Carlos Portaluppi is in a great moment in his career. He stars Wild Gardensat the Multiteatro Comafi, along with Vivi Puerta, Mica Vazquez and Nazareno Casero. At the same time, the actor has several plans, among them, doing his version of Cyrano de Bergerac. In a deep conversation, He remembers his younger brother with emotion and what costs him the most as a dad.
-You turned out to be a great actor, but at school you were never chosen to act. Did that frustrate you?
– Of course yes, because I I was dying to make our heroes. Furthermore, I wanted to do what my classmates did, but they almost always called on the same ones. Now things changed.
– You are from Mercedes, province of Corrientes, at what age did you come to Buenos Aires?
– At 17 years old to study Architecture at the University of La Plata. I got to take fourth year subjects and I stopped. But it didn’t remain as a pending account for me. Studying helped me for life, not only to have an understanding of construction. But it is not a pending account.
– A taste or weakness?
-Pistachio and dark chocolate ice cream: my weakness.
The most difficult thing for me (with my son) is to set limits and not spoil him too much.
-If you could play a character again. what would it be?
–Ubu Reyin theater, which was one of the first I did. It was very important because I was studying with Lito Cruz. I was in second year. One day, after appearing at a casting in which I did poorly, a colleague from the studio told me that they were looking for an actor to play Ubu Reyby Alfred Jarry. It seemed to him that I could fit in. I went, I had the interview with the director and he said to me: ‘Can you stay today?’ And I entered. We rehearsed in a small room that was a large room, six by four. Within a year, we knocked down two adjoining walls, joined three rooms and built a room for 60 people. It was a beautiful experience in every sense.
– The first thing you do when you get up?
– See the weather report and some news. Then breakfast.
-You are now doing the play Wild Gardens, which talks about two couples who live in adjoining houses and who confront each other over territory. Did you have any conflict with a neighbor?
– Yes and I’m going to make it public. Not for revenge, but because it was not good and you have to have a little empathy. I was accompanying my brother, who was dying, and some arrangements had to be made in my apartment. The floor had to be broken. And I couldn’t be with a plumber that day. I explained to him: ‘I can’t this day, because I’m with my brother who is in the hospital…’ And the response was: ‘Well, I’m very sorry for your brother, but if you don’t open the apartment for me, I’m going to do it.’ open by public force’. That was 2015. We are in 2024. I didn’t speak to that person again. I meet her in the elevator and she is an entity to me. It’s what I feel. Maybe I should forgive. But it was a very painful moment.
-You have an 18-year-old son, what is the most difficult thing for you as a dad?
– It’s hard for me to set limits and not indulge him too much. I also have a hard time stopping asking him what he needs and waiting for him to tell me. That quasi-overprotective part. My son is a very pure and loving being. He is a much better person than me (Laughs).
– What do you like to do beyond acting?
– Listen to music. I am very eclectic: classical music, U2, Charly García and every now and then, a good chamamé, who is native to where I am from.
– You said your brother was dying, what happened to him?
– Diego, my younger brother, had bariatric surgery. He had intestinal complications, his gallbladder with more than 50 stones was removed, he had five intestinal fistulas and malnutrition. He underwent fourteen surgeries, six in Corrientes and the rest in the Hospital de Clínicas. I got to see his guts. His death was very shocking to me. I love and miss him. She was one of the people who made me laugh the most in life. He was 40 years old, had two children. It was a very hard blow for the family. My mother didn’t suffer as much because she already had Alzheimer’s. She has very short connection periods. She recognizes me every time I go to Mercedes and she tells me: ‘Carlitos’, but it is impossible to have a conversation.
Theater is a necessity, it is the mother of the matter for me.
– Be consistent with the desire. Go where I want.
-Does doing theater still make you happy?
– Yeah, Theater is a necessity, it is the mother of the matter for me. From that side, I love him as much as my mother. I feel great artistically with the route.
– Are you afraid of death?
– No, I have respect for him. But I don’t want to die. I want to enjoy life and that of my son.
-Are you happy doing Wild Gardens?
-Very happy. It gives me great joy to do it. It is a beautiful group that we put together with Mica, Vivi and Naza. And it happens to us that from the moment we premiered until today we finish the play with a burst of laughter and we also feel that the audience is laughing. The story is by Karen Zacarías and was brought here by Valentina Berger and Carlos Mentasti, with the direction of Ricardo Hornos.
And we talk about the dividing limit of the environmental issue and, above all, the generational issue,
– I want to do my Cyrano de Bergerac. I’ve been working on an adaptation for a long time.
-How are you physically?
– It could be even better. It is a job that is for life. Because there is a genetic issue that does not help. I continue with physical activity, I go to the gym, I do aerobics, a bicycle and a few machines that help me move my muscles a little and work my knees. Especially because I have a knee problem that appeared while doing theater. The traumatologist did not want to operate on me. I have to continue working and fighting against this disease, which is clearly obesity.
– The will. I would like to be more willful.
– Taking stock, do you regret anything or do you feel guilty about something about work?
I don’t regret anything. In fact, I would have started this job sooner. It’s what I chose and choose every day. AND,How can I feel guilty for doing what I love? Guilt has a lot to do with a cultural or religious mandate. If religion did not exist, guilt would not exist. There’s a feeling of saying, well, I’m missing something, but I’m doing it for the other thing. I have always gone the wrong way because of my schedules. Look, the day my son was born I was doing You were never so adorable, by Javier Daulte. I was lucky that he was born in the morning. But at night, I did the show. And he didn’t blame me. Whoever loves me well knows that I do it from love and from a place of construction and understands me. It’s the life I chose. And I am the friend, the father and the family member who touched them.