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 have their picture taken. They always ask something: Like this? Are you sure? Or should I pose 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 that 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 have not planned it. I have 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?

— 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 did not want to stand out, and I did not like being tall, even my lips seemed too fleshy to me. I have photos from that time making strange 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 became a rising asset.

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 perfect and I try to fight... Look at that 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 do my best to use my head and say: 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 is why I told them: I will not 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 like this. I don't have much merit.

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

— Yes, I have worked very hard. One thing is the chassis—which I wear—but this work is very tough. I understand that it might not be understood, but if you came 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 were not there. Now let's talk about social media. The closest thing to this pressure that adolescents are experiencing now is that of models in their beginnings.

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

— It seems unethical to me, but I must admit that she told a truth. But it is not said in the way she said it. It was not my case.

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

— With me, they were always very good colleagues. The thing is that they have a very bad temper when things don't go their way. I, on the other hand, have always been patient at work. I like to work as a team. Also because acting like a diva tires me out a lot. Not them, they like it because they are divas.

How could you say no to Keanu Reeves?

— I didn't tell him no. Said like that 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: do not mix things up, do well what you know how to do.

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

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

— Look at the scar I have. This injury 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 down, 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 true friendship. Luckily, life has not kept us apart, 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 been worth it.