‘Acting is playing with masks’

Herald staff

“Some people say that acting is not unlike playing to be someone else, and I don’t know if this assumption is completely accurate. Instead of pretending to be another person, I guess it’s all about playing with masks. You cannot get rid of yourself when you are acting because your character is also yourself. We are full of different personalities, although we don’t know all of them ,” says Mike Amigorena to the Herald.

It’s difficult to believe that the same person could actually be Martín Pells and Gonzalo Echagüe in Sebastián Ortega’s Los exitosos Pells, Mauricio Kartún’s El niño argentino, one of the members of Shakespeare comprimido’s cast, the wealthy character in Telefé’s Casado con hijos or the lunatic alien in channel 13’s Una familia especial. Hard to believe, and yet true. In fact, Mike Amigorena has paved his own way for the past 17 years to make his dream come true: that of being a talented, renowned and respected actor.

‘I am unbeatable’. “When I was a kid, I already knew I wanted to become an artist. I never doubted. And I didn’t bother to study something else because I am too lazy”.
He has repeated thousands of times that he’s “too lazy,” still he has participated in 38 TV shows (plus the commercials that he would then make fun of in Los exitosos Pells), 8 films such as Francis Ford Coppola’s upcoming Tetro and a dozen plays. “Yes, I know (he laughs). I always say I am lazy but I do many things, it’s a paradox. But, the thing is, in order to enjoy laziness, you must work hard.”

To be precise, the ride from anonymity to glory started in 1992. “I came to BA from Maipú (Mendoza) when I was 19 because I wanted to be an actor. I was pursuing television, but I had the chance to do a play, and I learned a lot from the theatre, which turned out to be great training”.
Hitting BA didn’t only mean working his socks off: hanging out, loosening up, getting to know the city and its life were part of the process. “Frankly, when I came here I had a lot of fun, went out a lot – I was so young. I didn’t work as an artist straight away when I came. I grew up a lot when I got here. All of a sudden, I was alone in a big city: I had to know the place, what it’s like, what people are like, what I am like. My first play was in 1998, so I spent six years fooling around, which was perfect for me at that time”.

As soon as he got in touch with the city’s pleasures, he found its bad side. “I had a great time when I got here, and also a bad time. Not bad, but growing all the time, making mistakes all the time. It was a stage of absorption, acquiring knowledge about how to walk, how to talk, how to relate to people. It was difficult because I came with nothing, brazening it out, with 300 pesos in my pockets and nothing else.”
Brave enough to come to BA penniless, he had to get several jobs to make a living: he has worked as pizza delivery boy, model, telemarketer, office boy and even wore a dog costume to promote the brand Hush Puppies. “Whatever you can imagine, I’ve done it. It’s not as bad as it seems – it has all contributed to my experience, nourished my spirit, made me invincible. I really mean it: nothing can bring me down, I am unbeatable. I had no job, nobody near me, no money, but I hoped for something to change and I could make it. So, my current fame is a consequence, not a coincidence. I used to think that some producer would come to my house in Maipú, knock on my door and say ‘it’s him, he’s perfect for the role, he is cute, he is funny,’ but I found out it doesn’t work that way. I knew I could do it, I have always been confident, but I just wasn’t ready. It was too difficult to achieve – not fame, but acting. I tried harder and harder, but it didn’t happen. But the moment I could, when I finally lived up to my own expectations, I felt so happy.”

The smash hit. Although Mike Amigorena was already acclaimed by theatre critics before Los exitosos Pells, his roles in television were suuporting or temporary so he was still a stranger to mass audiences.
“When Sebastián Ortega called me there was a chance that I would be cast for the character of Diego Planes. I told him ‘I am Pells’ out of intuition, because I knew it, there was not a slight chance that I was mistaken”.
Word has it that the producers were actually looking for the “Argentine Jim Carrey,” as they were pursuing a versatile actor who would be capable of making people laugh, and also cry.
“I have heard they were after someone like him. The comparison with Jim Carrey doesn’t bother me, we have the same body structure, we work with our bodies, we are flexible. But our humour is not the same. He is great, but he is from the US so he is not volatile enough. I improvise more, I don’t write anything. Everything I do, I do it on stage or on the TV studio. My kind of humour is absurd, changeable, poetic, personal: it has no definition, it’s my own style”.
In fact, he says he feels more related to local comedian Diego Capusotto than to his US colleague: “Capusotto makes me laugh my head off, he is so funny. We have a similar kind of humour, we play with intertextuality”. On a similar note, he also mentions he likes Pablo Cedrón and, although he says he has nothing in common with them, he admits admiring John Malcovich and Kevin Spacey.
In the local acting scene, he has taken drama lessons with Santiago Doria, Alfredo Zemma (at the Argentine Actors Association) and a clown workshop by Cristina Moreira. Despite this training, he says acting is actually more connected with imagination than studying.
“I built Martín and Gonzálo out of an image. I work with images in my head a lot, and then I copy the image and that’s it. There is nothing more to it. Scriptwriters give every character a personality, with specific traits, and based on that I come up with the image for that character. Martín Pells is not the same as Gonzalo Echagüe: whereas Martín was gay and metrosexual, Gonzalo was a hippie”.
Amigorena could make so much out of this contrast that, even without speaking, the audience could instantly tell which of the protagonists Amigorena was playing “It’s so crazy – I could be both and differentiate them because of my body language, my posture, without speaking. These things don’t come around often, I am hardly ever given the opportunity to do something like this. In general, actors do not have the chance to perform two different characters at the same time, and it was a challenge.”
In his view, the best reward that Los exitosos Pells has offered him is people’s recognition. “All sorts of people come to talk to me: from a kid to an elderly woman. For example, children might watch Casi Ángeles or women may view Amor en custodia, but Los exitosos Pells brought together many people, entertained people from all walks of life. The TV show developed wonderfully, which also tells us that we shouldn’t underestimate people. Because the audience watches what we offer: if you teach people, they learn how to watch it. Pells talked about reality: that television is a business, that it is all about ratings and money”.

‘Every choice is a prison’. Just as Los exitosos Pells portrayed TV as a commercial medium and all it entails, Mike Amigorena was taking a crash course on what it’s like to be on TV and what it takes to be a part of it.
“Television is like a train, and you need to get on and off while it’s moving, so you must be very careful. But theatre waits for you. If what you are doing is not profitable on TV, you are out. That also makes you stronger. TV is a business, so you cannot devote too much art to it. You must play by the rules, accept the medium as it is, because otherwise you are excluded. You learn how to cope up with TV: I have done television many times so I have tried out what’s useful, what isn’t, what you are expected to do, what you are not supposed to do, and it’s really difficult to learn. Even today I find it hard. The older I get, the more I learn about TV. And it is even harder to do it well.”
One of the unwanted effects of his popularity breakthrough is that he cannot be just another man on the street any longer. “I miss anonymity but, at the same time, when nobody knew me, I didn’t have the advantages I have now. Each choice comes with its own prison. it was wonderful when I was just an average person, but being recognized is safer. If you are nobody, anyone can punch you and no-one cares. But, if you are familiar to people, that protects you. Fame protects me, and it charges me to protect me. Some people are kind and discreet, but others are rude or disrespectful. People come in all shapes and sizes, so their response is varied: it has to do with people’s minds. Some people think I belong to them.”
When asked about what he misses most of the old times, he doesn’t doubt: freedom. “Although nobody knew me, and I lacked many things, I lacked an identity, I had freedom. It’s complicated, it’s the hardest thing you lose with fame. The freedom to do whatever I feel like – which I still do, anyway. But you must be cautious, you have to think of what you do. There are different stages we go through. Now, I know I can wear a thong and nobody would say a word.”
Trying to remain down-to-earth despite success, Amigorena focuses on the need to keep it real. “Being here, outside (we are sitting in a bar outdoors), I don’t lose my bond with reality. Once in a while, I take the subway to keep in touch with real life. Out there, people don’t upset you: they would stare at me, but they don’t talk to me. I take the subway once a month, just for the pleasure of it.”
YOU MAY SAY I’M A DREAMER. “If I had to imagine what I would like to do in the future, I would like to hit Wembley stadium as a singer, I would like to win the Oscar, to film in Europe, to go to Hollywood, but I won’t force it. If it comes true, it’s because it was meant to be,” he says.
Tongue in cheek but still honest, Mike Amigorena says he would like the future to come as a surprise. “I don’t know what else the future has in store for me. I don’t plan too much, because I have already fulfilled the basic needs of an artist: I have already achieved my own goals. From this moment on, I will be devoted to pleasure”.
The meaning of pleasure? Not doing TV for a while, not even watching TV; staying at home; not going out to the theatre. “It all bores me. Every once in a while I go the theatre because a friend asks me to, but I rarely do. As for job offers, there are not many. The thing is, after Los exitosos Pells I can no longer play an ordinary character. This is one of the disadvantages of having a hit: you must do the same or improve on it. And there are no offers like this. But, well, I’ll wait and see. So far, I don’t have interesting offers for television, but I had some for theatre”.
One of the offers, which is in fact materializing, is Alejandra Ciurlanti’s play La noche antes de los bosques. “I am preparing a one-man show for January at Paseo La Plaza. All I can say about it is that I am reading the script, an adaptation of a piece written by the French author Koltès. He is a foreigner searching for company. It’s a great challenge for me because I will be on my own”.
In a few weeks’ time, Nicolás Tuozzo’s film Horizontal-vertical will be released, with Mike Amigorena playing one of the leads. “Horizontal-vertical is coming soon. My part is small because there are many stories intertwined in the movie, and my story is just one of many. Compared to the average time it takes to make a film, this took up very little. I loved doing it, this movie means a lot to me. I play a rapist, it’s an interesting character – I said before that there are aspects of me in every character I play, so you’d better watch out!”
Divided into different roles that are nothing more and nothing less that parts of himself, Mike Amigorena amazes his audiences, who are now waiting for what’s next. The girls talk to him in the street and yell at him on stage, kids ask for autographs and photos, even grown men say hello and congratulate him. As if all this wasn’t complimentary enough, Amigorena is modest and thankful, keeps working and dreaming with his eyes wide open to choose his next prison.

profile

n After his debut Pim pam pum (1995), he participated in a dozen plays including Payasos imperiales (1999), El testigo (2000), Los sonetos de Shakespeare (2002) and Todos tenemos problemas sexuales (2002). Clarín award - Breakthrough Performance for Shakespeare comprimido (2004). Nominated for the ACE award - Leading Actor for El niño argentino (2006).
n On the silver screen, he has acted in Yo soy sola, Un peso un dólar, Tus ojos brillaban, Camanfildenois, Vida en Marte and Pescado crudo.
n His TV credits include Los Benvenuto, Montaña rusa, Muñeca brava, Gasoleros, Tiempo final, Malandras, ¿Quién es el jefe?, Naranja y media, Sos mi vida and El capo — the last two earned him a nomination supporting comedy actor for the 2007 Martín Fierro award.
n He won the 2008 Martín Fierro award as best comedy leading actor for his role as Martín Pells in Los exitosos Pells.

‘together, we create a universe’

Although Mike Amigorena is in the spotlight for his acting skills, he has also proved his singing talent in the live show Ambulancia. In his words, he is neither an actor nor a musician. “As an artist, I perform several disciplines, including acting and singing. It’s all about playing with my body, using my body as an instrument to colour a place. I am an entertainer.”
But music plays a major part in the development of his career, as he says that songs are his source of inspiration. “Especially bands from the 80s, classic pop – I cannot name only one artist but all of the ones that were out there during that decade up to the mid-90s”.
Sharing the same taste for music with some of his colleagues, Amigorena formed the band of actors and musicians Ambulancia two years ago. “We play by ear, none of us is a trained musician except for Víctor Malagrino. The rest of us lack his background, but we make up for it because we rehearse a lot. We sound confident thanks to so much work. Our melodies are personal because the longer we rehearse, the more we become what we do. Over the past months, we have strengthened the show and, at the same time, it has varied a lot. Now it has turned more spectacular, whereas in the past we used to do more research about music and acting.”
In the gig, they recreate old songs, often changing their genres. So, if they choose a rock song, they will probably perform it as a ballad. Sandro’s Trigal, Goldfinger’s 99 Red Baloons, Alanis Morissette’s Hand in my Pocket, songs from Back to the Future’s soundtrack, Los auténticos decadentes’s Vení Raquel and Alcides’ Sopa de caracol are just some of the tunes in Ambulancia’s repertoire.
“Ambulancia is a summary of our lives. It is much more complex than just a show. It’s a space where each of us offers our own personal experience of music, what we have got, and that’s why we include such diverse artists in the repertoire: from Sandro, to the Sex Pistols to Los auténticos decadentes”
Although it’s mainly about the music, there is a great deal of acting in Ambulancia, as they are deeply focused on their characters. “Each of us is a world of their own in Ambulancia, and together we create a universe. I don’t know what my mates are doing, I cannot see them, and that’s cool. Of course I know what they do, and we are connected, but at the same time we concentrate on our own work.”
Still interested in experimenting with music, Mike and his team are preparing a new show, scheduled to open next year. So, be ready for crazier new versions, re-creations and inventions, along with Ambulancia’s trademark stage presence.

where &
when

Last chance to see them! Today 11.55pm at La trastienda (Balcarce 460). Tickets: from $40. Website: www.latrastienda.com, www.ambulancia-labanda.blogspot.com

Fuente: http://www.buenosairesherald.com