“What Bayona has done in the cinema with ‘The Snow Society’ is incredible. He pays attention to every minute detail. It is at terrifying levels. If the story of what the survivors went through is magnificent, what those actors went through during the shooting is not at all like that. Since everything had to be as real as possible, they also had their share.” During the long shoot in the Sierra Nevada, they couldn’t even wear thermal shirts because of the freezing cold and they could be seen shivering; they were weighed and checked every Monday to see how they were doing, whether they were losing weight, etc.
The ophthalmologist knows this very well and explains it with great admiration. Susana CamposHe’s still pinching himself that he was able to be part of the supporting cast of Juan Antonio Bayona’s new cinematographic hit, “The Snow Society.” The film, which will compete with two nominations for the “Oscars” and has done nothing but gather viewers around the world since its premiere at the beginning of the year, admired how the Spanish director retold the magnificent story of the Uruguayan rugby team. The plane crashed in the Andes in 1972. They were presumed dead, but 16 of their members survived for 72 days under extreme conditions.
Campos, a native of Lens and a resident of Oviedo, feels completely lucky because his small contribution is enough to make him feel “with pride that I am part of something very big.” Theirs was a collaboration as symbolic as putting lenses on Argentinian players Agustín Pardellas –Nando Parrado in the movie–, Alfonsina Carrocio –Susy Parrado– and Esteban Bigliardi –Javier Methol–. Scleral contact lenses — “special, larger than normal,” he says — allowed actors to simulate the paralysis Parrado suffered as a result of severe head trauma from the plane crash, as well as the eye burns from the plane crash. The reflection of the sun on the snow, or what helps form the “veiled eyes” that the dying have.
Campos, who owns an optician, came to the cinema a few years ago with the help of his friend. Adrian Castaneda.
“Adrián has a fashion store next to my optician, and he also collaborates a lot with film productions, buying everything needed for shoots. One day he told me that they needed an ophthalmologist for a movie to be shot in Asturias, and he encouraged me.” says Susana Campos. This first attempt was made with the director’s film “The Secret of Marrowbone” (2017). Sergio G. SánchezThey also chose him for the TV series “Alma”, shot in the region by the same director.
A few months ago, his friend told him that they needed his services once again. “But the situation was complicated because there was a shooting in Granada. With two opticians and two children, it didn’t come easy for me,” he explains. Until, in another meeting, he insisted that they needed him “urgently.” Her husband’s friendship and encouragement did the rest, and Susana Campos spent a week in Granada working in a warehouse built specifically for filming at the Sierra Nevada station.
Even though he wore every appropriate clothing, he still had time to “get cold”; Admiring the work Bayona and his team did and the amount of special effects they needed – “there were ears and legs everywhere…, the characterization was an incredible job” –; He helped train other colleagues who would stay longer, and even had to “take some pain for those very young actors” who took on a role that inflicted tremendous physical and mental pain. And as a gift, he gained a good friendship with Agustín Pardellas, “who was a top notch person.”
He eventually had to spend more days in Madrid at the Netflix studios, “because when it looked like it was all over, Bayona didn’t quite like something and re-recorded part of the accident,” says Asturian. Days there were “twelve hours or more, straight on,” Campos recalls. He thinks it’s all well spent because “Society…” brings him nothing but joy. The edited film, which she watched with her husband in a cinema in Gijón, seemed “brutal” to her. So much so that “I spent half the movie crying.” Tears turned to pride when he saw his name in the credits. And that feeling has only grown since then “because people’s reaction to this movie has been incredible; it’s created a craze for every age. My kids, my mom and my whole family are excited… And I’m in the clouds.” Not for less.