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San Diego Comic-Con Málaga - Icíar Bollaín Interview
We caught up with the Goya-awarded director & actress who brought us I'm Nevenka, Take My Eyes or Maixabel while discussing the first-ever non-US Comic-Con, women in movies, or Luis Tosar as her go-to actor.
Audio transcription
"Hi Gamereactor friends, I'm in Málaga for the presentation of the Comic-Con, the San Diego Comic-Con Málaga, which is going to happen in September, and I'm meeting some filmmakers, such as Icíar.
Thank you so much for joining us."
"How do you feel about this? You asked me before we started this interview, how do you feel about this event, which is going to gather a lot of fans of not only movies, but also pop culture, comic, video games, these sort of events that we're not that used to in Spain.
Well, I think it's an amazing event. I've been in San Diego, but not at the time of the Comic-Con, but I can imagine, and I've seen it, and the hugeness of it."
"So if we can bring a little bit of that here, even if it's not, it's always good, it's good for the industry.
I'm more used to film festivals, and they are usually fantastic to meet fans, to meet filmgoers, to meet all their colleagues, to see how things are going, to make roundtables, it's different from this, but it has lots in common."
"And it's always a fantastic event, it's an occasion to meet people, because usually we are in our own desks, working away, so the chance to meet other people is fantastic.
So I hope it really fulfills that.
I was talking with Santiago Segura before, I've seen you guys seem like you are good friends."
"We know each other since we were doing shorts.
Oh really?
So this is like 30 years ago, or 35 years.
I asked him why does he think the geek culture is so strong in the United States."
"We've seen the gauntlet here, we've seen action figures from every single movie that is produced there.
Do you think this is going to help Spanish movies being more geeky, being more fans, more into it, buying merchandise, being more into the culture, what goes behind the scenes, what goes into making movies, etc?
I think there is such an amazing artwork, for example, in the video games, of course in the comics, and I think they are more and more intertwined."
"Of course.
The 3D, even if you don't do a fantastic film, a fantasy film, you have 3D for this or for that, and if you do fantasy in whatever way, it's more intertwined.
It's industries that are totally connected."
"Let me ask you about you, about what you are doing.
You had I'm Nevenka, is the title in English?
I'm Nevenka is from last year.
Yes."
"So what are you working on next, if you can tell me?
I have one project which I hope we do soon.
I usually live in Edinburgh, in Scotland, and we are hoping to do a film there.
Oh, beautiful."
"In the summer, and then I'm developing other two projects in different moments of screenwriting.
Many years before that, we got Take My Eyes, I think that's the title in English, because I usually get the title in Spanish and it's difficult to recall the English title.
Would you say that one was the most international or well-known movie you've done here, that is known abroad?
Well, Take My Eyes was the film of the year, let's say, it won the awards and everything."
"But there is, for example, a film I did later, which is called Even the Rain, which was shot in Bolivia.
Yes.
For example, maybe not at that much a public level, but it's in the GSC and A-level studies of Spanish in the UK."
"It's on the circuit of universities, the Hispanics in the States, with all the departments of Spanish use that one and other films.
So Evenka and Maixabel, and Even the Rain have been released in France, in Germany, in Italy.
So they do have a life."
"A life outside our borders.
You've mentioned two things that are interesting to me.
One is awards and the other one is Maixabel.
So in terms of awards, how do you feel about the very recent Goya Awards, which for the first time, historically, the best movie was awarded for two movies, because it was the same voting for both."
"Exactly, which is pretty unique.
How do you feel about that?
Well, it made me think how it had never happened before.
I guess it's very, very difficult."
"There are a number of academics, we vote, but it's also in the best film.
Yes, yes, yes.
You've won several.
Yes, but there are four or six awards for actors."
"We have two more than the Oscars.
So it couldn't happen before, and suddenly it happened.
And also they didn't know, which is very funny.
But I think I have been during festivals sometimes, and when you split them, you make more people happy."
"Yes, that's a way to put it.
So to me, to have it ex aequo means two people get their Goya home, which is great.
Yes, that's interesting.
And then Maixabel, we've been talking about Take My Eyes, and then Maixabel, which is also beautiful."
"Both, if I'm correct, have Luis Tosar.
Yes, and even The Rain.
And even The Rain.
Would you say, as we see with Hollywood actors and directors, this happens a lot, that they have the ones they like to use in these very different roles."
"Would you say Luis Tosar is that kind of actor to you?
Well, Luis did with me his first film in a feature film.
That sets a precedent.
Yes, which was Flowers from Another World."
"And he was his first role in a film.
And I'm just so fond of him personally, but also he's the most amazing actor.
I mean, I think Luis can make believable anything.
I have a little short on YouTube called Por Tu Bien, because I wanted to denounce violence against women in labour, because it's so medicalized, and so it's just a little."
"And I wanted to attract attention to that.
But I thought, if I put a woman on labor, we have seen a million times a woman in pain in labor, and not very well treated."
"So I put Luis Tosar.
So Luis Tosar goes on labor in a three-minute short.
He's gone around the world, too, because he's used for activism to defend a more natural labour."
"But Luis is amazing.
He can even go on labor, and you believe him.
That's my point.
That's more for Arnold Schwarzenegger, I think."
"I mean, it's like seeing Schwarzenegger giving labor truthfully.
I mean, and it's with his beard and bald and everything.
But you believe he's delivering a baby.
So Luis is amazing."
"He can really do anything with all his heart.
I mean, it's always really good.
It's always very solid, truthful.
And both in Maixabel and Take My Eyes, it's very difficult parts to take on."
"I mean, he delivers amazingly.
Yeah, those are beautiful words.
You're somehow reading my mind because you just mentioned activism and women, and I was about to ask about women."
"Of course, two days ago was International Women's Day.
You've been doing activism for women.
You're part of CIMA.
You've been defending women in both movies and outside movies."
"So is there a message you would like to share today about all this, how women are represented in movies in Spain and abroad?
What do you think about such an event that can gather women, you know, being fans, being cosplayers, being respected?
What would you like to share about this?
I always have thought that the more women are in the industry of telling stories, doesn't matter if it's whatever, comic, graphic novel, video games, or films, or writing, it will be a more diverse presentation of our world."
"Even if it's fantastic, it doesn't matter.
Because in the end, it's a presentation of values and characters and storytelling.
So the more women are in storytelling, the more diverse it will be.
And I guess in video games, for a long time, it was more like a magic, no?
Yeah."
"Before coming here, I asked my kids, how is it about video games?
I said, well, the biggest gamer ever is a woman.
Is that true?
I don't know which woman are they talking about."
"Or the most famous one is a young woman who's a huge gamer.
Could be. There are a lot.
There might be a lot.
So anyway, I'm sure if there are more women and more presence, and with more presence in this world too, we will have a more diverse..."
"I just believe truly that we have to tell our world among all of us.
Otherwise, we'll be just very angled, and very male, and very white.
And it's changing.
And in the Spanish industry, you've seen it change, I guess, for the better."
"It's not only male.
It's also straight.
It's also white.
It's also young.
And we have a much wider world to talk about."
"And I think all the voices have to be there.
So this is why, because I'm a woman, I'm in this trench fighting for...
And you've been recognized, and you've been also...
Yeah, and also because now we have opened up through my association, Lobbying, we have opened up this crack."
"So much more women have getting to it.
They are fantastic.
They are in international festivals.
They are winning awards.
And they are doing very interesting things."
"So what we lose by it.
Exactly.
We only gain, right?
I have more questions, but I think that's the perfect wrap.
So thank you so much for your time."
"Thank you so much.
Let's go and have some cocktail, because I'm starving.
You must be starving."
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