Professional actors revolt towards pure actors: “They don’t want to test me because I have too much experience” | Culture | EUROtoday

In 2022, Alcarras, by Carla Simón, received the Golden Bear on the Berlin competition and have become a hit. The movie, performed by so-called pure actors (with out earlier expertise), opened a collection of titles with the presence of those protagonists who didn’t dream of being such. But their coexistence with skilled interpreters, who practice and struggle to take exams, is difficult. The financial setting doesn’t assist: in line with the AISGE Foundation – whose aims embrace serving to artists – in 2023 solely 7% of Spanish actors earn greater than 30,000 euros in earnings and 77% earn lower than 12,000.

In this context, in July 2024 the actress Iria Parada (Arima, Three, Alpha Males, Jam) shared a tragic message on Instagram: “I think this is the third time I’ve tried to record this video because in the end I get angry, and what I want is to convey the sadness and sorrow because these things are happening: today another producer doesn’t want to see me in reel or in casting because I have too much experience,” and provides that they’re on the lookout for pure actors.

After 8,340 likes, 657 feedback and 549 shares, the interpreter confesses: “I’m utterly towards this time period (pure actors) as a result of I’m wondering: what’s it to be an actor if not decoding one thing from the reality? I wished to vent in an setting with folks in my occupation, to whom the identical factor may very well be occurring with out daring to speak about it, and that is what occurred.” Among the comments on her publication are those of Pedro Casablanc (“Very sad, Iria. Very unfair”), Natalia Dicenta (“Brava, dear. I understand your indignation”), Nacho Guerreros (“Ole for you. Your testimony stages reality of this profession”) or Clara Alvarado (“100% with you”). Parada adds: “Some colleagues called me saying that they did not dare to raise their voices for fear that the casting directors would cross them off their lists.” And he confesses: “I have the same fear, but what I want to convey is not negative, it is in favor of our profession. I believe in exceptions, I know there are, but they are people who later continued training because they respect this profession. It is not good that they become a norm, I think it is not fair for those of us who are trained.”

A training that at the Royal Higher School of Dramatic Art (RESAD) requires, in four courses, passing subjects in acrobatics, fencing, body expression, music, text analysis, verse, production, dramaturgy or psychology. In addition to studies in acting methods, acting on camera, dubbing… which require an extra investment of money in private schools.

“This suspicion exists,” confirms director Manuel Martín Cuenca. “But to debut within the cinema you do not have to have gone by means of an appearing college, I select the one who I imagine always is one of the best, whether or not or not it comes from skilled appearing.” Director of films like The weakness of the Bolshevik o The author, seven times nominated for the Goya awards, he worked with some natural actors in Andrea’s love, although he prefers to call them, as the Frenchman Robert Bresson did, “in a more respectful way towards each other: professional actors and actors who are not; “They both have what we call naturalness.” And he assures: “The professional actor knows the tricks of his work, he understands it. With the non-professional actor you have to create the illusion that there is no trick behind it.” And does that mean a complication when it comes to working? “In the primary days with non-professionals you want extra persistence, they’re impressed by the filming system till they get used to it, however the vital factor is what we work on inside them.”

For producer Valérie Delpierre, it has not been a setback either: “We have never had problems because we did not know the work dynamics.” Delpierre is behind the feature films of Pilar Palomero, a filmmaker who combines performers from both origins. “Professional actors are still there, we need and want them,” says Palomero. “We directors are aware that 99% of the film is in the actors we choose.” In its last premiere, The sparkles, The palliative doctors are real doctors, as is the street vendor, but it was in his previous job where more natural interpreters participated: “In The Maternal There was some activism: they wanted to tell what had happened to them. It would have seemed hypocritical to me to do something about a topic like that and script it. It has been going on for the entire history of cinema. Italian neorealism consisted of this and it did not prevent us from having Anita Ekberg or Marcello Mastroianni.”

The history of cinema is full of natural actors. Harold Russell won the Oscar for best supporting actor in 1947 for The best years of our lives playing a soldier who, like him, had lost both hands in the war. It was the first of his five films and then he retired. One of those convicted of the anti-communist hunt for Senator McCarthy, Herbert J. Biberman, directed in 1954 The salt of the earth about a Mexican miners’ strike, starring their real wives. The Spanish quinqui cinema launched a generation of marginalized youth in masterpieces such as Hurry, hurry, by Carlos Saura. “There is something that hurts me when I hear it, because it seems like you put the camera, they talk, and that’s it,” says Pilar Palomero, “and in reality they are doing acting work. They repeat shots and phrases. I hope the girls of The Maternal “Keep working, you have a talent that amazed me.”

Another key piece in the coexistence between professional and natural actors are the casting directors. “The actor’s job is still a profession in which they work with their body, their feelings and their soul,” says Ana Sainz-Trápaga, responsible for the casting of titles such as The red virgin o Madrid burns, “and if they ask you why they don’t have access to such casting and you tell them that they are looking for natural actors, you create another reason for their frustration.” Those responsible for the films are no strangers to this, as producer Valérie Delpierre acknowledges: “There is nothing that an actor cannot do. But if for creative reasons the director asks me to open the cast to non-professionals, as long as it is justified, I think we have to trust.”

In 1994 days numbered, by Imanol Uribe, won the Golden Shell at the San Sebastián festival and launched the careers of Ruth Gabriel, Candela Peña, Pepón Nieto and Elvira Mínguez. Behind them was the pioneer of casting directors, Paco Pino, and in EL PAÍS he confessed that for that film “being unknown was the only condition.” He attracted young actors, now these professionals look for talent in more places. “It depends on the director’s point of view,” says Sainz-Trápaga. “In the end it is an artistic work where the director is the captain. And if this means working with natural people, like Carla Simón in Alcarras, “The incontrovertible fact that he wished to inform it from there may be completely authorized.” A practice that has featured actors who were inexperienced at the time but who today already have good filmographies, such as Jesús Carroza or Milena Smit, discovered by Alejandro Gil, casting director. “It also depends on the type of work. Now I’m doing a big-budget series, and I’m not going to do street tests. We need professional actors who have technique, know where the camera is and have the training to work efficiently.” Gil, responsible for the distribution of Elite o You will not kill, He adds: “It is not a meritocratic industry. It’s sad, but that’s how it works. In some way you understand the suspicion of professional actors.”

Lack of rights

For Ignacio Martín, institutional leader of the Union of Actresses and Actors, “what worries them is deprofessionalization. “That and the lack of rights, that there are productions with local actors who do not earn the cache that a professional actor would receive, nor do they have the conditions established in the agreement.” Something that producer Valérie Delpierre does take into account: “The salary tables are the minimum you have to meet and then you go up depending on who asks you. But we are never below what is legal, regardless of your experience.”

“Every professional is concerned to see that there is not enough work. You prepare to achieve your dream and then they pass you on the right without any effort,” says Martín, “and the interpreters have a very strong culture of effort.” And according to the AISGE Foundation, three out of every four artists cannot make a living from this effort, 46% lack unemployment coverage, the majority need a second job away from the cultural field, and their average retirement pension is somewhat higher than the minimum wage. although lower than the average of the rest of the pensions.

With the emergence of influencers y youtuberscoveted by their followers on social networks, and artificial intelligence looming threateningly over the horizon, Iria Parada’s video distills a general feeling and is a symptom of the fear of precariousness. “Now, suddenly, everyone is an actor,” says the actress, “and it makes me angry because I love my profession, we have to respect it because we have an art in our hands.”