Mireia Oriol, police officer on the autism spectrum in ‘Ágata y Lola’: “A neurodivergent person can contribute a lot”

This Sunday, July 12, it arrives at atresplayer ‘Ágata and Lola’fiction starring Eva Martín and Mireia Oriol which, after being available to premium users of the platform, will also land on Antena 3. The police procedural revolves around the curious but efficient couple formed by the impulsive and empathetic inspector Lola and the brilliant documentary filmmaker Ágata, who is on the autism spectrum.

“A neurodivergent person can contribute a lot to a team, especially neurotypical people.“, Oriol pointed out in an interview with Europa Press, pointing out that, although it seems “very utopian” it also “can be a reality.” The actress plays Ágata and explains that It is not just about “inclusion”, highlighting the fact of having “more diverse work teams” as something positive.

The interpreter admits that she was a little worried about making a good representation of a person on the autism spectrum, so as not to offend anyone and so that those people could recognize themselves in the character. “Especially seeing the type of representations that have sometimes been made in fiction“, he indicates, explaining that many times neurodivergent characters are painted from “the thing as more robotic or lacking empathy”, and also “very intelligent, but somewhat disconnected from everything.” “It’s a very small vision of what it really is.“, he assures.

“The truth is that I was quite ignorant, because in my environment I didn’t know anyone who was on the spectrum,” Oriol admits, telling how he prepared for the role. The interpreter remembers that they recommended that she read the book ‘Well, you don’t notice’ and that contacted the foundations Aprenem Autisme, in Barcelona, ​​and Menela, in Vigobeing able to speak with therapists and people within the autism spectrum or with other neurodivergences.

When speaking with these people, the actress explains that she realized that they did not have a “lack of empathy” or “emotionality” but rather “another way of processing life’s information.” “It’s like you have another instruction book, then, because it is normal for emotions to arise at other times or appear at times that are not like those of neurotypicals.“, he argues.

REPRESENTATION OF NEURODIVERGENCE IN FICTION

The interpreter says that she also became interested in the fictions that the neurodivergent people she spoke with liked, which representations convinced them and which did not. “Above all, they spoke to me very positively about the ‘As We See It’ series,” he recalls, pointing out that it is a fiction created by “neurodivergent people.” “Then there were also others who could not bear“, he reveals, explaining that they were especially those with “very robotic male characters”, with “a very flat way of speaking” and “like with a ‘I’m the smartest’ thing and I just don’t look you in the eye.”

“And it’s like he stayed a little bit on this thing as very superficial, so that there was no understanding behind why an autistic person, for example, looks or doesn’t look in the eyes“adds the actress, who believes that in those cases “they felt little understood.”

On the other hand, although in recent years neurodivergent characters have abounded in fiction and often arouse a certain fascination in the viewer, in reality there continues to be a certain lack of understanding. “There is a lot of fear of the unknown, of what you don’t understand.”observes Oriol, reflecting on how, in the end, creating that union “involves an effort” that “not many people are willing to make” in real life.

In fact, the interpreter mentions that it is a problem that can also be seen in groups entirely composed of neurotypical people, for example, in those “very hierarchical” such as the cinema. “People do not tend to empathize, it is something that is quite left out. And above all, there is a lot of tendency to think that yours is the best and that’s it.“, he explains, regretting that people are often judged from the outset without giving them the opportunity to show themselves as they are.

‘Ágata and Lola’ It is a production by Atresmedia in collaboration with Portocabo and has Montse García and Alfonso Blanco as executive producers and María Togores and Oriol Ferrer as directors. Along with Oriol and Martín, the cast of the series includes Antonio Garrido, Eva Fernández, Francis Lorenzo, Xosé A. Touriñán, Monti Castiñeiras, Darío Loureiro, Celia Freijeiro, Miguel Canalejo and Sara Sanz, among others. The fiction is made up of eight 50-minute episodes.