Diego Anido, the great discovery of “As bestas”

Fate prepared a happy pirouette Diego Anido (Santiago, 1976). In September 2021, he was about to join the filming of the author’s new film Rodrigo Sorogoyen, like beasts. He played a small role. But he received the call. There has been a change of plans: Pedro Alonso dropped out of the cast, leaving a vacancy for a much more important character in the plot. They thought of him to cover that gap. “I had a surge of joy,” Anido recalls. Everything came together: the desire to make films, work on a big project and, why not say, a higher income would be good for me – explains the actor. I don’t doubt it. He answered with a resounding yes. That’s how he became Lorenzo Anta, the sinister brother of Xan Anta, whom he plays Luis Zahera.

At that time, the life of this heterodox actor raised in the Compostela University Theater changed. Was there any dizziness? “No, the truth is that I didn’t – he assures – I did it myself casting with Sorogoyen quite elaborated. He could see how I worked and my characteristics. I had a little doubt. It gave me a lot of confidence.” The same thing happened when he he was seen walking the red carpet at Cannes, in contrast to his work in small alternative theaters across Spain. “I’ve had my moments of conflict in the past,” he admits. Usually the tuxedo glare happens when you’re away from it. When you get closer, you remove all the nonsense from the glamour. You understand it a little more. These big parties are created to generate magnet and have more audience. It’s not something bad. I was lucky enough to wear the suit and share the journey with Luis Zaher, who had been in this before. He is from Santiago, we got along very well. We have a similar mood. It made me live like someone who goes with a colleague, laughing at what you have to laugh at to not take it seriously.

They spent many years breaking stone to get there. From those essays in the “boardrooms” at Filólogía Galega to his studies at the Espazo Aberto school in Compostela. There he assimilated the speech that left his mark: «They told me that an actor does not have to be a person who makes demands, but can be someone who creates his own work. From there I started my business. And to this day”. In a radical do-it-yourselfer, he undertook with paper boy (2002) series of individual projects. For now, they have their last stop King of Pop (2022). “In them, there is a middle ground between experimentation, humor and everything I’m going to learn,” he explains.

Anido also provided music in the nineties. In such parameters underground or more than the theatrical ones. She parked it at the turn of the century, but his experience in formations such as Hemisfero Izquierdo and Taxi Driver marked him with fire: «Over the years I have seen that this indie It had a big impact on me. When I dedicate myself to something personal and when I’m with other people, I understand it as if it were a band”, he thinks. In this sense, Anido has traveled the whole world with Agrupación Señor Serrano: «We received the Silver Lion at the Vienna Biennale 2015». She entered the world of Japanese dance in Barcelona with the dancer and choreographer Andrés Corcher. He, too, worked with Voadora: “It’s a turning point in how it’s grown, and I think it’s exemplary,” he says.

A paper that attracted attention

The first professional peak came in the cinema inclusions (2020) Alfonso Zarauza. “He offered me a small role and it was really cool. He played a deaf person. I did some research and was able to create a curious character that was talked about a lot. It was very important. I think that’s why she’s the director casting from Ace of beasts“, Shows. In Sorogoyen’s film, he stood out with his quiet appearance. Lorenzo Anta barely speaks. Although the “pailán” that he throws out to the French is permeated: “They remind me a lot of that scene, because it is very straw dogs. But the one everyone stays with is the one from the bar. The characters speak and I watch. A lot of people in the profession point this out because they know how hard it is to lie down and do nothing. If you do something, it’s fatal. You have two actors there who are brutal [Denis Ménochet y Luis Zahera] and you just have to keep quiet. It’s very difficult.”

That work did not go unnoticed. This helped him to be nominated for a Goya for Best Supporting Actor alongside Luis Zaher, who won it. However, as his representative Lourdes Jurado reminds him, “it’s not the awards that matter, it’s the work.” And the phone has been ringing a lot for the past few weeks. “Yes, there are offers,” he confirms. Everything looks like this 2023 will be very different from my previous years,” says someone who is enthusiastic about living in Galicia: “I already did it many years ago to go to a big city. There are many things that have evolved and can be done from here. Also, I am now a father. But who knows”.