Alicia González Laá: "Just before 'As If It Were Yesterday' I worked babysitting"

BarcelonaSince September 2017, Alicia González Laá is Eva, the most innocent and love-struck member of the cast of Com si fos ahir, TV3's daily soap opera. After having appeared in other series such as Nissaga de poder or Ventdelplà, the actress has become one of the essential faces of Catalan afternoon television.

El Com si fos ahir has nine seasons and you've been there from the beginning. Is it very strange for an actor to have work for such a continuous period of time?

— It's Martian. Every season I thought they would tell me it was the last, that they would tell me I wasn't continuing. Besides, it's never been known how many seasons we would do, we've always gone season by season. Now it's the first time they're considering something else, starting a season with a long-term view. To put some value on the fact that it's the soap opera that is about to surpass El cor de la ciutat and that we have a very different situation from then, now there is more competition. We are doing well.

Have you ever considered what will happen the day they tell you your character is disappearing?

— Since the first season I've been expecting it, it's always a surprise when they tell me it continues. Really. It's just that, besides, it seems healthy for me, so I don't get stuck or take for granted that this job is forever. Whether you like it or not, the daily series has its own internal laws and its dangers. It helps that we here never know what will happen. You discover it, a bit like in life.

After so many years playing Eva, do you have her internalized? Do you know how she will react in each situation?

— I have to say that many times I have to be quiet because you have to surprise yourself with things that the screenwriters propose to you. Things that you say: "Do you think Eva would do this?" Well, yes. We have to find how and why, because the plot requires it or just because. As an actress, it makes it more interesting because I have to fend for myself.

One of Eva's characteristics is that she has a complicated love life. Have you learned anything about love by playing the character and what advice would you give her?

— Oh, I wouldn't give any advice, I think I have to learn from Eva, look what I'm telling you. Alright, it doesn't go well for her and she messes up, but at the same time she dares to live and make mistakes. Maybe in life I do more "no, no, no". In life you value not messing up again and the consequences more. Eva encounters the consequences and I like that about her. She's full of doubt, but she has a very big heart.

This season has seen a unique love triangle.

— Yes, I, as Alicia, would think: "At what point, Eva, did you think it was a good idea to get involved with your partner's son?". But Alicia's judgment has to be left out. Eva was coming from a moment of self-discovery, of entering the liberal world and having experiences that made her discover her sexuality and eroticism. I think she is enjoying this freedom.

Do you think showing this reality of sexual self-discovery can benefit many people watching the series?

— I want to think so. I notice it with the comments people make to me on the street. Many women come and say: "I understand you." I, of this world, had no idea, nor did I consider it. It makes you ask yourself things about where you are as a woman; at what point you are in assuming your freedom. Because we say it a lot in words... but then it's very difficult. I don't know if Alicia would be very interested in the liberal world, because it's also full of rules that I don't think suit me, but the freedom that Eva has, I would like for myself in many ways.

In what other aspects?

— This thing of daring to explore and play.

Before you were talking about comments on the street. Do people still approach you to tell you things?

— In other series I had done, I never had such a central role, even though this is an ensemble series. People are very affectionate and not invasive. It's nice. In theater, you have the audience's response in the moment. Here [in the series], we always go a bit fast and you leave and think "oh, shit, I've done anything", but then you find some feedback that encourages you. I understand that for people the series plays an important role in their lives. It's very rewarding. We need fiction that we can see ourselves reflected in, that creates connections between families and debate. That's what a public television should do.

Eva can be exasperating. Has any fan of the series told you that?

— Yes, too. I've stopped reading comments on social media because people there say all sorts of things and, sometimes, they don't get it right. But people have to express themselves. It's the character with whom everyone says "oh, no, no, no", you see he's heading for the precipice.

Do you not spend much time on social media?

— The truth is no. My Instagram is very rarely updated, and Facebook even less so. It's a debate I have with myself, about accepting that we are in this moment where social networks are important and all that, but it's very difficult.

There is also the opposite movement, of people who do not want to have any relationship with the networks

— I am more in favour of this. I don't know if it's because I'm the mother of a teenage boy who was born with all this and I am very careful that he doesn't lose sight of what's around him. It's the big topic that is only just beginning to be talked about now. We're late, but better late than never.

You and Núria Prims played the first lesbian story on TV3 with Nissaga de poder. At that time, did you notice it was important?

— It's curious because, when we did it, the feeling was that it was still very taboo. The relationship between two men had been seen, but that of two women had not yet been seen and was still taboo. So much so that, when we started filming, the romance plot took a while to arrive, as if there was doubt whether, as a society, we were prepared to include it in the series. And look, there were incestuous relationships in the series. The feeling was that it was a bit light. We kissed for the first time and, immediately, we were already going into crisis and sending each other on trips. Like "we've already done a lot with this." And I always thought we could have explored much more. But then, yes, I found myself on several occasions with people who conveyed to me how important it had been to them.

In the series you have worked with Meritxell Huertas, who plays Gina, with whom you have done theater and you have a great friendship. How is it to transfer this friendship to the screen?

— Wonderful. Meri and I didn't know each other personally, although we knew who each other was, but we met in a park just before I got the job at Com si fos ahir. I was working as a babysitter. It was a time when I didn't have a job, just occasional things. I was a daycare provider and looked after a child, and Meri was with her son in the same park where we were. Shortly after starting at Com si fos ahir, we were both hired to do Los monólogos de la vagina. There we became very good friends. Right after, she started at Com si fos ahir. Now we share a farmhouse, we are both mothers of children the same age who are called Jan. We have met at a very cool vital moment and we are very much a family. We also share a car, we bought it together!

Are the ups and downs of the profession easier to manage over time?

— You always feel just as vulnerable, and on top of that, life gets more complicated. Having a relatively stable job has helped me a lot at a time when life was getting very complicated for me: I had a child, I was separating... It was the only thing that was a bit stable. It's a shame to say that it's a luxury to have a decent salary for your work, it should be normal. Unfortunately, in our sector and here, it's quite a luxury. In France, actors, even if they don't work, are more or less covered. Here, they are not. There are times in life when you are more willing to take risks and others when you can't, because other people depend on you.

Do you remember the moment you decided you wanted to be an actress?

— There are several moments in my life that I can remember thinking "I want to be an actress." I had a schoolmate whose mother was an actress and that fascinated me. Going to her house and putting on costumes. I was very into what is now called symbolic play, my sister and I called it the "you are and I am" game. I really remember the day I understood that my sister, who was a year older, no longer wanted to play. There I understood that I had to maintain that space for play, which was very important to me. It has been very important for me to explore realities different from my own.

You are very fond of astrology. There's a resurgence now. How do you experience this?

— It's interesting. I must say that I'm not much of a fan of pop astrology because I think it generates a lot of misunderstandings and is a bit superficial or trivial. But it's better than nothing. I think it sparks some curiosity in people. For me, it responds to a state of asking ourselves slightly deeper questions about our lives, and that is always interesting.

Have you been given answers?

— It made me ask even more questions. It's a symbolic language and it helps me to open my mind a bit, to look for other answers.

Could it have become a substitute for other beliefs, such as the Catholic faith?

— Maybe. I think there is a certain danger in this. I will tell you a sentence that works for me: I don't believe in astrology, I speak in astrological. That is to say, it is a language and you, in a language, do not believe in it: you speak it or you don't speak it. It is a way of understanding the world, it is a worldview. For many people it can be like a religion; for me, no.

One of the most curious projects of your career is that you participated in the British series starring the pop band S Club 7.

— Yes, they filmed the fourth season of the series in Barcelona. In the series, after touring the United States, they were resting in Barcelona. I was the housekeeper of the house where they were staying: the cleaning lady and her contact with the Latin world. It was something full of clichés but very fun. It was very surreal.

The members of the group must have been very young.

— Super young people and, what's more, they were these things that were a bit of a commercial product. They had come out of a casting and had encountered all of this. It blew my mind a bit to see how in some way they had everything and took it for granted, or didn't learn the text.