"I'm from Cornellà, and my grandfather was a shepherd. I thought they wouldn't take me to play Milena Busquets."

BarcelonaMarina Salas (Cornellà de Llobregat, 1988) was without much hope in the casting of the film This will also happen, the adaptation of the novel by Milena Busquets which opens this Friday. The lead role, alter ego The author is the daughter of a famous editor (Esther Tusquets was Busquets's mother) who grew up in a privileged environment, surrounded by intellectuals and artists and spending her summers at the family home in Cadaqués. "My universe is the opposite," Salas explains. "I'm from Cornellà and my grandfather was a shepherd. I thought they wouldn't take me for playing Milena Busquets." And yet, her complex and credible work is one of the film's greatest assets. "Distances are bridged by empathizing and leaving prejudices behind," she adds. "In the end, we're all the same: we all die, we all shit, and we all cry. And that doesn't mean losing our class consciousness."

The death of her mother is the trigger for a story about the personal lessons that can be learned from mourning, told without ever losing touch with a certain lightness that, as the mother reminded the protagonist, is "a sign of elegance." Salas attempts to reflect this in an interpretive work that aims to "oscillate between superficial apathy and depth." "Beneath this apathy lies a great pain that she tries to escape," the actress notes. "Instead of staying home crying and screaming, feeling and hiding from the world, what she does is go out to parties, dance, swim in the sea, and have sex with lovers. It's an escape, yes, because seeing death up close is desperate." And through that impulse, she better understands certain things about herself. "Loss makes you remember who you are," she says. "That's what happened to Milena, who, after her mother's death, assumed she was a writer."

Although Busquets wasn't participating in the film, Salas called her and they met for a coffee that lasted more than two hours, during which, according to the actress, they didn't discuss very personal topics. "We chatted about art, literature, food, life... What I wanted was to be with her and share some time," explains Salas, who emphasizes that she didn't try to "copy" the writer. "Well, maybe the laughter, because she has a very explosive and unique laugh, but in the end we worked on the character separately from Milena," says Salas. "I played Blanca [the character's name in the book and the film], but Milena is so powerful and well-known that it's inevitable to establish a bond, a kind of seduction."

Sex scenes, better between friends

After winning the Spanish Actors and Actresses Union award for her role in the seriesMe, addict (also based on a real person, a friend of the series creator Javi Giner) and about to premiere the film by Ivan Morales Breakfast with me (her first work in Catalan for the cinema), Salas is experiencing a sweet professional moment that her friend wanted to share with her Carlos Cuevas, that in This will also happen He plays one of the protagonist's lovers. In fact, the actors' friendship meant they dispensed with intimacy coordination for the sex scenes. "We opted out, but it's very important that it exists," Cuevas emphasizes. "Intimacy coordination has saved our lives, the actors', and it has changed cinema." Salas agrees: "Carlos and I are such close friends that we didn't need it, but in general, the scenes are uncomfortable because you're very exposed, and you have to be more aware of your bodies and respectful."

Cuevas didn't mind that his role was small. Lately, he explains, he's been trying to reorient his career towards film: "I prefer to play supporting roles like this one, the one inThe 47 either The abbess, than starring in series that don't challenge me." He also doesn't mind playing a character from a privileged universe that, like Salas, seems distant to him; on the contrary, it is a stimulus. "I'm making decisions that distance me from what I'm best known for, which is perhaps the universe Marline"To show that I have a wide range of talents as an actor," he explains. "It's not only people from well-off families who can play well-off characters, and it's not only people from poor families who can play poor characters; our job is to put on masks. I've been to Cadaqués twice, and I don't have a home or friends who do, but I do have the ability to imagine it."