Natalia Reyes: “The great value of an actor is the ability to endure rejection”

Not five years passed since Natalia Reyes (Bogotá, 36 years old) was seen on the Colombian television screen until her presence in the constellation of Hollywood stars became common. Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), alongside Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger, boosted her international career and made her trips to the United States and Europe even more frequent. But Reyes has also remained close to Colombia. She is a partner in a hotel on the island of Tierra Bomba —where she lives, south of Cartagena— and has starred in independent films in recent years, such as Sumergible (2020) and Mañana,before and after (2023). She also presides over the Colombian Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences (ACACC).

The actress will now disembark in Spain, a country where her husband is from and where she wants to “start putting down roots”—she comments that her husband is beginning to “dream of returning”—. She will premiere Camilo Superstar, a miniseries that Atresplayer will present at the San Sebastián Festival at the end of this month. She will put herself in the shoes of another Latin American woman who triumphed internationally: the Dominican singer Ángela Carrasco, friend of Camilo Sesto and interpreter of María Magdalena in Jesus Christ Superstar, the rock opera that the Valencian brought to the Gran Vía in Madrid in 1975 and that convulsed to late Franco Spain.

“I’m not Spanish, it’s hard to call me and tell me to play Paloma San Basilio. But we have to look for new challenges,” she says in conversation with EL PAÍS in a hotel in Bogotá. With firm roots in Colombia—she reiterates this several times—she does not deny her international career and the perspectives she incorporates from Hollywood. “It seems like the strike of writers and actors in the United States was very far away, but it affects us,” she says.

Actress Natalia Reyes, on September 8. Santiago Mesa

Ask. What was it like to put yourself in Ángela Carrasco’s shoes?

Answer. I was excited to understand that she was Dominican and to think about that transition to Spain. If today, in a more open world, the issue of migration is strong… I imagine what it must have been like to migrate to Spain from the Dominican Republic in the seventies, whatever privileges you had. She arrived as a student, young, talented, beautiful, but she still had to go through a lot as an immigrant.

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Q. As a Latin American woman who has succeeded internationally, do you feel reflected in yourself?

R. I don’t think that as actors we have to identify with all our characters. The challenge of acting is about being able to play someone who is absolutely distant from me. But in all cases I try to connect something of mine with what the character feels, even if it is someone very distant, like a murderer. And, in the case of Angela, of course I identified myself. Camilo Superstar is the first project I’ve done with a Spanish production company and team. When I auditioned, I felt like Angela in her twenties, with her little guitar, arriving at an audition, knocking on the door, without anyone knowing who she was and with all the hope of starting a new path.

Q. Why are biographical films and series being so successful?

A. It is not something that I understand very well and it is not something that causes me a special fascination. I really liked the Marilyn Monroe one (Blonde), but it’s not something I’m looking for. It may have to do with a nostalgia that exists, with some golden era, with some artistic moment that stuck. Or maybe it has to do with a crisis of new ideas. The truth is, thinking about it in Colombia… why have we resorted a lot to stories about musicians on television? Maybe there is a fear of experimenting and producing things without having guaranteed success. The biopics have worked and the producers have clung to that because we are in a crisis of content and audiences. When something works, they go full force with it and repeat it.

Q. Let’s go to the figure of Camilo Sesto. He was an idol in Spain, but also in Latin America.

R. Camilo was very aesthetic, but always with a rogue, cheeky, fresh touch. And I think that is very related to Latin America, with the least serious and the most passionate. He was authentic, someone who dared to be himself… that is increasingly valuable.

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Q. Why?

R. There have always been references, fashion icons. But the way in which that influence was transmitted was not so massive and organized. Today everything is a global trend, culture is homogenized. There are fewer references, and those that exist are in turn more massive… that leads to a loss of identity, of spontaneity. People who continue to be authentic today are brave, they are going against the grain.

Q. What has made you so successful outside your country?

A. I think there is a component of luck, I don’t consider myself the best actress in Colombia. At school (the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute in New York), I met some Russian women who I didn’t understand how they weren’t Meryl Streep… and may never be Meryl Streep, even though they are the Most impressive actresses I have ever met in my life. But, apart from that, there is a factor of work, of perseverance, of not settling and seeking more artistic challenges.

Q. And there must also be many rejections that the public does not see…

R. Yes… that’s what I say when someone tells me they want to dedicate themselves to this. The great value of an actor is the ability to endure constant rejection. Of 100 auditions that I do, 99 end in a “No.”

Q. You were in the United States in recent weeks and you were seen very involved in the actors’ strike. How important are these protests for the union?

A. The fundamental conversation it raises is how we begin to relate to artificial intelligence and new platforms, such as Netflix or Amazon. Hollywood is an industry that has been around for more than 100 years and has clear rules. But this is not the case with the platforms, which were formed relatively recently and which, in some way, replaced the large studios and the large television channels. Nowadays, any screenwriter who submits his work to a platform loses the power of his intellectual work. They can cut it, modify it… they can do whatever they want. And they have no obligation to pay you royalties, which is what happened until now.

Kings in the streets of Bogotá, this Friday. Santiago Mesa

Q. And with the actors?

A. Any Hollywood movie makes you a scanner, which is a photo with a thousand cameras at the same time, in all possible angles. They can now animate me, create movement and expressions with my image. And they have my voice, in all possible ranges, tones and emotions. The Terminator director, Tim Miller, told me: “I could have made a movie with you a long time ago without having to consult you.” And I know he wouldn’t do it because he’s my friend, but legally he can do it. The contracts you sign transfer image rights on Planet Earth and in undiscovered territories, in perpetuity.

Q. What impact does the protest have in Colombia?

A. It seems that the strike in the United States was very far away. And it is true that artificial intelligence is not so developed in Colombia and that it is not the most latent threat. But it will come eventually. In addition, the problem of working conditions with streaming platforms is present. There is no point in fighting because they are already a reality, but there have to be regulations. Today, Caracol Televisión pays royalties, while Netflix does not.

Q. Before, I also spoke about the audience crisis for Colombian films. Why is so little national cinema consumed?

A. Last year, 57 films were made —compared to the two or three that were made 20 years ago—, but the box office percentage was 2%. We cannot say that there were no films… we are making a lot of films. The problem, rather, is that few people see it. The Colombian finds movie theaters that offer only two alternatives: a more massive, commercial current linked to comedy or soap operas and their figures; or very independent and auteur film options that succeed at international festivals, but that are very niche and do not have the Barbie budget to promote themselves. There is no variety of genres and voices that satisfy the demand of millions of Colombians who have different tastes. Furthermore, we have little support from distributors.

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