Ander Mataró: "I've had an easy transition, but there have been times when I've had a bad time"

Ander Mataró (Barcelona, ​​​​2001) actor and singer. He stars in the musical Alan, inspired by Alan Montoliu, a seventeen-year-old boy who suffered from transphobia. It can be seen on March 1 at the Teatro Principal in Sabadell and from March 9 to 16 at the Teatro Poliorama in Barcelona.

Ander grew up in Premià de Dalt, but went to the Garbí Pere Vergés School in Badalona. "I liked it because it worked like a small city. I liked it more when I did the artistic baccalaureate, but in plastic arts, because there was no stage there. I enjoyed the days when I had an elective in theatre, or choir, or music."

Music has been with him since he was six years old. "I went to the Municipal Music School of Premià and there I did orchestra, choir, solfeggio, cello and musical theatre." And sport, too. "I played football until the first year of ESO. Then, as it could no longer be a mixed team and I was the only girl, I played basketball."

What did he want to be when he grew up? "Actor or cook. I invented dishes at home, I had made some plans for a restaurant that I would open when I was older... then it got better and I just wanted to be an actor."

He is the only professional actor in the family. "The father is a graphic designer and the mother is a lawyer, but she has never worked because she worked in an electronics company that my grandfather created. Now they are locked up and both of them work in commercials." But theatre is a family tradition. "The parents do theatre with an amateur company that I had been part of and that I now direct. My grandmother is there, too, my cousin, we are all there." His brother also participates. "He is fifteen years old. He really likes the performing arts, but I don't know if he is going to dedicate himself to it."

After high school he studied theatre. "I wanted to get into the Institut del Teatre, but they didn't accept me. Then I went to the Colegio del Teatro, but the pandemic came. I was at home doing theatre through my mobile phone and it was something much more gestural, a theatre that I don't like so much. The following year I enrolled in Aules, the school of arts."

"Above all, empathy"

Alan It is inspired by the story of Alan Montoliu, a seventeen-year-old boy who suffered from transphobia and ended up committing suicide. "My transition has been easy. It happened after high school, so you skip the difficult stage, and besides, I studied theater in Aules, in a favorable environment. I think it has been as easy as it could be. Really, it shouldn't be difficult at all, I shouldn't even say that I'm trans."

And the family? "Bé, the mother was very upset because I had a hard time working as an actor. I was worried about the sight. Press hormones and the temperature will change, but you don't know how to do it. As a matter of fact, you have to start modifying your instrument, which is the one you work on, so you don't know what will end up happening, but I have some good professors who have helped me. "Ajudat and in reality it is an avantatge, hi ha molts menys nois trans que facin musical theater."

A process. "When I was little I was very embarrassing. When I did theater, I always played male roles and that was when I was not ashamed. At that time I didn't give it importance, but now I look back and say, there were signs, I didn't want to see them, but they were there. In Aulas I found the right environment and my partner also helped me a lot."

How can the family help? "The most important thing is to listen. Understand that maybe for you as a parent it is very hard, but stop and think about how your child is going through it, because it is not easy. I, who have had an easy transition, there are times when I have had a bad time. When you have to tell your family, when there is someone who does not accept it when you have been in transition for I don't know how long.