Diana Gómez: "Just getting pregnant made me feel guilty"

BarcelonaThis Friday, coinciding with Valentine's Day, Netflix premieres the latest installment of Valeria, based on the novels by the bestselling author Elizabeth Benavent. For four seasons, actress Diana Gómez (Igualada, 1989) has given life to Valeria of the title, a young writer who overcomes artistic blockages and unsuccessful loves with the help of her three best friends.

Last season of ValeriaIs the series a turning point in your professional life?

— It is a before and after because, in a way, it has put me on the map: many people now know me because they associate me with Valeria. It has also been a turning point because I have been able to have economic stability, which is very difficult in this profession. I also associate these almost six years with Valeria I have had six years of a life revolution because I have become a mother. One thing is linked to another and yes, for me, these past six years have seen a lot of things happen. They have been six very full and very lively years.

Did Valeria and The Money Heist Living in Catalonia and temporarily moving to Madrid. Can you work in Madrid without having to settle there?

— Yes, but then it is true that for a while I have to have a flat, a base, and come here [Catalonia] on the weekends or whenever I can. We have trains that can take you to Madrid or Barcelona in two and a half hours, and everything is easier.

You mentioned earlier that you were a mother during the series and in the last season there is a lot of talk about motherhood and the guilt of going back to work. Is this something that all mothers experience?

— I don't know about all mothers, but I think to a large extent yes. For me, just getting pregnant made me feel guilty because we had the third season coming up and if I continued with that pregnancy, filming would have to be delayed at all costs. The first thing I thought was that there were a lot of people who would lose their jobs for a few months. I mean, I started feeling guilty just by being pregnant. Then I was very happy to have a job and to be able to work, but when you're not there you feel guilty. You feel guilty about everything: about having more mental workload, that maybe your partner isn't doing well. These are innate things. As a mother you have the feeling of wanting to get ahead, but obviously you can't do everything.

Did they make it easy for the series?

— Yes, they made it very easy for me. In fact, the producer was one of the first people who knew I was pregnant and told me that they were expecting me without any problem. And, what's more, it coincided with the summer and they moved us all to Madrid. Suddenly I had my son nearby, although not on the set because I didn't really feel like it.

Do you think there is a change of mentality in the industry? Were there so many facilities before?

— I don't know, it depends on the project. It's true that in this last season Silma López [who plays Lola, another of the main characters] was also a mother and started filming when the baby was smaller, two or three months old. Due to a series of physical needs, because she was still breastfeeding, she managed to get a series of help from the production company that I think is a turning point. For example, she had a double who learned all her lines and when she left to breastfeed, this girl was with us while our plans were being made. She's a girl who won't be leaving, but she was helping and supporting them. Then Silma also had her mother there to take care of the baby and she was registered [with Social Security]. These are a series of measures that are very good and I think it's important to explain why they show that it's possible to do it. Resources must be allocated, but it's the path we must follow. Our job is very special, we cannot ask for leave and there are certain schedules and certain things that you have to do, but measures can be found to make it more portable and not separate mothers from children at such an early age.

This season explains how as you get older and your responsibilities increase, it is more difficult to find time for friends.

— I like this a lot because it's a group of friends who had always made a lot of plans together and now they have a hard time meeting up, and only because of Carmen's [Paula Malia] motherhood. Each one has a job and a life and there's less desire to go out to party. The plans are to meet up for breakfast or to do things with the child in the group. So, when you meet up, since it's only from time to time, it's not so easy to open up, and the series shows that very well. However, there's something very nice about it, which is that the four of them read each other very well and they sense what's happening to them. They're always there, in the end they're the chosen family.

In the series, the protagonists ask themselves where they want to be in five years. Is it possible to make such future projections in a profession like yours?

— I don't know if it can be done. What it has taught me Valeria The thing is that in five or six years life can change a lot. When I think about this, I think I hope to be with the people I love, that we are all in good health and that I have been able to continue working and that there have been no setbacks in my life.

Valeria It has given him popularity, but before that he was already a familiar face to viewers.

— Before, TV3 was something more public, and now it's more universal. I find it funny because people who don't expect it watch the series. I remember when Irene Montero wrote to me and told me that she was watching the series, the third season. People from Argentina, Italy, Turkey, and the Philippines write to me, and it's something extraordinary. People stop me in the street, but it's not overwhelming or out of place, it's rather nice.

Has the rise in popularity been accompanied by increased interest in your private life? How do you manage this?

— I don't notice that there is much more interest. Sometimes I have seen that they have shared things, but they are things that I have published on social networks. Therefore, I don't feel that there is an invasion out of the ordinary.

Now that it's over Valeria, ?wants to focus more on theatre and his company, 42 KM?

— With the company, we finished on February 16th Among monsters, we have a project in hand and we are talking with the theatre to see if it can come to light. And then there are a couple of films that I have made, A giraffe on the balcony, which premiered in Argentina and I hope it arrives here, and then Firewall, for Netflix, which we just finished filming recently. I want to play different characters and for the company to grow.

Why did you decide to found a theatre company?

— Rafa Delacroix, Georgina Latre and I studied at Eòlia and were later joined by Manuel Moreno, who is a playwright. We wanted to work together and talk about identity and criticism of young people and we did so with the play 42 KM, which is about the Ruta del Bakalao and which we premiered before the pandemic. The company is a space to ask ourselves questions without having to answer them because we don't know what the answer is. We want to bring these questions to society and the public through the stage, which is a place of collective transformation.

Does it allow you to exploit your creativity more?

— It's a space for creation and looking at what interests me, what worries me and what I would like to do. When you get projects as an actress, the characters are given to you. You take them, transform them and interpret them. But here it's all about thinking from scratch about what you would like to talk about.

In the last season of Valeria There is a certain discourse about how we distinguish between high culture and low culture. Do we tend to look down on products that initially seem aimed at a female audience?

— Yes, romantic comedies. It's something that has happened and continues to happen, but I hope it stops happening. It's a genre that works very well and that people consume, but it doesn't have prestige and I don't know why. Making a comedy is already more difficult than making a drama. A romantic comedy you already know how it will end, because many times it is predictable, but we find a certain pleasure in how it is explained and in discovering the characters, who now handle things differently. This pleasure is somewhat undervalued, I don't know if because there is no social commitment or because it doesn't stir consciences. Love and falling in love is something that happens to us and will continue to happen to us and culture also needs this aspect. If they are widely consumed products it is because people like them and people come back. Elisabet Benavent has written many books and it is very difficult to make so many. It is a worker and I think that for that reason alone it should be valued.