Arnaldo André, now in “El enganche”.
Crowned by history as one of the great leading men of Argentine soap operas, with leading roles in huge hits such as “Piel orange” and “Amo y señor”, Arnold Andre go back to the theater with “The hook”a work from the 80s by the Argentine author July Mauritius who stars with Miriam Lanzoni under direction of Osvaldo Laport and that premieres this Friday at the Broadway theater.
The story is simple and full of tenderness about two characters (a prostitute and a common man) who meet on a date and where what is interesting, according to André, “It is that the public is going to discover the characters throughout the work and not everything that is said is like that, but it will be possible to delve into an inner world that first does not appear very rich in these people who are not winners “.
“There is a little talk about life, about the world, about how difficult it is to go through life and what Julio Mauricio has in this work, in addition to an immense tenderness towards his characters that moves you, it is a dialogue with a very everyday that it is as if you were listening to it on the street”.
André: “I’m a born seducer and I think that helped me a lot to build the leading man.”
“The hitch”, defined by the actor as “a comedy with very romantic touches” It can be seen from Friday to Sunday at the theater on Avenida Corrientes 1155, in addition to the fact that it will go on tour during the week through towns on the Atlantic Coast starting next January 16.
The idea of doing this work arose on the recommendation of Luis Brandoniwhom André contacted to direct him in another work by a foreign author and the actor of “Waiting for the float”, who declined the invitation due to professional commitments already assumed, suggested that he return to national authors who often fall asleep and have great value .
“With each type of performance you have different registers of your own work: on television you see yourself there instantly, in the theater it is a much more sensory register, more open, you are not seeing yourself but you have the public that is watching of what you are telling and how you are telling it and that has no comparison with anything.” Arnaldo André
Julio Mauritius (1919-1991) He was a prolific author of the Argentine theaterknown mainly for “La valija”, which Luis Sandrini and Malvina Pastorino made into a movie, and “El enganche” is a work of his that premiered in 1982 and had a well-known version starring Carlos Carella and Leonor Manso under the direction of Héctor Tealdi in 1985.
-You return to the theater, which is the place where you became famous with “40 carats”, a tremendous success of three seasons that you did together with Mirtha Legrand in 1970, how do you live this passage of immense television exposure decades ago and this return to a stage innermost?
-That play with Mirtha was the one that served as a springboard for me and from then on I didn’t stop working, but beyond the theater-television choices, I think that no actor is going to tell you honestly that they prefer one thing over the other because in this medium what we want, above all things, is to act. If you ask me what image I have of an actor who doesn’t work, it’s that of a car abandoned on the street with punctured wheels and corroded plates, we have an engine inside that needs to be running. When you’re acting, he feels it and it’s not just for money, which is logically important, but fundamentally it’s about keeping that engine running.
-Even though the processes are different.
-Yes, of course, on television it’s more improvisation, which is something that helps you a lot because it gives incredible training that you can then take wherever you want, and then the theater or the cinema, are works of greater elaboration, of much more rehearsal, of more relaxed situations, you have your talks with the directors, the tests. With each type of performance you have different registers of your own work: on television you see yourself there instantly, in the theater it is a much more sensorial register, more open, you are not seeing yourself but you have the public that is waiting for you. what you are telling and how you are telling it and that has no comparison with anything.
-On television you were one of the great leading men in the history of the Argentine soap opera, how is the acting construction of a leading man?
-They are also things of one, in my case, I am a born seducer and I think that this helped me a lot to build the gallant. You tell me if I’m romantic and that could have helped me build the lover, I don’t know, but I’m passionate about everything and pouring my degree of seduction into the passion I put into everything I do helped me a lot to build the lover.
-Later you were turning to lighter papers.
-As I am a type of getting bored quickly, the repetition of those characters at one point tired me and I began to ask please that they call me for other roles, I wanted to do comedy but at that time it was the boom of programs like “La Golden Rocket band” or “Son de Diez”, my representative tells me that the channels pointed out that I was not the ideal type for comedy roles. That broke my soul and I decided to go to the United States to study film. While there, one day my representative called me to play a role in a Guinzburg program and I went back immediately, two episodes were recorded and the day after the first one was broadcast, that same person from Channel 13 who had said that I was useless for comedy he was offering me to do “Family Manager,” which I did for three seasons. I wanted to break that image of the untouchable gallant.
-In fact already in your telenovelas there were important touches of comedy.
-As I wanted to do comedy and they didn’t call me, I always put comedy on. I did a duo with Jorge Sassi in “Amo y señor” and I worked with Francella in “El infiel”. “El infiel”, for example, was written by Oligia Lezama, a Venezuelan author who sent the scripts by fax. I meet her in Miami after the strip ended and she tells me: “I don’t remember having written that character” and it was the character of my maid that I had included by choice along with producer Raúl Lecouna and that Amalia Freytes, a humorous actress from Córdoba that I had seen on stage and I loved, did it, so I decided to incorporate her into the cast to play comedy steps with her. The kisses and the gallant were fine, but I wanted to do comedy.
-How did you get to Argentina?
-For work, because I wanted to work and succeed here, but Argentina was not unknown to me, at the age of five I came to live in Buenos Aires with my family, I started primary school here and at nine my mother decided to return, something that I did not like. It was so funny and I always wanted to go back to Argentina and when this innate vocation for acting grew, I made the decision. I started working there as a radio announcer, but I wanted to be an actor and I knew that the best place to study and do theater was Buenos Aires and I came.
Authored by Julio Mauricio, starring Arnaldo André and Miriam Lanzoni, general production coordination by Claudio Penta, directed by Osvaldo Laport and general production by Giuliano Bacchi, “El enganche” can be seen Friday at 9:30 p.m., Saturday at 9:00 p.m. and Sundays at 8:00 p.m. at the Broadway Theater at 1155 Corrientes Avenue.
