Paco León defends that there are young people “with common sense” against the rise of “easy hate speeches”

This Friday, April 17, two weeks before landing on Netflix, the remake of ‘My dear lady‘. The film, starring newcomer Elisabeth Martínez along with Paco León and Anna Castillorevisits the iconic 1972 film of the same name directed by Jaime de Armiñan. In it, José Luis López Vázquez He broke barriers by starring in a film that addressed intersexuality in the midst of the Franco dictatorship.

Now, more than half a century after the original film was released, surveys indicate that 20% of Spaniards between 18 and 24 years old believe that the years of the dictatorship were “good” or “very good.” However, León chooses to be optimistic. “I want to think that there are people, that there are young people, who are not involved in that, who do not allow themselves to be manipulated by easy hate speech.“says the actor in an interview with Europa Press in reference to how hate speech proliferates among young people.

“More and more young people normalize and live with other realities, and I hope that this has strength and compensates for the other, because it is true that this is worrying. But I trust that in general there are people with common sense and that love and all this wins“, continues the interpreter of ‘Aída’. ‘The tribe’ or ‘Without instructions’.

“There is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy that youth are moving to the right or listening to these ultra-conservative messages.“says Alana S. Portero, who has signed the script for the remake, produced by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi. “There is always talk of the 30% of young people who support hate speech. I’m interested in the other 70″, assures the author of the novel ‘The Bad Habit’, adding that “that 30% benefits a lot from narratives like the one we have done in the film.”

“It is a manual written by a man called Hitler and another called Mussolini: it is called fascism. Put a common enemy, point it out, them against us. And attack it on all sides to unite based on fascist populism. This has happened before“says Elisabeth Martínez, who, in her debut as an actress, faces the challenge of giving life to Ade, the protagonist of this review of ‘My dear young lady’.

“I don’t really understand where that hatred comes from,” says Lola Rodríguez, who in the film plays, along with Manu Ríos, one of the new friends who form a support network for Ade. “That there is hatred towards people just for existing seems to me to be a failure of society and, honestly, it’s scary. The extreme right scares me.”“says the ‘Veneno’ and ‘Rondallas’ actress, emphasizing that LGTBI people are “in a spotlight that makes no sense.”

TO BE SAYING THAT THE TRANS COMMUNITY DOES NOT SUFFER “IS WORRYING”

“We are not anyone’s enemy. We don’t come here to hurt anyone“, Rodríguez reiterates. “It is the fear of what is different and I believe that difference is what makes us human beings, what enriches us as a society and what makes us grow and advance, and it seems that we are returning to the dictatorship, to the Civil War“, sentence.

“It is a reactionary movement“says Anna Castillo. “It is worrying because it seems that we are taking steps backwards. And it is also worrying that people with a voice suddenly say things like that people don’t suffer or that things don’t happen. That seems terrible to me,” the protagonist of ‘Wild Sunflowers’ or ‘The Call’ adds about the current reality of the trans community.

“Our fundamental objective was to try to shed light on these shadows of the original film, where we did not quite understand what was happening to the character,” explains Fernando González Molina, director of the film. “If what we wanted was to make visible the ‘I’ of the intersex collective, it was essential that an intersex actress play the character“says the director of ‘Three Meters Above Heaven’ and ‘Brain Drain’, pointing out that they spent “almost a year” finding their protagonist, a role that ended up falling to Martínez.

“How else would it be done today? If you are going to give voice to things that have not had a voice, and you are going to give that voice to another person, I feel that it is a bit the same trend as with racism and with many other discriminated realities,” says Martínez. “I can talk about being intersex by being intersex“says the interpreter.

BREAKING THE “SILENCES” OF THE ORIGINAL FILM

In this sense, Portero points out that the original film, being “a child of its time,” “is built around a lot of silences.” “That is where we come in, to tell what is happening, to shed some light, to refresh that story because really the tools that were available in the 70s would not be useful now.“explains the screenwriter.

When asked about whether, like the right to abortion, the Government should protect rights that protect LGTBI people, both actors, director and screenwriter agree forcefully. “Absolutely yes, without any nuance“, says Portero.

“With the trans law, quite a few things were left by the wayside in terms of intersex rights, even though a lot was done,” explains Martínez, emphasizing the need to protect said law, as well as “many other rights.” “It is essential to block rights that are fundamental for us and affect us in our very essence”González Molina agrees.

Completing the cast of the remake of ‘Mi Querida Señorita’, produced by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, are Nagore Aramburu, Eneko Sagardoy, María Galiana and Delphina Bianco.