BarcelonaIñaki Mur (Barcelona, 1993) became known for series like Merlí, but he left that stage behind a long time ago. He now plays Salvador Dalí in This is not a murder mystery (Esto no es un misterioso asesinato on Filmin), a Belgian series set in the thirties of the 20th century that functions as a kind of Agatha Christie in which the main suspects in a murder are surrealist artists such as the Catalan painter himself, Man Ray, René Magritte or Lee Miller. The story is inspired by the real relationship between the magnate and patron Edward James, owner of the West Dean estate in West Sussex, and the international surrealist circle. The series premieres on Tuesday, April 7.
How did you get to this series, which is a rather unique project: a Belgian series, made in English...?
— My agent called me and told me that she had received a casting proposal to play Salvador Dalí. At that moment I think: "Wow, man, how cool it would be to do that." I asked for a few days to prepare and I immersed myself in all the material I found. I recorded the casting at home and sent a letter to the director, which is something I don't usually do, but I thought I had to go all out. In the letter I explained that in the casting I had used a Catalan accent because I believed that identitarily it was important and that I was Catalan. A couple of days later they called me to do the casting in Belgium and told me they were choosing between me and another guy. I was the last actor to go in because it took them a long time to find someone who fit. I locked myself away for two weeks at home reading and watching everything I could find about Dalí.
Did you have much prior knowledge of their figure?
— In the end he knew many things, he was a very familiar figure. But when you are given scripts, you investigate and see what works for you and what doesn't, because Dalí is a well of infinite information and ambiguity. You never quite know what is true and what isn't. The Dalí in the series is a very specific Dalí, that of the thirties, when he wasn't yet the idea we have of him today. I was given a lot of space to create.
You studied primary education in an English school and, on the other hand, in this series you have to speak English in a not particularly correct way. Was it easy to deconstruct a language you master?
— It came out organically. Dalí spoke French very well, but with English he did what he could. I tried to get as close as possible to an Empordà accent in English. I had to speak English well and it is true that having gone to a British school when I was little helps. English is inside me, even if it sometimes rusts.
The series is a Cluedo but with a very particular universe, which is that of surrealist artists.
— This is what I liked most about it all. Of all the research I did on Dalí, there were two things that were very helpful to me. One was a Taschen book that analyzed Dalí's works according to the time they were painted and what symbolism they held for him at that time. And then, a documentary series that premiered on TV3 to mark the centenary of his birth. It gave me a very multifaceted vision of who he was and I was able to choose many things. In one of the episodes there was something very cool which was an interview, one of the last ones they did with him, and the raw camera footage [the material that was not used]. He doesn't know when he's being filmed and when he's not. And you see how he changes when he thinks he's being filmed. I played a lot with this idea of when he feels seen and when he is calm in his privacy.
This is an international series. Is this where you want to direct your career?
— What actors want is to work. In Catalonia the pie is very small, really. I live in Madrid right now, but I would love to work more in Catalonia. Curiously, in recent years, I've done most things outside, but it's been because I've found myself there. I'm drawn to doing things outside. I love it because it's very stimulating to travel, meet people from other cultures, see how they do the same thing but from another place. The shooting dynamic that Belgians have is super different from what we have here. I mean, there we were all in silence, no one raises their voice and you rarely see a mobile phone. Here we are Latins, everything is much louder, more chaotic, but it's more family.
Besides your work as an actor, you have debuted as a screenwriter and director with the short film Bye bye boy, which can also be seen on Filmin. Where does this need to tell your own stories come from?
— I have always been very restless and always very entrepreneurial. When I was 17 years old, I joined a theater company with friends from Barcelona and we made three productions, self-produced and self-managed. It was a complete disaster, but we learned a lot. And somehow, when I made El sitio de Otto, which is the first visual project I self-produced with professional friends, something changed inside me. The whole process of developing an idea until it germinates and is shared with the world seemed very magical to me. That's when I thought about directing, which is also not a stable path. I think I'm destined to be precarious, I can't help it. Directing is also very hard, because it's very frustrating and you suffer a lot. It's very slow and you have to have a lot of patience and a lot of resilience, but there is a very beautiful return. I am very impulsive and I think that, in a way, it makes me go against nature.
Don't project this image of impulsiveness, you seem rather thoughtful.
— I am super impulsive. I am very hardworking, very consistent, but very impulsive. I have an issue with control, but I am a very anxious person. And it is true that as I get older I believe I have gained in rationality and control, which is what I am working on lately with my therapist. But when I see something very clearly, I don't think twice about whether I can do it or not, I go for it. Fear does not paralyze me.
In your short film, Francesc Orella appears, with whom you coincided in Merlí.
— He is the best, Francesc, the truth. I love him very much. He was a very good ship captain in Merlí. We all learned a lot from him and he was a very positive leader, always. I called him one day and said: "Look Francesc, I have a short film, there is a secondary character that I would love to offer you. If you don't like it, no problem." And he told me: "Of course, I love it, I'm crazy about the script, it's gorgeous." He was very generous with me and I am very grateful to him.
Merlí really marked a before and after in your life?
— Yes, I think so. I had done things before Merlí, but Merlí puts you on the map. It is true that for a long time I feel that it limited me a lot because I played a character who was one of the least normative and the industry labels you. It was difficult for them to give me access to other types of roles. As I get older and my physique changes little by little, other doors have opened for me. But I also have the feeling that if this series had been made here, perhaps they wouldn't have given me the role of Dalí. They would have given it to more well-known people, Oriol Pla, Enric Auquer... For me, it was very artistically validating. Direction and production bet on relatively unknown actors because they wanted to focus on the characters, who were great artists. Other production values that, at times, determine things did not come into play.
Now social media followers are also taken into account very much.
— It has nothing to do with the work we do, but I'm not clear to what extent you can go against it. You can try not to let it define you. I have decided not to pursue an active career on social media. At the time of Merlí I could have exploited it a lot because it paid a lot of money and after the series I was unemployed for a year and a half. And the salaries of Merlí were shit. We were very young and they knew it too. These are things you learn later when you have to negotiate your contracts. In that year and a half I did some collaborations on social media and I quickly saw that it wasn't my path. I believe that every decision you make projects you towards where you want to position yourself. You have to be consistent with what you want.
If Dalí were still alive, he might use social media.
— I would be an awesome influencer! I did everything: I made jewelry, I had created sets for Hitchcock, I made furniture. I'm sure I would have exploited the world of social networks and used it as another artistic installation.