“Working on action movies allows me to lose money with the theater I do”

He came last night, didn’t he?

-Nerd. This morning [por la de ayer]. The plane landed at six in the morning.

“Well, thank you so much for taking care of me.

– Talking about theater will help me get jet lagged.

It seemed natural for him to get involved with “The Ladies” after “Lehman Trilogy”.

I don’t know if it was natural. I actually didn’t expect this. Stefano Massini sent me a few messages and from all the messages he sent, I grabbed a monologue “Ladies Football Club” and called Nuria. [Cruz Moreno, la productora de Barco Pirata] and I told him we had an obron with eleven women on stage. So I warned him we had to have flats to be able to play with so many people. I translated it, adapted it, sent it to Nuria, and she fell in love with the idea and the text. And we went ahead.

–Massini, as they say, wrote this work four days ago.

–He wrote: Pandemic roll. He sent it to me and said I read it months later and that anyone who wanted it wanted to do it on Broadway or in a series. Or something like that.

He says it’s a monologue.

– Generally, Massini writes monologues. The “Lehman Trilogy” was a monologue. He has written some typical plays, but generally tends to prefer monologues in free verse. Frankly, it gave the odds that eleven women were doing it. In fact, it was released in Italy. They performed in a theater for a week with an actor who did it all, come on. What she did was tell the story of these eleven women. I asked him and he said yes, she had full authority to fit in, put on, take off. That’s one of Massini’s blessings: it gives you the option to do whatever you want. So I imagined something musically very choral: the power of women singing in harmony. He found it interesting, too, and we went there.

– He did “La cocina”, “Lehman Trilogy”, “Castelvines y Monteses”… He loves it.

–Well, I also did “Invisible part of this world” or “A night without a moon” with only one player. I like to tell stories that capture me, teach me, surprise me; with that, I can suddenly say, “Damn, I didn’t know that”. To be honest, there’s a lot I didn’t know about “A Moonless Night” that caught my attention when Juan told me. [Diego Botto] The story of these women that happened to them wasn’t just something I didn’t know, most people didn’t even know they existed. Some women who monopolized the front pages of the newspapers of the period, filled the stadiums, became the Haaland and Mbappé of the period and covered themselves when the First World War was over, and their dates are unknown.

-We’re talking about some workers entering the leagues.

–Some workers working in a textile factory converted into an munitions factory. Based on the true story of the Dick Kerr Ladies. These women even toured the United States, especially when they were forbidden to play in their stadiums and had to play in areas where they were not allowed.

How do you set up this great movement?

Making ‘The Ladies’ was harder than making my ‘Castelvines’. “Women’s Football Club” has been my hardest job more than “Kitchen”. Then you look from afar and say, “How did it turn out?” you teach. I run the “Ladies Football Club” and also shoot a movie in London. I’ve been here since February 4 last year and until April, traveling from London to Alcorcón until the premiere at Arriaga in Bilbao. I was shooting a movie with Jason Statham that was due to be released in August: the second part of “Megalodon.” I am the bad guy. I arrived in London after watching Jason Statham and was going to an industrial area to shoot “The Ladies.” We were in London, we were at the Harry Potter studios. They had just finished filming the last of “Indiana Jones.” I’ve done fifteen Alcorcón-London, London-Alcorcón trips and I’ve finally been able to do both. The power was possible, although frightening at first. We were able to do this with Nuria’s production that made her job easier. But it’s a very careful mess: eleven women, eleven microphones, a three-story set that you have to rehearse from day one, because it’s impossible otherwise…

–I see that your love of theater is enough for everything.

Yes, yes, I guess so. Because it is not difficult for me. I do things with my heart.

–Apparently he has two Peris-Menchetas in his life: from warped movies and theater.

It’s the same, but the two feed off each other. Working on action movies allows me to lose money with the theater I do: I don’t get into stand-up comedy clubs. Because I can play the theater I want and tell the stories I want, I can’t die of grief filming with Statham: as I said, two Sergios cannot live alone.