Blanca Portillo in ‘Teresa’, by Paula Ortiz, she plays Teresa of Ávila/Santa Teresa de Jesús, nun, mystic, writer and founder of the order of the Discalced Carmelites in 1562 and, later, with Saint John of the Cross, creator of the branch of the Discalced Carmelites. Carlos Saura made an interesting film about San Juan de la Cruz, ‘The Dark Night’ (1989), performed by Juan Diego. A world film had dealt with Saint Teresa, ‘Scenes from the Life of Saint Teresa’ (1926); a stiff reconstruction performed by Aurora Bautista and carried out by Juan de Orduña, ‘Teresa de Jesús’ (1961); two television series by Pedro Amalio López and Josefina Molina, the latter with Concha Velasco, and a fractious approach signed by Ray Loriga and with Paz Vega in the role of the saint, ‘Teresa: the body of Christ’ (2007). Now it is Blanca Portillo who gives it life by moving between natural settings and hallucinatory revelations in the film that adapts Juan Mayorga’s work ‘The Language in Pieces’, in turn based on ‘The Book of the Life of Saint Teresa Jesús’. The film premieres this Friday and we talked with Blanca Portillo about this peculiar cinematographic vision of the contemplative nun.
The filming of the film was not the most usual, with all the mystical revelations of Saint Teresa that later had to be done in digital post-production. How was the experience?
I never had the feeling that I was acting in a vacuum. We filmed in natural settings and I felt very comfortable with this way of working. Furthermore, the text was not foreign to me, I am a friend of Juan Mayorga and I knew the work well. But it wasn’t an easy experience, we filmed in the middle of summer, I was dressed in nun’s habits and it was terribly hot.
And was the text also difficult for you?
I am not a believer, and that makes it difficult. It is a very complex text that must be said as if it were the most normal text in the world. We also shot with very long shots. It is a very particular experience that I do not think will be repeated.
How did you delve into such a real and at the same time mystical character as Teresa of Ávila?
There is no historicist vision in the film. It focuses on his internal struggle, it is not about his historical milestones. There are hundreds of books about her, but what is interesting is her doubt, her contradictions. That is the focus of the film, here the character has a very complex burden.
You have interpreted real characters about whom it has been possible to document, such as Teresa herself, Concepción Arenal or Maixabel Lasa. Is it easier for you to work with real models, to study their actions and gestures, than when you have to create characters almost from nothing, conceived by the scriptwriters and directors?
In the case of ‘Maixabel’ it is the first time that I played a living person. In the case of Concepción Arenal I had to deduce what she had been like, the same as with Teresa, but Maixabel Lasa is, she exists. We met only once before filming. Imitating her would have been absurd, it is about entering into her internal pain and analyzing it as if she were a fictional character.
So do you approach all the characters the same?
I approach them the same, yes, I studied them and from there you get their personality. In the case of Maixabel Lasa it is necessary for her to feel that the interpretation I give belongs to her, that she recognizes herself. And that carries a great responsibility for me.
‘Teresa’ opens this Friday and the day before, the performances of ‘The Mother of Frankenstein’, a work that has been performed at the National Dramatic Center in Madrid, begin in Barcelona, at the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya. How does she confront the two languages, theater and cinema, and what differences does she perceive?
They are both equally difficult! I faced the personal ones in the same way and today they cause me the same panic. Increasingly, the responsibility becomes greater when you are better known. In the theater, of course, once the performance begins the director can go for a walk, the characters are already built.