Raquel Laguna/ SUCOPRESS. El director mexicano Eduardo Valenzuela lleva de nuevo al cine la figura del luchador mexicano en la película El Halcón: Sed de Venganza, protagonizada por Ianis Guerrero. En esta entrevista, el realizador nos habla de su ópera prima, mientras que Ianis nos cuenta cómo ha sido trabajar en este proyecto. El Halcón: Sed de Venganza se desarrolla en un México controlado por delincuentes, donde la lucha libre es ilegal y un luchador retirado y una valiente mujer policía, unen fuerzas para tomar venganza contra un despiadado criminal que ha secuestrado a su hijo. Los actores Ana Jimena Villanueva, Said Sandoval, Héctor Soberón y Miguel Pizarro completan el elenco de la película.
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00:00First film, first feature film as a director, what was the biggest challenge for you?
00:08Great question, it's been a long time since I've been asked that.
00:13Look, I've been in this industry for almost 20 years, more producing, and I love to write.
00:23I've been writing since college, and I've written a lot of scripts.
00:31And when I finished writing this with a friend, I said, I have to do this.
00:37And in the end, I said, I want to direct it.
00:40As you well know, the process, well, it takes you six months, a year to write a film.
00:46It takes you a year, if you're lucky, to get the money to produce the film.
00:52And we made this film with very little budget, a lot of love, and we filmed it in record time of 10 days.
01:01When you know, in general, here in Mexico, the average is a month.
01:06In Hollywood, I can't even tell you, four months, six months.
01:10But for me, the challenge, I think for all filmmakers, is to believe in your project and sell it.
01:21Because you can have the best script, I see you have great movies and great posters and books.
01:28But you can have the best scripts, and if you don't sell them, and if you don't present them,
01:35and if you don't believe in them, nothing will happen, and they will stay in your bedroom.
01:40So, for me, the challenge for any filmmaker is to believe in you and your project, and to be able to film it.
01:47And it's never too late to do what you want, and I think COVID taught us that.
01:52Hey, if you're not happy with your current job, then start writing in your free time,
01:57and eventually try to make your film.
02:00In the end, it's that. I think that...
02:03I did my first opera when I was 44, there's no time, there's no rule.
02:09But I think there is, and maybe a lot of moms will punish me for what I'm going to say,
02:16but the truth is that you learn a lot more in a set than in college.
02:22So, for all young filmmakers who are starting, who want to make their film,
02:28today there are a lot more tools than before.
02:31Today you can even film your film on a cell phone and be in Cannes.
02:35So, do it.
02:38The truth is, you don't have to spend thousands and thousands of dollars
02:43to go to the best film schools.
02:45Rather, do it with passion, and it will grow by itself.
02:52And how was it to work during the shoot with Guillermo, Yanis, and the rest of the cast?
02:58Well, look, the truth is that an incredible family was formed,
03:03that to date we are still friends, we still have a chat,
03:06we continue to support each other, we continue to watch our films, our projects,
03:10we continue to have beers in the canteens.
03:13And with Guillermo I had the opportunity to have worked.
03:18And with Yanis, the first time I saw him was on the big screen,
03:21in our film, Los Nobles, which has been one of the most sought-after films in Mexico.
03:27And it was all, with all the actors, Yanis, Said, Ana Jimena, Oscar López,
03:34the teacher, Miguel Pizarro, Guillermo Quintanilla.
03:37What I always want to do on set is collaboration.
03:41So, in fact, many of the ideas, great ideas that Yanis brought up
03:45while we were checking the script, checking the scenes of tomorrow,
03:50discussing, we sat down to have breakfast.
03:52I remember sitting down with Yanis a couple of times
03:55and reviewing the scenes and seeing how we can make it more authentic.
03:59So there was a great sense of collaboration.
04:02We had a lot of fun, like never before.
04:05Yes, there were many adversities.
04:07Filming a film in 10 days is not easy, with a day off.
04:14So, in the end, we were all tired, but we enjoyed it.
04:17We enjoyed it and we did it.
04:19And I couldn't be happier that this film is flying high.
04:26What attracted you to this project, to this character?
04:30And how did you prepare?
04:33Well, look, I think what I liked the most...
04:36I did a series a long time ago called Blue Demon, about fighters.
04:40Obviously, I grew up like all Latinos and like all Mexicans,
04:44with all this culture of the films called B-movie,
04:48of El Santo, of Blue Demon, of all this, of the fighters.
04:51And those were our heroes.
04:53I mean, those were our superheroes,
04:56before all the Marvel, Avengers, and all this.
05:00And obviously, I grew up with that culture.
05:03And I always find it extraordinary how,
05:05when you put on a mask, you transform,
05:07and you get superpowers, so to speak.
05:10But superpowers of normal people,
05:12because my character didn't get bitten by a spider,
05:15he doesn't fly, he's invisible.
05:17He doesn't have any extraordinary superpowers.
05:20He's just a person like you, like me,
05:22who decides that he's going to change.
05:24And well, it seemed to me that also,
05:26another thing that motivated me a lot to make the film
05:29was Lalo, the director.
05:31Because Lalo came from this whole universe of the underground,
05:35having worked in Vice,
05:37having worked in all these magazines,
05:39and all that, he knew the underground movement very well.
05:42And he was, for me, the right person to portray this film
05:46with a very, how to say it,
05:49to highlight everything that is Tijuana, for example.
05:52All the music, all the roughness, the crudeness,
05:55all this, well, this completely chaotic city
05:59where you cross, it's the last corner of Mexico,
06:02the last corner, and it's a city that has a street
06:05where there are parties, bars, craziness,
06:08and on the other side are the whales, and the sea, and so on.
06:11So, well, there were many elements that I liked.
06:14But another thing that stood out a lot in the film
06:16was that beyond all these elements,
06:19which I would say are like the whipped cream of the film,
06:23what is at the bottom of the cake, really, of the film,
06:26is the relationship of a son with his father.
06:29And a son...
06:31And it seemed to me that this was something that wasn't seen much in the films.
06:34Yes, there are obviously relationships of parents with their children
06:36when they are very young,
06:38but not a mature son with a mature father,
06:40who also raises two men, alone,
06:43and who are getting up every morning to go to their taqueria,
06:47for their business to work,
06:49for their son to help their father get out of depression,
06:52for their son to tell their father...
06:55And that, in a way, also to break the myth of the father,
06:58because he was this fighter, the hawk, this unattainable man,
07:02but he doesn't fight anymore.
07:04So, also, for my character, there was a dilemma
07:07between continuing to admire his father,
07:09but he doesn't want to fight for justice anymore,
07:11so I have to put on the mask.
07:13And for me, in that, the film of the hawk is summarized.
07:17Obviously, Lucha Libre is a great tradition and symbolism in Mexico.
07:24How was your experience in immersing yourself in that world?
07:28Well, I had preparation for Lucha Libre,
07:30I was training in a gym for a long time,
07:32a couple of months, for the series in which I had participated,
07:35which is called Blue Demon.
07:37But my character, in this film of the hawk,
07:40is not a fighter, unlike his father.
07:43He is the son of the fighter, but he is not a fighter.
07:46He doesn't have experience, he doesn't have training.
07:48So, what he has is a lot of desire to become, to help.
07:53And when he sees his father, he more or less knows some things,
07:56but nothing more than what you could learn from seeing.
07:58So, all that experience that I already had,
08:00of having worked on this character before,
08:02helped me to adapt it.
08:03But, well, each character is totally different,
08:05and each character is unique,
08:07and it requires you to contribute everything you can.
08:09What helped me a lot for this character
08:11was to work on the relationship between the son and the father.
08:14And something that happened to me on screen
08:16is that, honestly, sometimes,
08:18I even had the impression that we physically resembled Quintanilla.
08:21I had the impression that we had,
08:23like, yes, I can age like this,
08:25that could be me in a few years, right?
08:28And, well, how wonderful,
08:30to be as handsome as Quintanilla at his age and everything.
08:32I say, wonderful, right?
08:33I don't have any problem with that.
08:35But, yes, that relationship for me
08:37was what I wanted to nourish the most
08:39in my work as an actor,
08:41so that, in the end,
08:43the final scenes, on the beach,
08:45the death and all that,
08:47were very...
08:49were very full of truth.
08:51So that it was more like,
08:53letting the body express itself
08:55more than you trying to invent something.
08:57Because you already built a very strong relationship
08:59with your brother.
09:01And besides, he's a great guy.
09:03Honestly, we have a very similar vibe,
09:05we have a very similar energy,
09:07he's a very generous person,
09:09very talkative, very cute,
09:11he's not pretentious at all,
09:13he's not a showman at all,
09:15on the contrary, right?
09:17So, he totally made me fall in love
09:19and I think that
09:21that strength of building these two characters together
09:23is what I think
09:25stands out a lot in the film
09:27and I also think that Lalo was able to enhance it
09:29with his image and his direction and everything.