Biel Duran: “When I was filming 'Nissaga de poder' there were days when I said, 'I can't handle it all.'”

Biel Duran (Gelida, 1984) is an actor. He made his debut at age 9 in Bigas Luna's 'La teta y la luna'. At 11, we first met him as Toni in TV3's 'Nissaga de poder'. We can now see him in 'Kramig', which runs until June 29 at Espai Texas.

Biel Duran attended the town's public school. "I have very fond memories, especially of the teachers' work. I really liked seeing those people explaining things to me. I also saw myself as a teacher," he says, although when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he replied, "A doctor." "Because they did Open heart on TV, they seemed like heroes to me. Then I realized that if I got hurt, I would get dizzy. And science wasn't my strong suit either," says the performer.

Passionate about human towers, he started when he was six years old due to family tradition. "My sister, my father, my mother went; they all had some position within the gang." His parents were closely involved from the moment they were in the group. "And since the godparents were the Minyons from Terrassa, we immediately went there," he says.

Duran made his acting debut at the age of 9 in The tit and the moon, by Bigas Luna. "It was at a rehearsal for the Minyons, and someone from the group came and said, 'There are some people from the film industry who want to audition.' I auditioned, and it changed my life." According to him, it was an unforgettable experience. "It was a pass. They took great care of me. You're a bit of a spoiled child of an entire film crew; just like the kids are in the human tower world. In a way, I was used to adults being around me," he recalls.

Among the film's scenes, one left him feeling very conflicted. "I had to go up onto the balcony and suck an actress's nipple. This wasn't in the script. They decided they could end the film that way. They explained it to me very carefully and were very careful, but it was still very strange for a 9-year-old boy." Duran explains that his parents fully understood what they were doing and were fans of the director. "They knew I was in good hands."

Bigas Luna recommended that after filming, he should let time pass. "He told me I was only nine years old, that I should study and think it over carefully. And I listened to him for a couple of years, but then the offer came." Nizaga of power". For him everything was a new world, since his mother had worked all her life in a paper factory and his father was a farmer in the vineyards of the Juvé and Camps estates. "The time of Nizaga I was in sixth grade, first and second years of secondary school. I would get up very early in the morning, go to the set to record, maybe two or three days a week. These days I missed school, or most of it. When I finished there, I did the extracurricular activities on duty and then my revision hours, which were many, until nightfall, and then I went home to study the next day's texts. Balancing work and studies can be very stressful. I recorded and updated my entire school curriculum. The Provincial Labor Inspectorate asked parents to report my academic performance, and if I had a drop in academic performance, they wouldn't give me permission to work. All of this is an added pressure. On top of that, I did piano, music theory, soccer, and human tower building... There were days when I said, "I can't handle it all."

Beyond acting, at home they insisted that I should have a plan B, so I chose a career. I studied philosophy, but I realized that I didn't have many options, and then I...

Losing a role model

One of the most difficult moments of his life was when he lost his sister at 26. "Anna was seven years older than me, a role model in every sense, someone who had opened the doors to the adult world for me. The blow was tremendous."

Duran left acting for three years. "Several things came together. I can't attribute it solely to the loss of Anna; I suffered a certain burnout from dedicating so many years to the same thing without having tried anything else. As a social educator, I worked with at-risk children and adolescents. It helped me stop navel-gazing."