We speak with the star of ‘Headless Chickens’, who reveals some secrets from the HBO series in which he plays a representative of scandalously rich and famous footballers.
Hugo Silva stars ‘Headless Chickens’, HBO Max series set in the world of soccer in which we see the dirty laundry and unscrupulous representatives that exist beyond the pitch. With Álex de la Iglesia and Carolina Bang behind it, it has Pablo Tébar and Jorge Valdano Sáenz as scriptwriters, who know something about this because they are, the second, son of the former player and former coach Jorge Valdano. Both confess that they were already thinking of Hugo Silva while they were writing the character of a retired soccer star who has reinvented himself as a representative, while trying to bring order to his life (including his personal life).
Convince those who haven’t seen ‘Headless Chickens’ yet to watch it.
I would tell them: ‘You have to see it, because it’s hilarious, it’s entertaining, it has a lot of rhythm, you’re going to laugh, you’re going to suffer and you’re going to laugh at the one who suffers, which is me. The plot is set in a very crazy world with very strong wildlife, and you’re going to have a great time.”
Were you a soccer fan before this series? Do you have to be to enjoy it?
I’m not a soccer fan, never have been. It’s fun if I meet my friends to watch a game over a few beers, but I don’t follow him much.
But when you were little you would have a player you wanted to be like…
Sure, Maradona. He is more than a soccer player, he is a legend.
As a scriptwriter is Jorge Valdano Sáenz, son of former player and former coach Jorge Valdano. What secrets has he told you from behind the scenes of football?
He has told me about all the madness and stress behind it. Those eccentric attitudes that sometimes have happened with some footballers, who have earned a lot of money being very young and have not been able to manage it well. It is normal, they live with a lot of pressure. It’s a world with an insane level of fame and money, and they live it at a very young age. So I think you have to have a very well furnished head so that it does not go away.
Sometimes the world of soccer is associated with that of movie stars, for what it has of fame and money. Do they have something to do?
I think not, football is a completely different level, stratospheric. It is true that an actor’s career is much longer and goes through many moments. A footballer’s career is very intense, very short, and it takes place at a time when they are very young, and that is a very significant trait. The matter of the representatives and the commissions they charge (I play one of them) is also very strong.
Tell us about Beto, your character.
He is a former player who had a wild fall from success and has reinvented himself as a representative of footballers. He is very good, because he was a footballer and he understands them well, so he does a job not only of representation, but also of guardianship, of directing the career of those he represents. But his star, his great hope in that business, leaves him stranded. My character has a very excessive and addictive personality, and that turning point sends him on a roller coaster that the viewer will go on all the time.
Are there characters in the series that we can recognize in real life?
Surely there is, but I have not had any reference to compose mine, and Jorge Valdano has not given it to me either. He is a character created by them and I have been lucky that they thought of me when they wrote it. So he has an energy in the character that makes me understand him very well from the first time I read him.
Has Jorge Valdano told you any anecdote that has helped you?
He is very discreet, so he has told me curious stories, but always without giving names. There are many things in the series inspired by moments that have happened back there.
His father has a cameo in the first chapter. How was meeting him?
He is an impressive man, he is a vein of anecdotes. He is someone who has played with Maradona, has been an international player, has been in Spanish soccer since the 1980s, he knows everyone in that world. Whether you like football or not, it’s great to sit with him for a while and chat.
There are inevitable comparisons with ‘Ted Lasso’, a series that also talks about football. What similarities do you find?
I haven’t seen it, but I’ve been informed. I think that Spanish football is very peculiar, it doesn’t look like English, and our series is more cane, more hooligan.
That player you represent is played by Óscar Casas. How has it been working with him, being such a friend of his brother Mario?
It has been a discovery, he is a talent. I’ve laughed even when I didn’t have to laugh, I couldn’t hold my laughter at many times. There are scenes, with their bizarre makeovers, in which I was dying of laughter. He took photos of her to send to Mario and we laughed a lot.
What series would you have loved to star in?
‘Succession’, something so powerful and with such strong characters.
Who would you be: Kendall, Roman…?
I am not able to see myself in any of them, because for me they are already them, played by these incredible actors. I fall in love with the characters of the series that I like, so I am not able to imagine them in another way. It would have to be a new character appearing in a future season.
Source: Fotogramas
Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.
