Màrcia Cisteró: "Stupidity exists among actors, and I'm not interested in it at all."

BarcelonaOn Monday night, at the Teatre Romea, Màrcia Cisteró (Barcelona, 1972) will receive the Margarida Xirgu Award, which has been given since 1973 to the country's greatest actresses for the most outstanding female performance of the season. This year, she has not had one, but five, in the shows All birds (Library of Catalonia), The Bacchae (The Gleva), In Macbeth song (Library of Catalonia), Imaginary operetta (Free Arts Center) and Amnesia (TNC). Cisteró has become a discreet and constant presence in Catalan theater, an actress who is always precise, always excellent. Finally, all the spotlight is on them.

The Margarida Xirgu Award means entering the league of important actresses. How do you feel about it?

— The list of winners is impressive. It's very beautiful and looks great, but I still think they made a mistake. I think there are many actresses I admire and wish they could have it too. But I'm delighted!

Do you feel imposter syndrome?

— No, no, because I've been sweating hard, and even more so this season: four new productions in one year. For two months doing rehearsals in the morning of theOperetta and evening performances of MacbethI don't know how I held up, considering how physically exhausted we were. In ten days, we'll take her to Poland, to a festival in Gdansk.

It has been an exceptional year for an actress who usually works a lot.

— Yes, if I had to get it any year, perhaps this would be it. I'm also happy that they valued the smaller but important roles, because this wasn't a year where I had a leading role, as I've done on some occasions, not many. There are people in the profession who always support the leading roles, and perhaps we're not seen enough. You get the feeling that people don't notice, and it turns out they do.

Whenever he appears on the scene he stands out, but I would say he hasn't really believed it.

— No, nothing. I understand that some people believe it a little more, not because they're snobs and insufferable, but because life has brought them here. I always have to earn my role, I have to earn my job, nothing is guaranteed. Like most people. It's a job in which neither experience nor seniority is a guarantee of anything. You always have that little voice saying, "Will this be the year of the desert?"

This discretion, which I imagine comes from your character, perhaps contributes to your surprising performance and makes us look at you again as an actress.

— Look, no one's ever told me that before, and I appreciate it, because I like it that way. I think so. I think an actor should be able to transform themselves to the fullest. Sometimes, great actors can't do it because they'll be sought out to do what they know how to do. I'm thankful it wasn't my path, because it's always a challenge, every time I have to roll up my sleeves, and I love it. For example, Amnesia, which is a typical comedy, was a huge challenge for me. This enriches me: always going a little further.

How did you find your calling? Because you don't come from a family of artists. You started studying chemistry and moved on to the Institut del Teatre.

— I had done a couple of amateur plays in Alforja, there was dance, and there was something about the stage that I liked. I was lucky that I didn't do well in chemistry. The first year I passed one. By the second year I thought I couldn't see myself living my whole life. I had the lucidity to try theater and was very happy at the institute.

He has certainly made a family in the theater: he has been working with Oriol Broggi and La Perla for twenty-five years.

— There are many projects together. I understand that directors tend to work with the same team because you have a common language, you have a connection, and if you believe in what he's doing, it saves a lot of work. Oriol creates a space where you feel valued and feel you can contribute whatever you want. And as a creator—in quotation marks—or an artist—these are very big words—that doesn't always happen, and it's a pleasure.

Do you mind calling yourself an artist?

— They're capitalized words, and I'd always write them in lowercase. "I'm an actor," [he says emphatically], "yes, but that's your job. I don't care about all that extra stuff that's sometimes added."

But does it exist?

— Of course, thestupendousness It exists among actors; it's there and will be for many years, and I'm not interested at all, because I don't need it for the job. I am who I am, and if you like it, fine, and if not, we'll find it. But I understand that some people act wonderfully because it can be just another mask.

Now young actors are also focusing on their social media followers, which is another mask.

— There are people who are very focused on this, and it's a shame because it distracts you from your real work. If you say that, you sound like a fool, but I would tell them: "Stop messing around." This will happen as everything has always happened, and the important thing is that you're happy and satisfied with what you do and who you are. For me, the Internet is a very dangerous drug, the less of it, the better.

We were talking about families. You and Albert Arribes have already done a lot of productions together.

— He has a very similar way of working to Oriol's, each with his own aesthetic, but they let you do your own thing. It's a very unique world; you have to understand it and trust it and your intuition. The garden [Lluïsa Cunilé's] asked us to have two or three intentions for each line. Sometimes it's mind-blowing, but it's really cool.

And we would add, as regular directors, Carlota Subirós and Àngel Llàcer.

— Carlota works hard from a training perspective and places great emphasis on creating a company so that everyone is on the same page and speaks the same language. Ángel is very demanding and likes to set everything up quickly and then go deeper into the scenes. It's wonderful to put yourself in the hands of such different worlds and know how to adapt to what they ask of you.

Does it bother you that you didn't play more leading roles?

— No. I'm happy playing supporting characters. I never feel like I'm the odd one out. Sometimes it's harder to create a supporting character, who you have to nail down in a scene, than a main character, who has the whole role to draw himself, to explain himself. All birds I had two scenes that defined the character, and all the possible nuances are captured in those five minutes. Every line is important.

Would you claim to be the headliner?

— I've done it, and I've succeeded. I can do it. But it's not my life. There are people who have that ambition. I respect that, but it's not my case. I like to work. I'm not in the position of choosing and discarding projects. I do what's proposed to me, and when I've had to discard something because it's crossed my path with something else, I've had a terrible time.

How have you been affected by the pressures that have been leveled at actresses in recent years, such as aesthetics and ageism?

— In theater, the aesthetic pressure isn't as intense as in audiovisual work, which tends much more toward uniformity. There are few that are distinct, and it's a shame because we lose richness. I do want to be able to maintain agility, because I want to do physical things; I want to be like Marissa Josa or Oriol Genís at 75. Motherhood is another matter; it's not an easy subject.

Did you think that if you disappeared you would miss the train?

— I started rehearsing again three weeks after giving birth. It's a bit of a kamikaze, but self-employed people do it too, because they can't afford it. It got me hooked on the era of August Dance And I didn't want to leave the project; I was really looking forward to working with those actresses and with Ferran Utzet. I didn't want to miss that opportunity, and I decided to go for it. Family logistics allowed it, and I only missed four hours of rehearsal; I had the rest of the day to myself. But it's a job that's hard to balance, and not when they're young. You always work the other way around the couple and the family: when everyone gets home, you go to work; when everyone's having a meal, you have to leave.

Why have you worked so little in the audiovisual industry? You've played Frederica Montseny in a TV movie and have had small roles in a few films.

— It's a very exciting and demanding world, because you don't rehearse much and you have to be very decisive. But that doesn't burn my phone. There have been times when I haven't been able to do it due to scheduling issues, because it didn't fit in with the theater. I won't leave a show that gives me six months of work for six days of filming. It's very tempting, but theater fulfills me and keeps me paying the bills longer. If I can do it, I'd be delighted, but I get the feeling they don't really like me, I don't know why.

Not a single role in any TV3 series.

— [Shrugs, face serious.] I don't have a manager either. I don't want to worry about him finding things for me. If I come up with something, I do it as much as possible, but I don't pursue it. There are people who do have that goal, because it generates a lot of buzz. You appear in an episode one day and they say, "Oh, so you're an actress?" And it turns out you've been doing theater for 29 years.