Carlos Alcántara: the story of the most successful Peruvian actor who triumphed with “Asu Mare” and now returns with the spin-off

Carlos Alcantara is one of the Peruvian actors who has managed to enchant the public and make his film “Asu Mare” the highest grossing in the national cinema.

With such success, he now embarks on new adventures that seek to hook his followers, who eagerly await his return that will be accompanied by laughter.

For next year, Alcántara has been preparing surprises; but from now on we can enjoy his great work in the production of the Malaga director Macarena Astorga, the Christmas comedy “El Refugio” co-produced by Tondero that will be in theaters next week.

The beginning

Born on November 12, 1964, Carlos Alcántara began his career more than two decades ago and has not stopped. First, he tried his luck with the theater, where he participated in works such as The Three Musketeers (1987) and Saltimbanquis (1989); However, he ended up betting on television with series such as The man who must die (1989), Bad woman (1992), The avenging angel: Calígula (1993), Obsesión (1996) and Pisco Sour (1996).

In addition, what not many remember, is that the popular ‘Cachin’ was also a television presenter. He was part of the “Yan Ken Po” program with Gloria María Solari and Johanna San Miguel between 1990 and 1991. Then, in 1993, he was one of the founding hosts of the Locademia de TV program with Sergio Galliani and Marisol Aguirre.

It is in that same decade of the 90s where he was given a great opportunity with which he would receive the recognition of Peruvians. The successful Peruvian series “Pataclaun”, produced by July Naters, premiered on November 30, 1997 and featured a performance by Alcántara, along with Wendy Ramos, Johanna San Miguel, Carlos Carlín, Gonzalo Torres and Monserrat Brugué.

Carlos gave life to ‘Machin’ Alberto Cárcamo Matute and quickly became one of the favorites of the television audience. During a live broadcast, Alcántara revealed that his character was inspired by the experiences lived in his own neighborhood, as well as the funny character of his family.

“I come from a very funny family, from a neighborhood that is happy, humorous, where my mother is very funny, very clownish, my brothers too. Somehow I was born with this desire to do something to make people laugh,” said the actor in conversation with Naters.

“I have to thank Pataclaun a lot because he opened the way for me to feel good about myself and love myself a little. I am moved by the recognition that I have, for what I have lived, from satisfactions and sadness,” said Alcántara in an interview this anus.

However, the Peruvian actor knew that he had much more to show his audience. Thus, after the end of the television series, he joined “La Gran Sangre” in 2006. This leading role in “The Dragon” allowed him to explore another facet of himself alongside Aldo Miyashiro (“Tony Blades”) and Pietro Sibille (” Chuck ”).

Carlos Alcántara as ‘El Dragon’ in the series La Gran Sangre.

This trio sought to fight crime with their own hands and the character of Alcántara was specialized in the domain of martial arts. It was part of the first three seasons, but he said goodbye to the project with “The great blood: the movie”.

“Carlos could not continue because he had pending commitments. To disappear his character we resorted to a double, the Dragon who appears from the back, with his head shaved, walking towards his plane (to go to China), he was a double”, underlined Paolo Donayre, producer of the series, in a interview with El Comercio.

The success of “Asu Mare”

Carlos Alcántara was nearing five decades when he made history in Peru with “Asu Mare,” the highest-grossing Peruvian film of all time. The actor and producer decided to bring his self-titled comedy monologue to the big screen, which mainly tells how he meets his wife.

Carlos Alcántara and Ana Cecilia Natteri, son and mother in “Asu Mare”.

The recipe for the success of “Asu Mare” has not been revealed, but it is indicated that it would be because Peruvians love to laugh, and that is Carlos Alcántara’s specialty: to cheer up and amuse his audience; in addition, it showed that Peruvian cinema can defend itself.

“With ‘Asu Mare’ I reached the highest point of popularity”, acknowledged the actor.

One delivery was not enough and Alcántara decided to do a second part that again hooked viewers in 2015. See everything that he and his partner Emilia Rizo-Patrón, played by Emilia Drago, had to do to get to the altar, including the funny rivalry with Ricky, a handsome and successful young man played by Christian Meier.

Asu Mare 2

The end of Carlos Alcántara’s saga of humor came with “Asu mare 3” which premiered in 2018 and was under the direction of Jorge Ulloa. This is shown to ‘Cachín’ on his journey through fatherhood with his wife Emilia; but his past has a lot to say yet. He has a son who was born years ago.

That same film closed that year as the most watched national film with more than 2 million viewers, of which 150,000 people were on the first day of release. In addition, it led the box office more than a month after its premiere. The public enjoyed each of the staging of the renowned actor.

Pass through Spain and more films

“Dog guardian” (2014) was another of the works that recognize Alcántara, after his successful work in “Asu Mare”. This is set in the end of the amnesty law, which protected several soldiers questioned for their actions during the terrorism era.

The Peruvian actor plays ‘El perro’, a former military man turned hitman on commission who kills all those who may be a danger to the institution. A role far removed from the one we were used to seeing; although at the beginning of his career it was the genre he worked with the most.

“I have been an actor for 28 years and during the first 10 I did a lot of drama and a lot of theater, it is good to reconnect with this work format. I love comedy and I will die doing comedy, but it is good to explore the other side,” he said at the time.

The character is silent, serious, the kind that intimidates just by looking at him. In 2015, at the age of 50, Carlos Alcántara received the Silver Biznaga award in the category of Best Latin American Actor during the eighteenth edition of the Malaga Film Festival for the film “Perro Guardián”; which also won the Best Direction award for the work of the duo Bacha Caravedo and Daniel Higashionna.

“They don’t know how emotional it is to have your work recognized and to win an award at this very important festival, today it is celebrated! Congratulations to the entire Señor Z team for this achievement. Long live the Peruvian Cinema!”, he wrote on his social networks on that occasion.

His first film outside of Peru was in 2017 with “Rock n’Cola”, written by Jorge Ulloa and produced by Touché Films, the same producer of En Plug TV, the popular Ecuadorian web series that has millions of followers. The popular ‘Machin’ plays a former rocker in the Colombian film.

“I’m excited! With script in hand. I can already tell you that I will make my first film outside of Peru: Rock n’Cola! “, wrote the actor along with a photograph of him next to the aforementioned film script.

But his passion for acting led him to venture into Europe and he managed to enter the Spanish stage with the film “Lost”, a co-production with Spain and Argentina based on the crime and mystery novel “Cornelia” by Florencia Etcheves, together with the codes ‘neo-noir’ from the famous Swedish trilogy “Millenium”.

Directed by the renowned Argentine Alejandro Montiel and with the participation of Luisana Lopilato and Amaia Salamanca, Carlos Alcántara played the film’s bully who is part of a gang dedicated to trafficking in women.

In “La casa del caracol” (2021), the first feature by the Andalusian novel director Macarena Astorga, the Peruvian actor participates alongside the Spanish protagonists Javier Rey and Paz Vega, as well as his compatriot Norma Martinez. This haunting thriller is covered in disturbing characters where nothing is what it seems.

In this film, we were able to observe the versatility of Alcántara to face the challenge of introducing himself into drama and thriller. Obviously, this year has implied several challenges for Alcántara.

And to close it, he will star in his first Christmas comedy “El Refugio”, a film co-produced by Tondero and directed by the Malaga director Macarena Astorga.

This is a fun and crazy story to celebrate the end of the year parties, in which Alcántara will be accompanied by important figures of Spanish and international cinema such as Loles León, Leo Harlem, María Barranco, David Guapo, Mariam Hernández and Sara Sálamo and Antonio Dechent.

As expected, Carlos Alcántara shows off all that mischief, creativity and ease for comedy that have placed him as the highest-grossing actor in Peruvian cinema.

“At 57 years old, it is not that proposals are pouring into me, but I never imagined making two films in Spain so fast and with interesting, almost leading roles. On this side of the world, the opportunity for older people is much greater ”, the producer also points out to this newspaper.

His return with the spin-off

2022 will be a year in which Carlos Alcántara will see one of his greatest dreams fulfilled: directing an audiovisual project. In an exclusive interview with El Comercio, the actor revealed that he has been working on a “spin-off” of his hit movie “Asu Mare”.

The script for the feature film is ready and for Alcántara it means the most important challenge of his life; because if it goes as expected, you will embark on more similar projects.

“Directing has always been my dream, and I am assuming it with all the professionalism and experience of having been in the other films. This will be the most important project and challenge of my life because if it works I will continue directing. This race is just beginning for me.”

Although the story will not revolve around him, but his friends, Alcántara has not ruled out appearing in some scenes of the spin-off.

“They were a big support in the three ‘Asu Mare’ films, they are a machine for generating humor, you have no idea how creative they are. It will be interesting, a big challenge. I am very excited about this project”, I finish.