“Nowhere” pushes Anna Castillo to her breaking point. The new Spanish film from Netflix presents a story of extreme survival, in which the actress will have to face the camera alone. Your heroine, Mia, is a confused 9-month-old girl who lives in a post-apocalyptic future where having children is prohibited due to the risk of recursion. Because, having reached his destination, he is going to illegally emigrate to Ireland, where he can live in peace. But amidst a series of catastrophic disasters, he was found alone and locked in a container on the seashore.
“When I received the direction, it seemed to me that this is the kind of film that is not usually made here, I will start it. This is the type of film that is not usually made in Spain.” Castillo says in an interview with eCartelera. “There was also something about being a female character, because usually these characters are usually male. It seemed like an opportunity to me,” he added.
“Read the guide and see what the character was like, I felt that in some ways it was a crime for me as an actress to put me in the spotlight.“It was essentially a personal story,” he explains. the baby’s point of illumination is an ingredient that was fundamental to the interpreter’s ability to humanize the character.
“The fact that the character was completely confused by the other dimension. Because of course, if she wasn’t embarrassed at all, at some point she would have been forced to do it, just like in the beginning. This is due to the fact that it is very fragile. , from a feeling of great guilt, from very sadness. There are different moments when it seems that this was for her, this will be left, this will be returned. But when you feel that there is someone who is dear to you, and that there is a person who depends on you, who is yours, you have, like an animal, the strength to try to survive for her sake, to try to play and not quit. It was a very important ingredient,” Castillo reflects.
The film’s director, Albert Pinto, also states that it needs to be legalized so that women can star in such stories. “We never thought about it because there was a lot of power in the film. For me, the clear reference point in the film was Cast Away. How many times have we seen this hair on male characters? Hey, no, the girl can give herself to this mandarin. Mostly just more than once. Who wanted something like Bandera, that’s good, but not because of that,” explains the director.
Another great social commentary, much more visible, points to the problem of immigration to Europe from countries submerged by the sea and subject to inhumane conditions. “The original guide, Indiana Leaf, was reunited with a passing immigrant and was searching for the container. “We were reunited with a group of people who vividly experienced this drama of waiting… apparently not in the middle of the sea, they were not abandoned to their fate, but they endured this journey inside containers for days and weeks,” he explains Pinto.
“It was like wow, for once there are people who are going through these dramas, who are really going through this point in their lives and who have these difficult situations. Let’s try to bring this into our ordinary world.” Let’s try to stop declaring, “It’s them, these people won’t come with me,” and let’s decide, “It could happen to you if it’s something you’re a little worried about, why not?”“, says the director about the process of tackling this topic in Nowhere. “What we like to do is ask people in this difficult situation. And someone as sweet as Anna Castillo will make it even closer to you. So I think this is an important article,” he says.
Anna Castillo before Zendaya
One of the secrets Pinto reveals about Nowhere is that from the very first moment the film had a much larger international reach. “We see many, many girls. Even if we searched outside because we learned to do it in English. If Tantao, Zendaya and Ana de Armas“, confirms the director. “Everyone has a theme. But Netflix stepped in really hard and we were looking forward to it, God, what did we need to make the movie. Yes, at the end we said, “Hostia, let’s go do it here,” he says.
Once again, with this decision, Pinto ensures that you will be left in no doubt as to which actress will be your protagonist. “Yes, I have a few more girls I’m looking for. But Anna has something that she doesn’t have, I think, like no other girl here in Spain. He has a kind of charisma and conveys a kind of humanity. How he loves her. “This is our woman Tom Hanks, this is our Meryl Streep,” praises the director and his actor.
“It was very important that you empathized with this girl and that she wanted to save you, that you studied well, that you understood well. Anna has this innate. She is also a super organic actress and that for you everything is digested in a very simple way and she translates it to you, an absolutely beautiful form, además de eso, Your personality radiates from the panel. After all, he loves her, and that makes traveling with her even more enjoyable. I couldn’t imagine my hairstyle without Anna, not my wife,” said Pinto, very happy with the decision.
Alone before the pilgrim
Casting a good actress was vital given that she was alone in front of the camera for most of the film. “I was surprised when they told me how important it is to have a partner. Because your partner builds you. You react to what your partner gives you and shape your character. At the same time, being alone, I experienced this feeling so strongly. It was an apprenticeship. I really liked the director Albert,” Castillo admits.
To solve this problem in a more practical way, they both developed a mechanism to facilitate communication during meetings. “I raised a pinganillo and he told me what to react to. For me this is a brilliant wine,” says the actress. “At the beginning of the project, I said to myself: “I am an actress who works very well with repetition, I am very organic with another person on the set. I feel, feel, flow. Here I am alone, I have not felt free from my interpretation for some time”, Pintó profundiza. “Y le dije:”So you think that I will give you a penganillo and talk to you, I will tell you things that will help you feel escorted, including playing ping pong. We didn’t use it all the time, but there were a lot of moments where it was quite fun,” says the director, who also admits that he liked the idea so much that he didn’t want to use it in future projects.
But even though Castillo was alone, he had another great goal ahead of him. Mia’s story in Nowhere is particularly intense and visceral, so I always work on her and push her state of mind to the extreme. “I worked with a coach in some specific scenarios, such as childbirth or scenarios that were difficult for me on an emotional level. Also be able to connect the emotion with the body, with the exercise. Because I was alone for so many weeks, I was forced to be on a mental level and not be tied to certain emotional states. Work on the physical level as well. I intend to stay in shape, gain weight, and then lose weight…” he lists.
“I was very happy because, in addition to the emotional agony – lorar, being tense and aggressive – I had the physical part of the prosthesis, which weighed a lot, my clothes were worn all day, newbies … There are elements that make days happy and stressful. It was essentially three months of immersion in this container. He was in the container all day, left at home as much as possible, and for three whole months.”
“There is a person who is all sad, in anguish or in tension when they say that it is pain. Don’t tell me about it this time in my life. It was necessary to get as far out of it as possible,” says Castillo, who refuses to be an actress of this method because it doesn’t work. “For me, what helps me is stretching to get back to strength. If it’s the whole story in the same emotion, then there’s something missing in me. Entonces no me sirve,” he clarifies.
Rolling hardness
The work “Nowhere” has never been old. The need to achieve realism in the performance of her character was a very complex task for the entire team. “Hubo makes key decisions. First, the container had to move as it was submerged in water, so we suddenly built a swimming pool on the deck. About the sea, on the platform we grow and restore the soil and create a pool in which our container will be filled so that during internal sessions it will go into an organic form, as if it were sinking into the sea,” says Pinto. who searched for the truth in grabacion.
“It pains me that people don’t come and see the chickens we farm every day. Imagine, ahi, with a meter of water, with four walls walking along the road… One day I understand what they told me: “Look how we placed the camera, lights and crew within 10 square meters.” It was like, “I don’t know, let’s keep thinking.” It was a success,” says the director.
“The other biggest decision, in my opinion, was going to sea to actually make the film. I didn’t ask about color, I didn’t ask how to do it in the studio, because I’m a big fan of the classicism of cinema. these films are from the 80s, 70s, 90s, where things were filmed, where things pass by the truth. I felt that the hair should convey the truth that only you can lift a container into the sea. It was a very important preliminary decision in which the producers and Netflix were very close to me,” continues.
Future Promiser
Finally, Castillo has returned to his career, despite his latest extremes, which he plans to reach in the next few months. “I think I’ve been doing a lot of commercial projects lately, which is great. The “ideal story” plays a very big role in the mood of this what you do is related to many sites you like. It’s very nice because we always give you the same amount of effort, but it’s not always the same,” he comments.
“But now I’d like to turn to indie cinema a little bit., Truth. This is what I like the most as a viewer,” says director Goya once again about the best acting revelation in “The Olive Tree.” “But let’s go. I want to show the new film by Rodrigo Cortez. It’s also the story of Fernando Frias, a very cool character, but it’s also for Netflix and it’s called “I Don’t Want to Ask the Girl Who Made Me.” And I’m looking forward to keeping the black one, which I can’t count because I didn’t buy it, but I’m happy with it,” he concludes.
“Nowhere” yes it is available on Netflix.