Alavesa actress and director Edurne Azkarate (Oion, 1993) has been premiered in the film as the protagonist of the film Irati, but soon returns to the theatre where she usually works. Metrokoadroka recently acted at the Zeozer Creation Laboratory, but I don't know what. Itziar Ituño (Basauri, 1974) has done nothing but taste the delightful world of cinema that he knows in depth. After jumping from Goenkale to Loreak, and from there to La Casa de Papel, Ituño has formed an immense global fan community and has suffered a violent boycott campaign for defending the rights of Basque prisoners.

They are asked to show up in Electric Blue: “Edurne has a very thin voice, but the strength of Christ. It's very tender, empathetic and fast. Vasco de Oyón, Alavés, very good artist,” said Ituño. “Itziar is basauritarra, euskaldun berri zaharra. Actor and storytellers. Defender and lover of small struggles and vulnerable groups. He likes to work from love, feeling, truth. It is not worth taking the shoot as a process, it has to root its activity in a real place.” The next is a real colloquium, without appearances, impregnated with feelings, laughs and tears.

Itziar, you have become internationally famous with La casa de papel, but you continue to work in the productions of Euskal Herria to shape characters of great feminist force.

Ituño: Many people ask me: “Going from a great story to a small story is not going back?” For me it is the opposite. Mari's role is great and it's great to tell a story like Alardea, in Basque, in ETB1. My priority is to tell interesting things. I choose inside roles that affect me. As a woman and a feminist, I don't doubt when these issues come to me.

We must thank you for making roles that match your ideology, which you can boast…

Ituño: Consistency is sometimes not easy to maintain. I don't know how many times I've been given the police role! (Laughter)

Edurne has a lot of experience in theatre and television. How has immersion lived in the world of cinema?

Azkarate: Well… [with small mouth]. Rather than putting a leg in the film world, I've touched it with a big finger. It's been a kind of simulation, very cool, I've learned a lot. Since we recorded Irati in 2021, I have returned to my normal, precarious life, in theater and in culture, programming festivals. I combine the work of actor with the hard work, because you can't always see it. I don't complain, I have work and I like it.

I saw Jone Laspiur down the street, with a bag with the following phrase: “I’m an actress and, by the way, more potato I put and soda big.” We might think that the famous actors have left precariousness behind. Is that the case?

Ituño: Loreak was very successful: We were at the San Sebastian Film Festival, at the Goya Awards, received the Oscar nomination… I spent the following year unemployed. It's very common. People don't call you because you think you're going to stop or you want to collect a paste. In these cases we must reinvent the trade. I was telling stories in schools.

Azkarate: As we live under the dictatorship of the image, we have to demonstrate that we are doing things and making money constantly, but the day to day is very different. You have to work a lot to complete a salary, nobody's going to pay for your holiday, you're not going to collect unemployment... Many people give up, become a teacher or prepare competitions, and it's lawful, imagine if you have children, for example. You have to be strong or a little unconscious to not think about the future.

Ituño: However, precariousness was a characteristic of our profession, but today it has become widespread.

You've worked together at Irati. What would you highlight from the experience?

Ituño: The connection between us was very nice, although difficult, because on stage I had my face covered with this macramé mask, Edurne was seated between my legs, caressed her hair… [They have staged the scene] At a certain point we decided to repeat her face to face, connect her and from there it was easy. I got excited.

Azkarate: Itziar came the last week of shooting with all his power, excited, because he had to do Mari. We thank him because in this last phase there is a lot of fatigue, pressure and nervousness. He recovered with him the epicity of the whole team, the feeling that we were doing something special.

The film counteracts ancient Basque culture and oppressive patriarchal Christianity closely linked to femininity. Should Basque feminists claim paganism?

Ituño: Of course yes! I don't think the ancient Basque women lived in paradise, but they had an important place in society or at least in the villages: they were midwives and curators, they were present at birth and death, they had permission to use magic, because it was believed that we are more connected to the earth. This implied power, they were treated with respect. I want to think that we still have the opportunity to believe in us and reclaim that old power.

Did it cost you to get in and out into the characters?

Azkarate: It's Itziar Mari! [Laughter] Because it was my first time in film, I didn't know how to prepare the paper -- so I signed up for crossfit! I had to bring to the body and the psyche what the shooting involved. I tried to bring the character to earth, as it is very earthly, and to its time. The Basque type has been very useful. In addition, I built it as a person, I didn't want to assign gender, although I was going to be read as a woman. My goal was how to get away from the inertia kid meets girl. Irati is a bearded being that lives in the forest and has never been seen in the mirror. The place created with Paul [Urquijo, director] and Eneko [Sagardoy, actor] was so comfortable that it was easy to get in and out.

Ituño: Paul made me a gift and at the same time… how to be Mari? I had to work a lot of text to capture the melody, to work the deep voice… Being a new Basque Biscayan, I struggled to master the pronunciation. I started to get into the character when they tattooed my whole henna body. I spent three hours lying down while three women painted. It was mystical! I felt goddess! Then, when I entered the cave of Pozalagua, lit up in red, with a very long wig, dressed in black, naked -- Mari got inside. I thought the clothes would round that feeling, but it was the opposite! I don't know how many hours I was trapped on a spider web, a sort of tinsel in my face. The idea was that people didn't see Itziar Ituño playing Mari's role, but it would reflect that Mari doesn't have the face of a particular woman, because it's a chimera. But I asked for water and nobody would listen to me! [Laughter] When I got through this phase, I started enjoying paper.

Film based on the comic Irati Cycle by Joxean Muñoz and Juan Luis Landa. Have you reviewed the script from a feminist point of view?

Azkarate: It's a free version, Paul welcomes the two characters, but the story invents itself. It was clear what I wanted to say, including this dichotomous perspective linked to gender: women are pagan, linked to the earth, Christian men, politicians… We very much reviewed the relationship between Eneko and Irati so as not to fall into the cliche of the warrior man who will save the girl in the face of the dangers, so that the relationship between them would be horizontal. We know that a body of women and a body of men accidentally create a narrative, but we've tried to add something, move away from the classic path.

Edurne, you invented the pronunciation of that old Basque.

Azkarate: Gorka Lazkano [head of the Basque Country in the film] performed the work of a Christ in the script, but does not listen until the casting arrives. So, I liked it…

Ituño: And they forced others to do it their own way! When I had any questions, I contacted Edurne.

Azkarate: It was nice. We were all in the mud of the Basque Country and I was the model; that gave me the excuse to relate to others. We went for audio before we met.

 

Photo by Teresa Villaverde.

I should like to ask you about the linguistic management of Basque films. Urquijo has opted for Euskera alone, but the Spanish-language version has been extended a lot.

Ituño: We need to strengthen the Basque country. When you do a play, you know that with the Spanish version you will do a double job. It hurts me because I'm a Basque activist. I do not criticise the natural expression of multilingualism in a film. But watching Max Center's duplicate Irati -- that's not the movie we've made. I was given the opportunity to double and I was very doubtful. I've done it other times, but inside I felt like I didn't want to play Mari's role in Spanish. Otherwise, Mari himself would penalize me!

Azkarate: Reflecting a reality in different languages? OK. Put duplicate version in Toledo? OK. But in local cinemas Irati (eus.) Irati (cast) instead… When Handia premiered in Madrid, they put the Basque version, and it wasn’t with Irati. These asymmetries reflect certain hierarchies: authors, gender type… It was tried to tempt Paul: that they would invest a lot of money in the film, that they would hire very famous actors in exchange for making Irati in Spanish. Luckily, it's very heady, and it held steady. “This film has to be in Basque, otherwise I will not.” It was better than that.

The artistic partner made up of the soundtrack authors Aranzazu Calleja and Maite Arrotajauregi has become your trio, Edurne. Together they went to the Goya Awards.

Azkarate: The most fun and comfortable option is to go to these big and strange places (contests, institutional saraos…) in group of friends. We say “Let’s go together, we’re not going to separate!” and you have to respect it.

Itziar, how did you cope with the violent side of fame? Aesthetic pressure, destructive criticism…

Ituño: Everyone knows who they are and where they are most comfortable. I am happy in Basauri, because I have my family, my friends and most of my affections in the Basque Country. I've also made great friends around the world. When I went to Madrid to do La Casa de Papel, I was bullied, and also a boycott came to me! I said, why have I left? It is true that film imagery is exhausting. You have to consider many things that don't match you. What will I wear for the San Sebastian Film Festival? I appreciate seeing Jennifer Lawrence with chancletas in Cannes.

Azkarate: You have to be Jennifer Lawrence to do it…

But that's how revolutions begin. Thanks to Ana Urrutia, more ETB presenters have planted heels.

Azkarate: Yeah, when I also worked at ETB, I said I wouldn't wear neckline or heels, I would charge less if necessary. They respected it, even the part of little to pay! [laughter]

Ituño: It seems that when you’re an actor you’ve climbed into a kind of Olympus, you have to have aristocratic air, so that people are willing to talk about your appearance… That dynamic is very old.

Azkarate: It can be an exercise of fun transformism, extrabagance and experimentation… but we will live it very differently depending on the square. At least we can use it to drive the designers we like, who are also artists.

Itziar, you mentioned the boycott you suffered by participating in a campaign against the dispersal of Basque prisoners. However, it continues to support such political projects.

Ituño: Many doors were closed, many projects suddenly suspended. Yes, in Euskal Herria I received many loves in return. We cannot forget the monster before us, which is very fascist. Today, witch hunts continue to occur daily and are particularly cruel to women. After a boycott of these characteristics you get excited because they call you everything. If you don’t get the goretex right, “to get me slipped,” hatred moves from a small hole into the interior. But if you heal, if you do what they want, don't move forward in life. What for? To make money? What for? To be happy? I was happy before entering macro projects, without so much disgust or insult.

As for dislikes, were you disappointed with the evolution of the character of Raquel Murillo? He went from hunting in El Río to becoming his girlfriend. This trend is called Trinity syndrome.

Ituño: There is usually only one protagonist in the series. The protagonist's antagonist has his own power. But if you put it on the side of the protagonist, it doesn't become the protagonist. That happened to my character. I expected something else. How far can you go? You can make contributions, but you're a ship rower, the captains make the decisions. Then you say: “I will keep praying on the boat and giving it occasionally.”

Azkarate: Izaro Andrés commented that in a competition we have to put ball on the men’s court. We have done a lot of work, we cannot take on what belongs to them. Meanwhile, we will walk against a wall. It's very conditioning who you're working with. We have known the man director of buttons, you, the cishetero, at certain ages… This kind of interlocutor can be very spotless. Instead, I've been very happy with Paul, because he's been willing to learn. In the interviews he comments that he has learned with me about feminism. I would say it is noted in the result.

Ituño: Others want to change things, but they're completely lost.

 

Photo: Teresa Villaverde.

In the framework of power relations, the Mee too dynamic comes from Hollywood to the Feroz Awards. How do you value it?

Ituño: These responses are very necessary, but I am angry to see that they have been integrated into media design, that is, that the agenda has become a matter of setting. Now it seems that everyone is waiting for whom it will fall to become news. We're going to denounce sexual assaults, but fine and everyday.

Is theater a breathing space in the face of the cruelty of the film world?

Ituño: I wouldn't use the word "respiratory zone," because it's a huge job. The audience is in front, live -- it's magical, but it's also very precarious. When I have time, I'm doing theater because it makes me happy, but it asks you to give me other television or movie possibilities so I can afford the mortgage.

Azkarate: I share, but in the theater I have the faculty I don't have in the audiovisuals: to be the head of myself to create what I want. Therefore, for me there is a free place, which will ask me for more work, more precarious, but which I want to protect.