He is seventy years old, in good health, and still working. We saw her in Tin and Tina this year, and she’s not thinking about retiring. Teresa Rabal inherited the strength of her father, the widely known Paco Rabal, and the kindness and sensitivity of her mother, the late Asunción Balaguer. “I continued to work in the interpreting field, but I no longer sang or went to soirees with the circus. In my latest film, I played the part of a nun somewhere between sweet and wicked. It was a complete change, and I Really want to do it.” explain the reason.
Well, there’s nothing evil about it.
Well, at my age, it’s time to do something bad (laughs).
He has worked as an artist for sixty years…
I was about to turn ten when Luis Buñuel offered me the chance to play a small part in his film Viridiana. I felt at home on set because Buñuel was our “uncle” and he was always in our apartment and he was very close to my father, like Fernando Rey, the lead actor in that film Same.
Those meetings at his house were fabulous.
You can meet everyone in the artist world, from Lola Flores to Fernando Rey, Carlos Larrañaga, Bunuel… …their rendezvous lasted until dawn, with refined conversations oozing culture. My brother Benito and I couldn’t understand it, and then my father explained it to us.
How did your parents react when they found out that you wanted to follow in their artistic footsteps?
They were all moved and wept. It was a very beautiful moment. Growing up I was used to interpreting the plays my father put on at home, he made up stories that we performed in front of our family.
Thanks to Carlos Larrañaga and María Luisa Merlo, he was able to make his theatrical debut.
It’s from Noel Coward’s Private Lives, which we toured all over Spain with great success. I beat myself up in rehearsals, but it was a wonderful learning experience. I love Carlos very much and Maria Luisa is like my sister.
Where did you meet your husband Eduardo Rodrigo?
Through the mediation of my uncle Damián Rabal, who is his representative. It was an obsession. We moved in together immediately and got married two years later.
Most of his career has been in the field of children.
Yes, nude movies were shot in Spain at the time, and the scripts were horrific and even violent. My husband Eduardo asked me: “Which would you prefer to record, an album of texts by Spanish poets or a children’s album?”. And I chose the second. This is very popular. It was a very productive stage, with songs like “I saw it, I saw it” or “I stood up and I sat down again”. These are themes that children continue to sing about because they have learned it from their parents.
He went on to pursue a popular career in the circus.
Our circuses worked with fear, and those were very comforting years, but it turned out to be a terrible blow to the work. Three daily events and five are held at the Seville Fair.
They even set up a school for the children of their employees.
Indeed, this is a great idea. We were the initiators so that they would later build schools for all circus kids.
Why did they close the company?
I am exhausted.
Was there an important man in your life before Eduardo?
No, he was my first love, my true love, the man of my life. We have been together for 45 years. Five years after his death I still miss him. We did everything together, we were so close, and his death was a terrible blow to us. He had lung problems, developed pneumonia and was in a coma for 20 days. He came out of a trance and lived for another two years, on sufficient oxygen, so badly that he couldn’t overcome the disease.
Even if you are suffering from cancer, he will take good care of you.
Yes, I was working while having chemo. imagine. I was having a really bad time, but it gave me the strength to stop dramatizing my condition. Mind you, those were four terrible years. They left their mark on me and I suffered a lot but my life was so happy and rich that I prefer to keep the good things. My son Luis is a musician and his sister Maria is a casting director.
Do you think you know how to cope with being alone?
I don’t feel alone, I have my children and grandchildren, but Eduardo is missing…he left me with a void that cannot be filled.