| http://www.hoy.es/pg060513/prensa/noticias/Cultura/200605/13/HOY-CUL-190.html CULTURE Juan Luis Galiardo concludes filming of 'Miguel & William' The actor is feeling "very alive and with a future" CH. L. MONJAS/MADRID He has made more than a hundred movies; he has become Don Quixote and his creator, Cervantes; he strongly believes in the magic of movies; and despite not being well known until his later years, he feels like an actor "who is very alive and with a future". Juan Luis Galiardo feels plethoric as he says goodbye to his movie team, having shared the last few months with them filming 'Miguel & William', a romantic comedy that fantasizes with the meeting of two great universal writers, Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare. "I’m over with my work as an actor but not yet as a producer, since you always have to be there because a movie walks with you until you die. What we have done is a movie that has broken the rules and has a romantic comedy tone", declares the veteran actor. "It has cost me four years to actually see this project come to a reality, that was offered to me by two young script writers when I was done with ‘The Gentleman Don Quixote’. There have been a lot of people interested in the project since then, but Inés París was the one that gave the script a radical change because it lost its transcendence and won with humor and comedy", assures Galiardo. "It was really worth it, I would do it all over again. I have the feeling that I completed a task which calls out for international interest since we have a budget of 7 million euros. Sometimes our movie industry limits itself with the national market with repetitive pieces… And for this there are TV programs", says Galiardo, who is 66 years old. He says he has interpreted a sad Cervantes "because when the film starts, he has to say goodbye to Literature and get his job as a tax collector back. He is a warrior, a survivor, but he sees that he cannot live as a writer anymore. He then finds Leonor – Elena Anaya- and she becomes his muse allowing him to believe in his capacity as a writer and creator of ‘Don Quixote’. With an artistic career full of..."ups and downs. I know what it is to lose and what is it to win" and still marked by his mother’s death, Galiardo has been influenced by "defiance and pain" to incarnate the Spanish writer. "The audience will perceive a sober and silent Cervantes. With this role I have learnt the language of silence". He also acknowledges that in this movie he will have a rivalry duel with Shakespeare. "This contrast between two different cultures such as the Catholic and the Protestant is very comical, and offers both faces of life, the attitude towards love, pain, creativity… British actor, Will Kemp, has performed a memorable Shakespeare. What I won’t tell you about is who wins Leonor’s love. A modern concept takes over and the solution is intelligent". A new man Galiardo says the his five children have taught him how to "converse and debate, because friction is wise". The movie, filmed in English and Spanish, will premiere during the first trimester of 2007. "Malena Alterio, Mirian Giovanelli, Geraldine Chaplin, José María Pou also star in this production... I started my career with Sonia Bruno, being her young seducer and impatient companion. I have done theatre and during the process I adapted to changes and a new man has emerged, a man with a high sense of humor that knows that he is nothing special, just a piece of the mechanism" . Actor and producer Juan Luis Galiardo is not only a new man who plays different roles, he also produces. "Sometimes, there is a fight between a producer’s selfishness and the generosity of an artist, but the second one always wins", adds the man who played Alvaro Mesía in ‘The Regent’s Wife’ and ‘El Chepa’ a lawyer in ‘Oficio de Turno’ (Free Justice). Without any second thoughts, the actor-producer states that "before you request any support from the audience and the Government, we, the ones who belong to this film world, would have to have a debate, and be more ethical and moral about our job. There are 270 television stations working with a lot of audio visual material at the time we open ticket sales for a movie. It is not the same support we had in the 50s since television takes away a lot of it. We have to create feelings, entertain, be aware of social reality and tell interesting stories to make an audience go back and enjoy the magic of the movies". With a Goya award for 'Adiós con el corazón' (A heartfelt goodbye), Galiardo now notices "a profound respect and care" from the audience. "Theatre gives me a continuous interpretation. I hardly work on TV. I never watch the programs I was part of, 'Studio 1', 'The Regent’s Wife' and 'Turno de Oficio' (Free Justice), and I don’t like the series being shown nowadays. I only watch sports and news", added the actor who will start filming 'Clandestinos' (Clandestine), an Antonio Ems masterpiece, in which Galiardo incarnates a gay police officer. *Article translated by Mariela* |