Maybe he doesn’t fill stadiums in his concerts like Guitarricadelafuente nor grace the covers of Variety like Miguel Bernardeau. But Carlos González can already boast of being the first actor from La bola negra to win an acting prize. It happened during the 25th edition of the prestigious CineHorizontes festival in Marseille, where the 29-year-old Navarro actor took home the award for Best Supporting Actor. The Los Javis film also won the award for Best Screenplay.
These awards join the Best Directing prize for Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo at the Cannes Film Festival and the numerous audience recognitions at festivals such as San Sebastián, Toronto, Sydney or Busan, in South Korea. All of this together with the fact that the film was chosen by the Academy of Cinema to represent Spain in the 99th edition of the Academy Awards in the Best International Feature Film category.
A string of awards and box-office success that has highlighted, above all, the lesser-known faces of La bola negra, such as Milo Quifes, Alberto Cortés and Carlos González. The latter has gone from growing up in the small town of Cintruénigo to rubbing shoulders with Hollywood stars at the recent Academy Museum Gala. And from winning a small artistic contest to being able to read in the New York Times a review of his work as laudatory as this:
«This is a story of men in love or who wish to fall in love or who cannot fall in love», reads the review of La bola negra in the New York newspaper. «And the one who moved me the most was [Carlos] González, perhaps because his own story is not about the tragedy of desire, but about the deep longing that makes you seek deep roots. His performance has a magnetism that makes the most improbable circumstances seem real and alive».
His Path to La bola negra
Alongside internationally established presences such as Penélope Cruz or Glenn Close, Americans (and many Spaniards) are now discovering Carlos González’s great abilities as an actor. Before enjoying his tour de force alongside Lola Dueñas in La bola negra, we saw him in series such as Veneno and Señoras del (h)AMPA. His first leading role arrived five years ago with Maricón perdido, the series that adapted Bob Pop’s eponymous novel.
Carlos González in La bola negra.
Behind his move to Madrid at 18, his years of training at the Juan Carlos Corazza school and his first castings are left behind. And a childhood complicated by being different, in which, as he confessed in an interview with El País, “I was the only boy who played with dolls.”
«I feel that if I couldn’t devote myself to this, I would die,» added Carlos González in this interview. And despite the success he now enjoys, he remains on the ground. «This industry is very scary. It is so hard to break in, it is so hard to be able to work as an actor, that when a possibility, a spark of something, suddenly falls into your lap, there is a lot of fear that it might fall away».
The New Brays Efe?
Something that Carlos González has had to face since the release of the film is comparisons with one of the Javis’ favorite actors, Brays Efe. He has tried to respond to the comments with an appearance on El sótano de TEN. “I’m delighted. I liked the film a lot; I’m very happy for them,” began the Paquita Salas star about Ambrossi and Calvo’s success, before acknowledging that he would have been “delighted” to appear in La bola negra.
And about his supposed physical resemblance to the actor who plays Alberto in the new Los Javis film, Brays Efe used humor to assure that “we don’t look anything alike, do we?” Besides, he is ten years younger than me, guys. It’s true that Carlos González commands more attention for La bola negra than I do.». Those words drew laughter from the show’s guests and served to prove that there are no hard feelings between him and the film-making duo.
