Judit Mascó: "Going as a diva tires me a lot"

It is most common for guests to feel a little uncomfortable when they have to be photographed. They always ask something: Like this? Are you sure? Or should I position myself differently? Judit Mascó, on the other hand, does not need instructions. She herself explains that her profession is to play at seducing the camera. But, conversely, she downplays the photo she has on WhatsApp. She says her daughters are horrified that she doesn't change it, because it is already old, but she doesn't think about it. She accompanies the image with a phrase, a Buddhist principle: let the river flow.

Should we flow?

— Life is movement. It relaxes me to think that everything flows and that I must go in the direction the river is heading. An example is my own life, I did not plan it. I let myself be carried away... The other day we were talking about it at home, and my husband said that we are like Tarzan.

Tarzan?

— Oh, you'll still make it a headline and I'll die of embarrassment. But somehow one vine leads you to another and that's how you keep going, as the Buddhist principle of the river says.

Good-looking people know they are good-looking, right?

— Ever since I have been conscious of understanding things, what I have heard has been: how cute this girl is, she could be in commercials. I have always heard comments. But in pre-adolescence I didn't want to stand out, and I didn't like being tall, even my lips seemed too fleshy to me. I have photos from that time making weird expressions so they wouldn't be seen. And then I started modeling, and it turned out that I wasn't very tall and the things I didn't like turned out to be an asset on the rise.

Is it a privilege or a dictatorship?

— It is a privilege if you know how to use it well. I have used it to work.

And you can be beautiful and intelligent.

— Sure. And you can be ugly and stupid and dumb, too, you know? I mean, you can be everything.

For someone who makes a living from their physique, is the passage of time more difficult?

— The thing is that being a model is your image. I like to see myself as perfect and I try to fight... Notice the verb, fight. I am aware of the wrinkles that appear on me, and I look at them, yes, I do. And it is not easy to accept. But I put a lot of effort into using my head and saying: where is the problem? I continue working with my real face.

Real…

— Not intervened. And I continue working as a model! Not only that, I work with cosmetic brands. That's why I told them: I won't say antiaging and things like that. Antiaging is like anti-age… and that would mean being dead. And I want to be very much alive. And give the best version of myself at the age I am. This beauty thing... I don't know, things are as they are. I am my genes, they gave birth to me this way. I don't have much merit.

So you didn't even have to make an effort on top of that?

— Yes, I have worked very hard. The chassis is one thing—which I wear—but this work is extremely tough. I understand that it might not be understood, but if you were to come to a shoot, you would know. And it is also hard on the mental side. From a very young age, you hear judgments about your physique and they talk about you as if you weren't there. Now let's talk about social media. The closest thing to this pressure that teenagers are living through now is that of models in their early days.

You lived through the era of top models and Linda Evangelista saying that for less than 10,000 euros she wouldn't get out of bed.

— It seems unethical to me, but I have to acknowledge that he told a truth. But it is not said in the way he said it. That was not my case.

Do you know Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford or Naomi Campbell, about whom many things have been written. Do they really have such a bad temper?

— With me she was always a very good companion. The thing is that she has a very bad temper when things don't go her way. I, on the other hand, have always been patient at work. I like to be a team player. Also because acting like a diva tires me out a lot. Not her, she likes it because she is a diva.

How could you say no to Keanu Reeves?

— I did not tell him no. Put that way it sounds very pedantic, I said no to a script proposal for a movie.

But you could have been the co-star of a movie in Hollywood...

— I am a professional and I had already made two films. I liked it a lot, but I do not have the technique and the essence of being an actress. And I was aware that if I wanted to do it, I had to prepare a lot and make a commitment. And I was already working internationally doing campaigns as a model. I thought: don't mix things up, do what you know how to do well.

You recently posted a photograph where you were celebrating your birthday and your mother's. Does the passage of time for them distress you?

— I am quite aware of life and death. When older people talk about their feelings and what is happening to them, I don't tell them: don't say that. I listen to them. What interests me is what I do with my time, what I have left for myself and what I have left with them, my partner and my daughters, who are also growing up on us. That is why I have really slowed down on the topic of social media. I am super saturated. I am no longer interested in nonsense or energy vampires, people who drain your energy, who are only interested in you for a specific result. For me, happiness now is doing less. This is making me very happy. I am also sleeping better, as with menopause I was sleeping terribly.

It also helped you stop an injury: you tore your Achilles tendon.

— Look at this scar I have. This injury thing has been interesting because it forced me to stop. I had to cancel everything and it was like forgetting about myself as a character. Suddenly I was sleeping better because I had no worries, no expectations. And now I am enjoying the calm, and I think I deserve it, what do you want me to tell you.

You met your partner on September 11th. So much patriotism!

— And I joked on Catalunya Ràdio saying that we consummated on April 23rd, to make it all more Catalan, and it wasn't understood that it was a joke! They have made it news in several places, and once it is written, it becomes reality. It was a joke, but I don't know, some people have no sense of humor.

You have been married for 33 years. Is there any secret?

— Perhaps in my case the most important thing is that we were friends before we started dating. And it is important that I like him, I feel like going out with him, as happens with authentic friendship. Luckily, life has not separated us, which sometimes happens.

What are you proud of?

— There is an image, when we are walking down the street with my daughters, and at a given moment they go a little bit ahead and I see them from behind... It moves me. Because I think; if I were to disappear from the world now because something happens to me, it will have already been worth it.