Nearly four decades have passed since Luis Zahera made his film debut in 1987. It was in the film Divinas palabras by José Luis García Sánchez. His subsequent ascent came with the great popularity he achieved on Galician regional television with his character Petróleo in the successful series Mareas Vivas. Then came his first major role in a national fiction with Sin tetas no hay paraíso in 2008. And now he can boast of having already won two Goya Awards for his work in El Reino and As bestas and of being one of the most beloved actors in Spain.
In the last months he has triumphed with two very different roles. First in Zeta, the action and spy film in which he shares the top billing with Mario Casas. And in a completely different register, he has also won us over with his portrayal of a cantankerous yet endearing rural veterinarian in the series Animal, which is already preparing new seasons.
With a release schedule that shows no sign of slowing down at sixty, Zahera’s fans are about to see him in two new films. The next theatrical date with the Galician actor will Leones de invierno. This dramatic revenge-and-corruption thriller is directed by Alber Pintó and features a stellar cast including Inma Cuesta and Roberto Álamo.
A week later, on October 30, Netflix will release the film Colisión, directed by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo. Luis Zahera, Laia Costa and Karra Elejalde are the protagonists of this dizzying action title in which a group of robbers robs a bank in Madrid and triggers a sequence of unpredictable events.
Luis Zahera and His Work-Related Anxiety
The actor born in Santiago de Compostela has become, through talent and effort, one of the most recognizable faces on television and cinema in our country. But the intense career of this son of a Civil Guard raised in an environment of deep religious convictions has taken its toll. His series and films, along with touring Spain with his comic monologue Chungo, have caused him to experience a moment of “double anxiety”.
Luis Zahera in the film Colisión.
That is how Luis Zahera confessed to Pablo Motos during a visit to El Hormiguero last April. The actor began the interview by acknowledging the good and bad sides of being able to work on several projects at once. “I am in the sweet spot where everything falls into place. We always work with the same people. I don’t know, that producers go to theaters to see new talent. I have to start turning things down and learning to say no,” he added with a hint of sarcasm.
The actor then insisted that, when he was young, he had been educated to work. All in all, this leaves him with a bittersweet feeling. “If I stop working, it makes me anxious. I also get anxious thinking about whether I will know how to do something when I stop working. It is a double anxiety. One must be like the youth of today, who manage time better. They value their own time more,” he confessed on the Antena 3 show’s set.
The many jobs of Luis Zahera
Before the fame he now enjoys as an actor, Luis Zahera was a true Renaissance man, dabbling in many fields and professions. After being nearly a priest, he entered the world of acting through a job as a stagehand in theatre in the early 80s. But when he really did everything was when he moved to New York in 1992.
In the Big Apple, the Galician actor fended for himself by taking on all sorts of jobs. First he worked in the cloakroom of a luxury restaurant hanging coats. “There I was, among mink coats, wondering what I was doing with my life,” he recalled years later in an interview. He then also worked as a construction laborer: painting and helping demolitions of buildings, including the 64th floor of the now-defunct Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.
