Elena Anaya
Spanish actress Elena Anaya first rose to prominence in director Julio Médem’s Lucia y el sexo [Sex and Lucia] in 2001, before going on to feature in Pedro Almodóvar’s Hable con ella [Talk to Her] the following year.
After a series of strong notices in Spanish movies, she made her Hollywood debut with 2004’s Van Helsing, playing Dracula’s bride Aleera. In 2005 she appeared in the Gary Oldman movie, Dead Fish, with Robert Carlyle, and also appeared in Justin Timberlake's video for his 2006 single, SexyBack.
Her other credits include Jon Kasdan’s Savage Grace (2008), with Julianne Moore; Cairo Time (2009) with Patricia Clarkson; and Julio Médem’s provocative Room in Rome (2010).
In The Skin I Live In, she re-teams with Almodóvar, starring as Elena, a patient engaged in an unusual relationship with a surgeon played by Antonio Banderas
- Did you grow up in Spain on the cinema of Pedro Almodóvar?
I grew up with him, with the gift of having in my country an artist like him who can break down boundaries. There was a crazy situation in situation Spain; it was like a dictatorship in the country, and it was very isolated from the rest.
And yet there were creators there that were able to tell their own stories. I grew up with his films. His films live on very well. You can watch them 25 years later and they can still be fresh and alive. They are timeless.
- Do you recall the first of his films that you saw?
The best memory - I don’t know if it was the first one - is Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
I really get crazy about that movie, and the story and the performance and Pedro’s universe and how he was able to tell this amazing, crazy, funny little secret story that makes you love a lot of the characters. I wanted to belong to that universe, in a way.
- So what was your first reaction to the script for The Skin I Live In?
I was speechless because I was so impressed about the story and I was so touched, very touched, because he was offering me the role.
It was one of the biggest and most beautiful emotional feelings that I have had in my life.
- Did Pedro suggest why he wanted you?
We had previous conversations and we had what he called a rehearsal but I knew was an audition. And when I read the script I was fascinated by the story.
I thought, ‘Wow, this thing goes far, not only in the story, it goes far beyond that with these weird and fascinating themes.’ This idea that people are already generating selves, and how everything can be manipulated, is scary.
What the film deals with, I don’t think it is in the near future, but it will come later in a few decades. I found that part of the film very particular, very risky and very modern.
- Transgenesis is a fascinating subject
It is, although it is not like we had a conversation about transgenesis every day on set, no, but that’s the environment that the characters are living in and we talked a lot about that.
We read the news every day. A lot of fresh information is coming every day about these things. Then also you have to arrive into your character and get focussed on that, and the situation, where the story starts and where the story finishes.
- When you played the role did you think of yourself as Vicente or Vera?
It is difficult to answer without developing the secret of the story. It is better not to talk about it.
It is important, though, to know that even though this character has suffered a massive transformation, there is something that cannot be changed or altered, something that could be called soul or identity. It is a place, something that can’t be touched by surgery.
- The yoga teacher says something along those lines in the film
Yes, and yoga helps the character to survive. Even though this character does not belong to that body, there is something very deep inside that can’t be changed or altered.
- Do you practise yoga?
I didn’t before the film, but since making it I have done yoga and I want to practise it for the rest of my life. I find it very helpful. It helps me to understand myself, and with this particular instance, the story and the strength of the character, where it comes from.
This character is almost a warrior, with an incredible strength to resist anything. Her extreme strength lies in her heart, and yoga can teach you that a little bit. For me, too, it is helpful.
It is not exercise. It goes further. It is a way of meditation. It is amazing what it can do for you. It’s a discipline that can help and teach you a lot.
- Pedro bring yet another wonderful performance from Antonio Banderas
The craziness of this character that Pedro brings out of Antonio’s performance is really scary.
He’s like a normal person who talks about cruel things with absolute normality. ‘Why don’t you kill her?’ He says that like I would say to you, ‘Let’s buy some tomatoes’. It’d be the same tone.
- Almost every character lacks moral scruples
I don’t think my character has lost all her scruples. It is a story about a family, which is truly cruel and my character ends up by belonging to the family, to its lord, and the craziness is in her veins forever.
- Did you read some hope into the story at end, when your character returns to her shop?
Of course I did. When I read the script I thought a lot about the mother as well. It [a child’s disappearance] is one of the worst things that can ever happen to a mother.
Of course, I want to think about their new life and a possibility of that. As soon as this person goes back to her/his home with the person who has created it, the mother, and then with that story of the girl in the boutique, who knows what might happen in the future?
- Did you read the book upon which the film was based?
I didn’t because Pedro asked me not to, because he said, ‘I am going so far from the book. I read the book on a flight years ago and became obsessed with the story.’
He has been with this film for ten years, and when he got ready to show it, it had changed it a lot and he wanted us to go to that universe that he has created, which is an absolutely different one.
- What films captivated you when you were growing up?
The first film that captivated me was Out of Africa. I don’t know why. I had such an incredible journey with that film. I fell in love with the story and with Meryl Streep.
I found her an absolutely delicious actress and I love all her performances, and Robert Redford, even though she is better in the film than him. She is always, always excellent. That film really kills me.
I have an arrow crossing my heart all the time I was watching it. I still watch it now. I can watch it many, many times. And also E.T. When I was kid, I asked my mother ‘What can I do to be an actress as well?’
- So E.T. made you want to act?
With E.T., I identified with all the roles. I thought I could play E.T. And also Drew Barrymore, I was probably the age she was then when I watched the film, and I wanted to watch the film over and over again.
- How did your mother respond when you told her that you wanted to act?
She was very supportive. She said, ‘Okay, whatever the dream is, we will try to get it.’
- Did it start with drama classes at school?
No, not at school. When I finished high school, when you choose your career, then I said, ‘I need to try to do this.’ It was not like all the other parents who force you to do a proper career, and then do ‘this stupidity that is acting’ on the side.
My parents helped me and encouraged me and I went to a drama school in Madrid, a school of acting for dramatic arts, called RESAD. I only studied there for one year because once I had passed an exam I got a film.
I went back to the school but afterwards I did a second film and then they said that I couldn’t go back to study because I was acting professionally and it was a public school. So then I went to a private school, which was very good.
There the course is for four years but you can do it in eight. You can go and come back. I have taken ten years to finish the four and I don’t want to finish. I still have not finished. I go over there during summer holidays to mix with professionals and sometimes I go in the winter to do good things with my colleagues.
- Looking back, did you have a happy childhood?
It was extraordinarily happy. I had so much fun. I have an extraordinary family. My father is an engineer. Retired. My mother has been an artist her whole life making our lives work and making our dreams come true. She made me learn how to believe in myself.
She did a lot of things. She now does little sculptures and she does art with anything. If you go for a walk with her you come back and she has made a wild bird from old driftwood.
She used to be a puppeteer. My sister [Marina Anaya] is a super artist. She does amazing paintings and sculptures. She is well known. I am very proud of her. My brother works for an exhibition company at cinemas. My grandfather was a sculptor. He used to make prows for boats.
- You’ve not returned to Hollywood since Van Helsing. Was that a conscious decision?
My dream is to keep growing as a person and as an actress, and choosing my own projects, no matter the nationality or budget. I look for stories and great directors behind the story who can make them big.
My blockbuster experience, I enjoyed it, and it is fun to be flying around, but that is not the kind of film that I enjoy the most. It was fun to stop by [Hollywood] and who knows, maybe I’ll be there in two years’ time for X-Men VII [laughs]!
- What are your interests away from work; are you very into fashion?
I am not a fashionista. I would like to do some humanitarian work. The world is so crazy, with such rich people and also with people dying of hunger.
The balance needs addressing. Maybe I could do a small thing to help, even in my neighbourhood. I feel as though I should give a little back to the world.
The Skin I Live In is released on Blu-ray Triple Play and DVD on 26th December 2011