh. I think having the main role is a lot of work, a big responsibility and generates more stress.

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 point of being an anti-diva?

— La Martín, how strong! It's true, I'm not La Martín. But I don't want to be an anti-diva either. Everyone is how 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 proposed to make Judit Martín's show on TV, with Almodóvar as producer?”

— Look, I've spent two months recording a show for 2Cat, which isn't Judit Martín's show, but it's close. I'm very present, very much so. I'm reporting on the streets and I can assure you that okay, I had a very good 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 just already happening in the screenings we've done: constant laughter. What movie do you see where people laugh the whole time? That people laugh a lot in a cinema seems fascinating to me. It's a small movie, which has to manage to be a public domain secret, that people recommend it to each other. It's the first, and may it be the first of many.