Elena Irureta presents ‘Los buenos modales’ without surpassing her fame for ‘Patria’: “I’m not used to it nor do I like it, my thing is to go unnoticed”

‘Good Manners’ has hit theaters on April 28. It tells us the story of an old family feud that has turned Rosario (Elena Irureta) and Manuela (Gloria Muñoz) into irreconcilable enemies, despite being sisters. A grudge that her children have inherited, respectively, Roberto (Ricard Farré) and Mónica (Inma Cuesta). None of them has, however, that Trini (Pepa Aniorte) and Milagros (Carmen Flores Sandoval), inseparable friends and nannies of one and the other’s grandchildren, Carmen (Jordina Sala) and Daniel (Oriol Camps) are going to provoke, with more good intention than skill, an unexpected turn of events. It is directed by Marta Díaz de Lope Díaz, with her own script co-written with Zebina Guerra, as she already did with her first film, ‘Mi querida cofradía’. And we have had the pleasure of speaking with its protagonist.

Elena Irureta’s voice still breaks when she recalls the night of February 11, when she handed over the Goya for Best New Actor to her nephew Telmo, interpreter with cerebral palsy, for his work in ‘The Rite of Spring’, by Fernando Franco. “That has been the best award I have received in my life”, the protagonist of the miniseries ‘Patria’ is sincere with PHOTOGRAMS. “We had commented on the achievement that he was nominated for, but we did not count on him winning. When they told me that I was going to give the award in that category, I felt tremendous embarrassment and I didn’t even tell him. When I opened the envelope and read his name, I could barely speak. As soon as I left the stage, I hugged him and we both began to cry, unable to contain so much emotion”. It took only four minutes to reveal the most tender and personal face of the Basque actress, a woman who is very close to her family, who has played mothers and grandmothers on screen, but who has no children. “I don’t miss them because I have nine nephews who mean everything to me., Telmo in particular, and whom I call ‘sobrijos’. I live in a farmhouse and they are always at home, I love being with them”.

The importance of family in her life made it a bit uphill for her to embody Rosario in ‘Los buenos modales’, a woman who has not spoken to her sister for years, to whom she was very close in the past. “The truth is that the character’s behavior hurt me a lot, that two sisters spent so much time without speaking to each other, he admits. I would be unable. At home we are four girls and a boy. We have always made pineapple, and so we continue. How do they not try to channel their differences and refuse to understand each other? Living as alone as she is and not relating to her only sister… It is very hard! ” Loneliness is Rosario’s point of connection with Bittori, her character in ‘Patria’, the role for which she won the Forqué and Platino Ibero-American Film Awards, as well as her recognition after a lifetime devoted to her profession. “Yes it’s correct, Rosario and Bittori are two women who have fully dedicated themselves to the family, then each one makes their own life and, although they have children, they reach a time when they find themselves very alone.”.

Far from what it might seem, and although it has intense moments, ‘Good Manners’ is not a gloomy drama. Her director, Marta Díaz de Lope Díaz, confirms her ability, already demonstrated in ‘Mi querida cofradía’, to combine the most tragic with the most optimistic comedy on screen, and to maintain a cordial climate on set during filming. . “I didn’t know Marta except from her previous movie, which I loved, but we got along very well from the beginning, she says. I have also been lucky enough to work with Gloria Muñoz, something that has been a luxury as a professional and as a person. We were all women and there was such a good atmosphereEverything was so easy that when Gloria and I discussed it, she asked me: Are we doing it right, Elena? (laughs)”.

She shares the joviality that permeates the film. “I am very restless and quite nervous, but always optimistic”. This good spirit led her to enroll, very young and without a defined vocation, at the Antzerti School of Dramatic Art, recently created by the Basque Government in San Sebastián. “I signed up, did my studies and began to participate in theater productions, she recalls. From then on, she gave me one job after another. I don’t know, honestly, if at some point I decided to be an actress. I liked what he did, but with the idea that it would not last forever.. The least important thing was the function, the rest was loading and unloading trucks, assembling and disassembling the scenery. A lot of work, but we were young and we did it with such enthusiasm that I remember it with great affection”. His popularity came to him through the small screen, first at the Basque ETB, where he wrote scripts and even co-directed the Duplex series with Aitzpea Goenaga. Then came series like ‘Al salir de clase’, ‘Allí abajo’, the eleven seasons of ‘El comisario’, ‘El tiempo entre costuras’ and ‘Patria’, and the cinema, where he has maintained a constant presence, in titles such as ‘The red squirrel’, ‘Flowers from another world’, ‘I give you my eyes’, ‘Aupa Etxebeste!’, ‘Gernika’ and ‘I can’t without you’.

Fame is not for him. “I’m not used to it and I don’t like it,” she says. My thing is to go unnoticed ”. Where he really feels comfortable is in Zumaya, the Gipuzkoan town where he was born in 1955, where he has always lived, along with his entire family. “We all know each other, they don’t stop me on the street and it’s very easy for me to live there. Without moving from Zumaya he carried out even his plan B to the interpretation. There is so much talk that when we reach a certain age they no longer call us actresses who When I turned 45 I decided to open a business, a rural house. It has gone well for me, fortunately, I wanted to rest and I have closed it after 21 years”. He has never lacked work, he has ‘De Caperucita a loba’, by Chus Gutiérrez, on the bill, and the series ‘You would also do it’, by David Victori, on Disney + has premiered in April. He only misses one thing. “I enjoy comedy and have done a lot of it. Drama, too. I have never played a very bad role or something terrifying, and I would like it very much, but nobody has offered it to me ”.