Ricardo Gómez: “Success is being able to get up on Monday at 11 in the morning”

Ricardo Gomez met fame almost before his classmates, but, despite everything, he has managed to be a normal guy, with his feet on the ground and up to date with what is happening in the world.

His is the trade. So much so that, talking to him, he shows signs of good sense and simplicity that make us forget that he has grown up in the eyes of an entire country while filming one of the longest-running series on television.

Perhaps that is why, and although the shadow of ‘Cuéntame’ is elongated, at 27 this actor has managed to get rid of clichés and boxes. This Friday, October 29, Ricardo premieres The substitute, a film that tackles a chapter in our history so far little treated in the cinema: the settlement of Nazis on the Spanish Costa Blanca after the end of the Second World War.

He does so under the orders of Óscar Aibar and with Vicky Luengo and Pere Ponce as castmates. In this thriller set in the 80s, Gómez plays Andrés Expósito, a taciturn policeman, with his lights, shadows and shades of gray that will accompany the viewer throughout the plot.

Look, I love meeting new people, but what I like the most is working with people I already know. In the case of El Substitute, I had already shot with Oscar, because he had been working for a few years on ‘Cuéntame’. And the birth of the film was that he approached me one day and told me that he would very much like to make a movie with me, that he had a script already written and that he was going to send it to me.

From that moment on, the involvement was very personal. In the first place, because I really wanted to work with Oscar outside the framework of the series, and secondly, because when I read the script it seemed very interesting to me.

In ‘El substitute’ you play Andrés Exposito, a somewhat obscure policeman. How did you approach it? The truth is that the character was one of the things that motivated me the most when Oscar handed me the script. My way of working is that first fear enters me and then I put the tools to overcome it and the first thing I said to him was:

“Are you sure you want me to do this?” Then I asked him to let me investigate, because this took me a bit far, and I wanted to dive a little into who this Andrés Expósito is. It was very entertaining to get away from my specter.

Sometimes you get characters that are close to you and in this case it was not like that. And I think that’s all an actor can ask for, that he has to immerse himself in a universe that is not his own.

I don’t know if she likes the man she plays too well, although I imagine sympathy is not one of the reasons for choosing a character. I do not go in much to value them as if they were my friends. I don’t know if I would like Andrés or not, because, in addition, when you have to focus on a character that you may think you would not like, I think you run the risk of doing it from a distance and not getting 100% involved.

It is about trying to understand why this person is so opaque, he is so hieratic, he is so silent, because he likes to observe much more than to talk, because he is also the opposite of me. I am very outgoing, I always sin from talking too much (laughs).

In this film you once again have a trip to the past. At this rate, some subjects of the History career could be validated. Well, there are movies these days that I love and that are very interesting, but it is natural to look back to tell stories.

I think that when you want to tell something, the best thing that can happen is that you have a lot of information about it and there are currently cases in which there are, but there are other things that one is better able to tell looking back.

Perhaps it is that there are topics that need some rest.

I would not go to see a movie about Covid right now, to give you an example. And if someone makes a movie about that in 15 years, I’ll think about whether I want to go see it or not, but right now I’m sure not.

‘The substitute ‘is released these days, but in some pools they are already targeting the Goya. Is there concern about releasing on some dates or others depending on the awards?

I believe that the films in the end speak for themselves. Obviously then there is a part of the industry that has little to do with the artistic and yes with marketing, but I think that if a film is great and opens on February 3, it will continue to choose everything.

Even though you are only 27 years old, you have already done a series of successes, you have been nominated for the Goya. How do you manage to combine being famous from a young age and getting here being a close and normal guy?

The truth is that I don’t know if I’m a very normal guy or not. I think I have always been very lucky with the people around me, my family, my friends, but also with those who I have had to surround myself with, that it is not always chosen.

These are the people with whom I have had the opportunity to work, who have transmitted to me what this profession is, the love for doing things well, and I think that in the end one of the keys is that, to understand the most part of the profession.

Many times this profession has a very large industry around it and it reaches out to you all the time so that you think that it is about one thing, and you have to think that in the end it is one more profession and you have to work. That, although it has a little more brilliance, it is still a job like any other.

When you have that point of view I think there is nothing that differentiates you from the rest. In my case? Well, there are people who know me, but it is something that I learned to deal with from a very young age and it has never bothered me.

How is your relationship with fame?

I think it is good, it has never bothered me or hindered me to make my life. Sometimes you do see yourself in situations a little more surreal than I would have liked, because I like to go unnoticed and sometimes I have found myself being the center of attention, unexpectedly and involuntarily, but nothing serious.

When you grow up surrounded by well-known names in the industry, do you have idols? Who is Ricardo Gómez a fan of? Idol is a word that I don’t use much, but I don’t know, look, I admire the way Echanove approaches the profession, which is a godfather that I have always had. When I had the opportunity to work with Luis Tosar, who for me is one of the great actors in this country, I really liked seeing the tranquility with which he takes a filming set and how flat he does everything without giving it more fuel to things. And then I have friends like Álex Moner, who are from my generation and I like how they approach the profession without giving importance to things that, by default, they tend to give it. And I see Bardem work, I don’t know him personally, but I’m excited to see how detailed he is. They are some of the people who inspire me.

Some of them have long and extensive careers. And you, almost without realizing it, have been at this for two decades. Have you thought about how you would like to see yourself in 20 years?

The actor Ricardo Gómez poses during the presentation of the film “El substitute”, by Óscar Aibar, to the official competition section of the XXIV Malaga Spanish Film Festival.

I’d like to see myself doing whatever I want to do. It is a utopia, but hopefully I can do something that I feel like doing. I wish I could decide what to do with my life.

What is success to you?

It’s being able to wake up on a Monday at 11 in the morning.

Well, in recent months, with so much project, it does not seem that there has been much space for that.

It has been a very intense year, yes, but I have taken the summer very calmly to rest. But with the return to school I started with the show of ‘The pillow man’, which is a montage that we premiered with Belén Cuesta in May at the Madrid Canal Theaters. Now the tour started in October and will last a few months.

You left the TV, you premiered in the cinema, and also, you are on a theater tour. I don’t know if asking you what you keep is like deciding if you love mom or dad more.

(Laughs) It is very complicated because each one has its branches and its positive parts. What you feel on stage when you are in full swing, that is very difficult to match. Because you are there, it is happening at that moment, you have the audience in front of you, that is unique. But later, on a movie set, you have the energy of so many people, making sure that only one thing goes well, and the pampering and the care and the detail, it is a language with which I feel very close and in which I enjoy very much.

After growing up on a set, do you still feel that tickle before starting something?

Of course, and thank goodness it feels! There is the sensation of meeting new people, of meeting a character that you have never faced. The experience is there, of course, and what before was imposed on you attacked, now you are even able to enjoy it. But yes, that nerve is always there.