Nora Navas: "My career has been built more on nodes"

BarcelonaThe film has just premiered My friend Eva, by Cesc Gay, where she is the absolute star. We'll soon see it on Amazon Prime in a blockbuster titled ZetaHe filmed a series in the Pyrenees with the Cabezudo brothers. Kill a bearNora Navas is already an established actress, a woman who has always enjoyed taking risks, who has a keen eye for good projects, who champions new ideas, but who has often said no. She has done little theater this decade, but in the last one she became an indispensable actress for many directors, such as Oriol Broggi and Carlota Subirós. She would like to become a Lorca-inspired actress, and the time has come for her to bring her projects to fruition. She has fond memories of her time in Buenos Aires and was able to turn down a life in Hollywood, in Los Angeles, where she could have settled after... Black bread

I may not have done theater since The irresponsible onesSo, since 2021?

— I'm terrible with dates, but I remember because they were still doing the swab test on me. And look, I don't know, time has gone by, I've gotten hooked on audiovisual work, and it's not like I've had many offers from the Lliure or the National Theatre. I'm pretty out of touch with new companies, and everyone I know, my friends and all, are people who work mostly at the Lliure and the National Theatre, so I haven't had many job offers. And look, that's how it's turned out... I had to do it. The braidWhen it was launched. In fact, I was one of its driving forces, but a series came up that Mariano Barroso had been working on for a long time and wanted me to do: The FaradAnd so I went for it. I had also just done The irresponsible ones with the same group of people, and I said, air, right?

And hasn't he missed the theater?

— Well, no, I'd say no. No, no, no. The truth is, no. I've enjoyed the projects. I'm not one to miss things, you know? No. And now the opportunity has come up to do something with Marta Marco and Cristina Genebat: Marta and I locked ourselves away a year and a half ago, almost two, to read plays, novels, and choose, and we chose something that we'll do in 2027.

Is there a need among your generation, more or less, to seek out projects to be carried out by women?

— There will be men involved in what we're going to do, right? Yes, there will be men here, and we won't make any money. Because The braidWow, it's one of those things that came about during the pandemic, when I even wrote a series. My team, Clara Segura, and others got together, and it was like, let's do it ourselves, right? The braid, really, has worked incredibly well. They took a big risk, because we did the numbers as producers, where we're all terrible, and they weren't adding up. But we were working with Bet Orfila, and the truth is, it's worked out really well.

You didn't think you could make money with theatre, did you?

— We didn't think about it. At 50, we still thought we were being paid well, you know? But this project we're building now, All my puny sorrowsMiriam Toews's play is not so commercial. It's a bit harder, darker; we didn't see it as being for all audiences, and so we opted to perform it in a public theater.

But here, in addition, he has bought the rights.

— Yes, we did it between ourselves and Bitò. This also stems from that need to say: I don't want just anyone directing me now. Because you have a long career behind you, and you want someone to really challenge you. Who did we want to direct us? Someone who has been with me in My friend EvaFernanda Orazi, who is a great actress in my opinion, directed an incredible monologue that I saw at the Teatro del Barrio in Madrid. I said: I want that Argentinian feeling. I want to be lost again. And in the end, look, we decided: Cris Genebat really wanted to direct. Marta and I were going to come in as the lead roles, and we proposed it to Cris.

What has theatre taught you in life?

— It's taught me so much. It's taught me to be brave, very brave. In the theater, you have to be very brave, you have to get rid of a lot of nonsense, you have to lay yourself bare without fear, you have to be very generous. The last thing I did with an audience was a recital about mysticism at the Pedralbes Monastery. And I kept thinking: now I have to go out here in front of these people? Two options: either I'll have a stroke, or I'll be enlightened, right? I mean, it was a feeling like taking a leap of faith, and the theater gives you that sense of being very present in life.

As a young man, he lived in Buenos Aires. What did he learn?

— Buenos Aires taught me how to be an actress. Until I returned from Buenos Aires, I didn't say, "I'm an actress." And I'd been working for quite some time. But people would ask me, "What are you?" And I'd pretend I didn't know... And Buenos Aires taught me about good theater, good fiction, how to work from a very particular place. Without psychology, more emotion... I haven't been connected to Buenos Aires for a long time, but it's my school.

He even worked as an assistant director. Has this more creative work been able to endure, or did it remain there, a youthful indiscretion?

— Buenos Aires was like a school... Since I hadn't done anything, since I hadn't finished any school, for me, Buenos Aires was my school. I studied playwriting, I wrote two plays, which are in a drawer, but I think they gave me a lot of knowledge, also, about screenwriting, about writing. I worked as an assistant director, I attended many schools...

In Barcelona it seems you need to have a more defined role, right?

— It seems you have to take a stronger stance here. Why can't Cris Genebat be a director? Or: why can't I start writing now, or be an assistant director without being pigeonholed? Now, Montse Vellvehí, an incredible actress, is doing a lot of assistant directing. So, I think they're more open there. They work as actresses on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but on Wednesday they're assistant directors to another big name, like Alejandro Tantanian, and then they act with Javier Daulte and then they go to the Sportivo Teatral with Ricardo Bartís...

It's as if there weren't so many boundaries in the theater, isn't it?

— Exact.

Here, in addition, there are beginning to be actors and actresses from theater or film.

— It's about creation, isn't it? I think it's magic. Whenever they call me about theater or film, I say it doesn't matter to me. The medium doesn't matter. What's important is what you're conveying, the talent around you, the form... I'm increasingly interested in form, that is, the tone, which would be more relevant in audiovisual media. The tone, the form in creation, the staging... So, I don't care where I do it. That's why I haven't missed theater... For example, now with My friend Eva I've learned so much.

Cesc Gay is very theatrical, isn't he?

— It's very artisanal, too. It's very family-oriented, which is also a bit of a reflection of where I come from, from the Library of Catalonia. And this is something that sustains me a lot, both as a person and as an actress. Something that also happens a lot in Buenos Aires, where there's also a strong sense of community.

Is there any difference between working with Cesc Gay or Oriol Brogi, and working with Mar Coll or Carlota Subirós?

— Are you referring to gender? Well, for me, no. I work with people, not genders. And with talent. For example, Mar Coll would have more in common with Cesc Gay, and Carlota, with Broggi.

Didn't you need to look up the authors? Didn't this worry you?

— I don't think so... What's more, now, for example, with Cesc, he was very afraid of that thing, of talking about a 50-year-old woman; he thought he'd be attacked... Why? I asked him. Because you've also talked about teenagers masturbating, and you're not a teenager; you've also talked about death, and you haven't died. I like it when a man talks about women, and when a woman talks about men. During the height of the Me Too movement, at the Academy, where I was vice president, there was talk of only giving awards to women. I said: I want to go out and give an award to a male colleague. There are great authors who have written about great women. We have The RegentRight? And many plays, like DollhouseI like that different perspective too.

Does she consider herself an actress who is loyal to a series of directors?

— Maybe so. Maybe so, because there's a certain familiarity that really helps me to explore, to open myself up. I like it, you know? To learn new things, but I like that Broggi calls me to explore again, because I know there are steps we've already taken, right? I know him too, I like his talent, I like where we are and where we create from. Now, I'm open. If new directors come along... Now I have a better sense for saying, "I'm not getting involved here," especially with theater. Theater is riskier. Who is this person? What do they want to do? Do you mean I want to give them three months of my life? Now I'm more selective.

Does audiovisual production require less commitment than theater?

— Yes, yes, yes, absolutely. But it also happens to me with audiovisual work. Right now, for example, I've been filming a series with the Cabezudo brothers. Kill a bear. They gave me a casting call because it was really hard for them to find the right person for this role. "Give me a casting call," I told them, "I'll do the casting myself, to see if I want to work with you..." And there's always some fun involved, a good time.

Is it easier to have fun making a TV series than doing theater?

— You can have a great time doing theater. In fact, the whole theatrical process of finding the play together, of finding the character, is much more rewarding. It also depends a lot on the weight of your character. If you have a lead role in film or television, like My friend EvaWhere I practically held the pole, you're even part of the technical team. You're part of the process... In film and television, if you have a small role, you're more lost. You're more of a somewhat volatile piece of the system. And in theater, you're there from the first day to the last performance, even if you have a small part.

In fact, she has alternated between small and large roles, constantly. I've reviewed the TV3 series from the last 25 years, and she's been in almost all of them, but only for a few episodes. She's been in The heart of the city, in Jet lag, in Ventdelplà, in Sow misery...

— The other day at a gas station someone said to me, "Oh, I know her, she's from TV3." And I was thinking, "I don't really associate myself with TV3." Television, you know, has always been a bit more difficult for me. That quick thinking you have to have... For example, I remember I was in a few episodes of...The heart of the city And I did it because my mother was ill, and she loved this series, she watched it a lot, and I did it out of love for my mother... But I remember that I struggled a lot with that pace. It was difficult for me, it was difficult, yes. Then they offered me a film, a bigger one from Telecinco, a lead role, and I didn't do it because I wasn't interested. However, the smaller roles, if they were things I liked, then I did them.

With The hockey playersThings changed: he appeared in every episode of both seasons.

— I really enjoyed the first season, but not the second. The first season was about some girls graduating from university; it was a series with a really cool feminist slant, about young women with a desire to do something different. Then it got caught up in the whole thing, to the point where even the actresses were saying things like, "Which one did you get, the idiot, the fool, or the bitch?" I also think I took the role at that time because I was being offered a lot of mother roles. And I thought, "A hockey coach? Let's do it."

There aren't many actresses who have been able to take things slowly. And very big roles. In the sense that she played Anna Wulf in The Golden Notebook, has made Doña Rosita the spinster of Lorca, has done experiments with Daulte.

— I also had a period of Black bread, of We all want what's best for her.I've never been an actress who had a lot of work. I did have a small role with Almodóvar, but it's only now that I think I'm in a good place, with two Goya Awards. And it's not that I have a ton of projects on my plate, but rather that projects keep coming in from people making their first film.

Don't you think it's good to be a role model for young people?

— Yes, yes, yes, absolutely, but Amenábar and Coixet don't come to me offering roles. I did the first Roquet film, by Mar Coll, more or less. A lot of people tell me I have a nose for projects. I've always had a lot of intuition, and I've also had the privilege of being able to say no. I think my career has been built more on connections. My agent used to tell me a lot: do this thing on Telecinco, and then you'll do this, do this comedy, and then you'll do that, and I told him I would never do anything just for the sake of doing something. There are things I simply don't know how to do: I don't know how to do street theater, I don't know how to do physical theater. I'm an actress who needs a script, I need a director, to understand the story, to put my intelligence to work, and then to do it. Pierce Brosnan said there are films you make for love, and then others to build a swimming pool. I don't have a swimming pool, nor will I ever have one, nor will I ever have a second home, because I don't subscribe to that. But then, what I do I want to be little gems that I want to remember later, Doña Rosita? I see images and I say: how beautiful, that spectacle. Blood Wedding?

Will she end up as a Lorca-esque actress?

— I wish! I did Poet in New York to open the Muntaner Room. I made my debut with this...

When he makes films like My friend EvaDon't you get the feeling that they're talking about you as a person?

— Do you know that this film has been the hardest I've ever made in my entire career? In fact, after three weeks I told Cesc: "Find yourself another one." Eva is the antithesis of me. In fact, after just an hour and a half of filming, he'd already be asking me: "Has Eva finished breakfast yet?" There isn't a day that goes by that I don't run into people—young people, older people—who tell me: "I really liked it." There's something about the film that has resonated with people that I can't quite put my finger on. Because the film is very simple. It seems very simple. But I think there are layers to it, that some people can appreciate it more, and others see it more as a romantic comedy, period. And yes, everything that happens to Eva has happened to me: I turned 50, I got divorced, I got a cat, which isn't in the film, but there are many things that definitely resonate with me.

How does she integrate these things into her character?

— Cesc's way of working, that thing where it seems like nothing's happening, where it seems like the characters don't know anything, is incredibly difficult to pull off. Because we're used to seeing characters in film who have things very clear in their minds, and they have a lot of dialogue to explain themselves. And here, I was completely out of it. It's all thought, all sensations and decisions in the moment... I don't have my life planned out. Life is constantly happening to me... I separated a year ago, and that's Eva, right? But, wow, that lightness that Cesc asks for is what I found most difficult. He'd tell me: more lightness, more Meg Ryan, lighter. And I'd say: man, I'm... Black breadI am density, I am drama. You've taken Juan Diego Botto and me, both of us Lorca enthusiasts. And it's been difficult, very difficult. I'm very grateful because I've learned so much.

Life is not easy to tell.

— Life can't be recounted. The other day I was reading José Sacristán, who said that the best thing about life is life itself. In other words, you can't tell its story. You can tell it in retrospect, right?

If she plays Doña Rosita, she's playing a character, right? But there are characters who are real people.

— Argentinians know how to do this very well. It's not so much psychology, but emotional work. Daulte always said that the work is emotional. Because if you base it on psychology, then you start from stereotypes. And when it's emotional, your emotionality will be very different from mine or theirs. That is, it's unique, unique and personal, the way I react to emotion. So, in My friend Eva You end up being a character and not. What I wanted to tell you is that I learned a very important lesson: everything happens to Eva in her mind.

There's a literary theory that speaks of objective correlative, which states that everything that happens emotionally on stage must be justified. And good directors and good actors know how to interpret this.

— So you keep adding to your life, you keep adding to it. You don't start from scratch, without any experience. Cesc always puts you in unusual situations.

Now, apart from the series Kill a bear, has two films pending release: Zeta and Feminine singular.

— They are two very different worlds. Zeta It's totally mainstream, with Mario Casas, I play M. We'll see. Let's see how it goes, right? One of those Amazon movies. This happens to me a lot, I'm really into emotions and all that, and suddenly I'm playing M in the CNI (National Intelligence Center). I feel so fake, I don't talk about everyday life, about emotions. And "Femenino singular" is a small role, a small film. We'll see.

If I were a 22-year-old actress just starting out, I had done a few series and needed advice, what would you tell me?

— Yes, actually, I do. My friends' daughters call me to ask for coffee. The first thing I tell them is that they should see if they like it, and that it's a marathon, not a sprint. And that at 22, it's much more interesting to go to the Antic Teatre and build your own set, and be there and create a play that blows your mind, than to go from audition to audition trying to become famous.

And go live in Madrid.

— Yes, moving to Madrid... After Black bread The opportunity arose to move to Los Angeles. In Los Angeles? And I thought to myself: what would I do in Los Angeles? Well, that's it, before going to Madrid, the best thing is to join a company, take on a project you like, and grind away, letting the seed of the profession and of creation take root inside.

Why didn't he go to Los Angeles?

— First, because I had a young daughter and I had to go with her. Look, now I'm going to Mexico to perform. My friend EvaAnd I've spoken with two production companies, and I'm saying: I'll make a film in Mexico tomorrow because I like Mexican culture, and I know the language... Or I could go to Argentina or Chile. But Los Angeles? I get sad just thinking about it. A series had come up, and the plan was to find an agent. I had won my first Goya Award.

She survived the first Goya. There are actresses who find it very difficult to get back on their feet.

— They don't exactly call you that often, you know? Being vice president of the academy has helped me a lot. Because I've seen what academia, the industry, all the people are like...