With the Oscar ceremony on the horizon, Miguel Bernardeau and the rest of the stars of The Black Ball ride a wave of worldwide fame that threatens to become a tsunami. The Spanish actor and his fellow cast member Guitarricadelafuente have even graced the cover of Variety, the Bible of Cinema, which unabashedly positioned the magnum opus of Los Javis as a clear candidate to take home the golden statue for Best Picture.
Awaiting to know whether Hollywood will crown the celebrated trajectory in Cannes and Toronto of The Black Ball, Miguel Bernardeau granted a rather unusual interview to Henar Álvarez on To Heaven With Her. In front of the cameras of Televisión Española, the actor who plays Rafael Rodríguez Rapún spoke about the importance of the Spanish film to talk about the past, understand the present and look toward the future.
The Spanish actor cited Federico García Lorca to insist that “we must remember toward tomorrow” and summarized the importance of The Black Ball by assuring that “it resonates in us and is being seen. It is anti-war, anti-fascist and speaks of our history, of the Civil War, of an author as important as Lorca and of three homosexual protagonists.”
He also recalled the curious way he managed to appear in the film, after meeting Javier Calvo at the Goyas. After doing an initial casting that, in his own words, went “like crap,” he spent two weeks thinking that he had “lost the opportunity of my life.” The fruit of his longing for that role, “I became a believer. I would wake up in the morning and pray to God to give me another opportunity.” Whether by divine intervention or not, they called him back to test again, and the result has now been seen by nearly 4 million people in Spain.
Miguel Bernardeau and his parents’ ‘no’
To reach this major professional moment that he now enjoys, the former partner of Aitana had to go against the wishes of his parents: actress Ana Duato and television producer Miguel Ángel Bernardeau. “My parents asked me not to enter this industry,” he confessed with a laugh. But he ignored their advice and decided to try to see if he truly liked it or not.
Miguel Bernardeau and Guitarradelafuente in The Black Ball.
Regarding his role in The Black Ball, which he did not hesitate to describe as “the role of his life”, he lamented that he is often asked whether he used “prosthetics” for his nude scene. And he revealed that he receives hate messages on social networks. “They write to me, ‘I just watched the film, long live Spain, you son of a bitch!’ But that seems so extreme to me that I don’t care.”
And when Henar Álvarez asked him if he would be at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on March 15 for the Oscar ceremony, he admitted to being “quite shy in this regard. What I would most like would be to give a hug to Martin Scorsese and Meryl Streep” and little else. Regarding The Black Ball’s chances of a prize, he added that he doesn’t know what will happen. “What I do know is that the Javis are very intelligent; they will do everything they can to get Federico to the fucking Oscars.”
His meeting with Belén Esteban
In a very relaxed interview, there was also time for Miguel Bernardeau to analyze the political situation in our country. “I think young people cannot afford housing, that we are renouncing those basic rights, I find that outrageous. Mobilization is important, because we’ve been dealing with this for a long time already. Just as it is important that people can also speak from privilege,” he assured on the set of To Heaven With Her.
And he left us with the curious anecdote of his meeting with Belén Esteban, whom he met while listening to Rosalía’s album and who made a big impression on him. “She’s iconic, she’s like your aunt. I hugged her, we started talking, I got along with her very well and I followed her. She texted me the other day that she had seen the movie. She is very funny.”
