A Angela Molina (Madrid, 1955) the shine in his eyes never goes out. At 65 years old, the actress, who will receive the Goya of Honor on March 6, affirms that she has never seriously thought about retiring. “Only sometimes, when I’m tired,” she laughingly confides to journalists at the press conference on the occasion of her award. She is an “immense and exceptional” performer, as the president of the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences, Mariano Barroso, has presented her, she is convinced that «cinema will never die» and considers that, in the face of the difficulties and barriers imposed by the pandemic, the best thing is “continue creating, if possible more united than ever”.
He has no doubt, therefore, that the film industry will continue to move forward. «There is a historical continuity, which will always be assumed. Everything else is image science, something that surpasses us. The image today is in our hands in a very powerful way. Everyone looks for what they need and has it within their reach and that is something very grateful,” he says in reference to the screens already present in all contexts, “and it perpetuates the meaning of being able to tell life with images.” Of course, he adds, «We are miraculously being saved. “I think that’s how it will be and we have to have great confidence in who we are together.”
The meeting with journalists took place this morning at the Madrid headquarters of the academy, with the usual security measures. Smiling and funny, Molina explained, before taking off her mask, that she had undergone a PCR test and that she had the negative result on her cell phone, “in case anyone has any questions.” It has been time to take stock and review a career in which he has given life to more than 150 characters, under the command of directors such as Buñuel, Pedro Almodóvar, Jaime Camino, Jaime Chávarri, Jaime de Armiñán, José Luis Borau, Pontecorvo, Bigas Luna, Josefina Molina, Marco Bellocchio, Ridley Scott, Alejandro Agresti, Miguel Picazo, Gerardo Vera, the Taviani brothers, Luigi Comencini, Ricardo Franco, Enrique Gabriel, Miguel Littín, Alain Tanner, Tornatore, Agustí Villaronga, Imanol Uribe, Isaki Lacuesta , Julio Medem or Pablo Berger.
Aware of the hard times the country is going through as a result of the pandemic, his first words went to “those who are having it worse” to whom he sent “a hug that will never end, all my consideration, love and strength.” ». This does not mean, however, that he believes that the Goyas will be less Goyas. “They are going to be the same as always,” he explained. The thing is that we have to intuit ourselves and not everyone will be able to be there, but I think it’s about everything remaining as it really is. “It is about building bridges so that there is no pandemic that prevents us from celebrating the film festival in Spain and in the world.”
And although it is time to look back, Molina recognizes that she is about “living in the present.” «All the moments of my life are present in me, we are what we have lived and the dream and the illusion of what awaits us to live and yes, inevitably, I am, in some way, more heartfelt with everything because it is a unique moment “, that I am aware that it cannot be repeated and I give it that value,” he says of the award that It will accompany him throughout his life “because my colleagues have provided it for me and that is the most important thing about this award.”
She has become more serious when it comes to talking about #MeToo in relation to the latest complaints that have come to light in the Spanish film industry. The actress says that she has never experienced situations of this type. «I have never felt an abuse of power. On the contrary, they have taught me to establish a relationship of trust, of learning about who we are,” she explained, while she was convinced that those who have reported have done so because “they needed it.” However, Molina remembers that before starting to work she did experience a situation that, seen now, “was even comical.” «I went to the office of a producer who is no longer here and he tried to be funny and approach me by jumping over a chair, but he tripped and fell to the floor. I left. For a Billy Wilder movie it would be cool,” she says.
Make a Lorca
Unlike the nominees, the actress will go to the Soho Caixabank theater in Malaga to collect the honorary Goya. The news that she was going to receive the award was given to her by Barroso by phone. «I laughed out loud, but I didn’t expect it. “I received the news with a torrent of uncontrollable joy,” says she, who has not yet thought about the dress she will wear: “There is one month left!”
Molina, who has just become a grandmother for the fourth time, says that she would not change the process of aging “for anything in the world.” Now immersed in the filming of ‘A Private Affair’, an “intelligent and delirious” comedy series from those responsible for ‘Velvet’, she explains that in both film and television “the job is the same. The only danger I see in the series is that sometimes there is too much running.
The actress, who had some kind words for Buñuel and Almodóvar – “they are absolutely unique, pure as children, they are in love with what they do, and they have left a mark in my memory that is impossible to erase,” she said -, asks him In the future return to the theater: «Sometime in my life I would like to perform a work by Lorca, because of all the affinities I feel. “I owe him that and I need it.”