"Spaghetti feminist western". Actor, musician and horse whisperer. The next film in which Rueda acts is another short by Enrique Novials
Diari de
Tarragona
May 8, 2021
A:
Of course... at specific times. When I come down to reality, I see that no, I
am not in the West, ha, ha, ha. But yes, being a cowboy is in my DNA.
Q:
Do you identify with the stereotypical cowboy character?
A:
No. Stereotyped, no. I identify with a unique, unrepeatable cowboy character
that nobody has seen, and that nobody knows, and that is me.
Q:
Very nice! And you're about to participate in the shooting of a new movie, a
short film by Enrique Novials, called 'Kill them and don't come back alone',
right?
A:
We are going to shoot it in July in Tabernas, Almería. Indeed, it is a project
of Enrique Novials, who is the director, and who may also participate as an
actor. The title is a nod to Kill them and come back alone, a classic that was
shot in 1968 in Almeria. Kill them and don't come back alone is a spaghetti
feminist western.
Q:
A feminist spaghetti western? Can you explain?
A:
That in a western it is the woman who takes the chestnuts out of the fire and
kills the bandits and rescues the prisoner, and is the heroine of the movie, is
rarely seen. With Enrique Novials we already made Calamity Jane 1882, a short
film based on the letters that this outlaw, which really existed, and who drank
whiskey and cheated poker, wrote to his daughter.
Q:
'Calamity Jane 1882' won last year many recognitions and awards at national and
international festivals, right?
A:
Yes, all last year we have been receiving news of nominations and awards at
festivals around the world: India, Greece, Turkey, Uruguay, Japan, in many US
cities such as Texas, Oklahoma, Los Angeles... In Arizona we have won the
awards for best director, best supporting and best actress. It's been like an
invasion of prizes, up to 14. Now Calamity Jane 1882 is competing in Houston,
in the official section of a festival.
Q: What role do you play in 'Calamity Jane 1882'?
A:
Bad gunman. I kidnapped Calamity Jane's girlfriend, because in the movie they
are both lesbians.
Q: I see that the argument is innovative.
A:
It turns out that we are part of the sheriff's gang, but we are corrupt, and we
do all kinds of misdeeds. And we learn that Calamity Jane has cheated in the
game, in poker, and that she has won $ 20,000, and then, we go to a brothel to
find Calamity Jane's girlfriend to kidnap her.
Q: Hell.
A:
Yes, what a fabric. We kidnapped her, and we asked for a ransom. Then Calamity
Jane comes, peels us all and takes the bride. Very briefly, the argument is
like this.
Q: And in the short film you're going to shoot in the summer, 'Kill Them
and Don't Come Back Alone', what is your character?
A:
Again, I play the outlaw, the bad guy. I start by robbing a bank.
Q: How do you feel in these types of roles?
A:
Man, it's hard for me to play bad, because I'm very good. So, you see, I have
to work a lot. And I don't play bad things around, because that's dangerous for
one's psychology. You can deviate from yourself and from real life. In order
not to get into those problems, I avoid playing with it.
Q: You speak like a person already used to acting. Do you have many
years of experience?
A:
Well, yes. I studied theater. In fact, as a child we played theater with my
friends, between six and eight years old. I was born in Barcelona and at the
age of 17 I came to Tarragona. I started with the theater officially at the
Escola Josep Ixart. I was also at the Escola d'Art. I set up several companies.
Q: Did you set up several theater companies? Which?
A:
Cerebral Light, of happenings and performances; Those of the Cosmos, of mime
and pantomime; Plis Plas, children's theatre... I was also at La Fura dels
Baus. Then I went to Nicaragua and set up a circus school. It was a project of
the Associació Nou Barris and the Committee of Solidarity with Nicaragua. I was
at the circus school in Barcelona doing clown, clown, juggling and fixed
trapeze and acrobatics classes. My entire career in the world of theater,
circus and horse can be seen in
https://gabriel-rueda.wixsite.com/actor/biografia.
Q: In the world of the horse?
A:
That's how I met director Enrique Novials, because he came to our equestrian
because he wanted to ride a western and wanted to learn to ride a horse.
Q: Wait a minute: what does an actor paint in an equestrian?
A:
About ten years ago I began to lower the piston of my most theatrical,
performer and cirquera part, and I dedicated myself more to horses. I met Anna
Salas. She is a horse tamer who has dedicated her entire life to this. For me
Anna Salas is an eminence in natural dressage and in everything related to
horses. Respect for the animal, how to tame without violence, the connection
with the horse... I learned all this from her. It was when the crisis of 2008.
Then there were many people who could not support their horses, and we set out
to rescue those who were abandoned or abused.
Q: In an equestrian?
A:
They donated us a farm in La Nou de Gaià and we set up an outdoor horse riding.
We had the horses there loose, and we taught to ride without bite, with
respect, to learn how to approach a horse and get hold of it little by little,
until the horse trusts you and you trust him, to make the union of natural dressage,
and many things.
Q: So you're an actor and a horse tamer.
A:
Horse whisperer. And musician since life. I play guitar and mouth harp and give
lessons, I write lyrics and music, and I sing. At the Mostra de Músics de
Tarragona in 1990 he played with Los Enigmáticos. I also played with Blue Bus,
Simago Boys, Absentha Brothers, Los Leonardos and Los Kiroga. Now I play with
the Dalton Paints and Los Siderales.
Q: And you told me that one day the director Enrique Novials appeared
for the equestrian.
A:
Yes. I wanted to set up a western and I wanted to learn how to ride. It's a
long process, and more complicated than it seems. I was dedicated for five
years and I still have to learn a lot.
Q: What did you discover thanks to horses?
A:
I discovered that I had advantages to ride, because as I had done a lot of
theater, mime, pantomime and acrobatics, I dominated my body, I had a sense of
balance, I had awareness of all the parts of my body and movement, and an
agility and a preparation that gave me a lot. With the students, what I did was
teach them to become aware of their body – "foot to ground", "I
am a horse" – because you can feel very insecure when you do not know
anything about the horse, nor its psychology, nor its behavior, nor its way of
being, nor its thoughts, nor its emotions.
Q: And talking to Enrique...
A:
I told him I wanted to be in the western. In the end, I starred in the teaser
of The Crossing, which was sent to the Almería Western Film Festival. And we
were able to see it on the big screen, at the Oasys Minihollywood, which has a
Western room that is where very good films have been shot. Where with Enrique
we are going to shoot in July, Sergio Leone filmed, with Clint Eastwood, Lee
Van Cleef...
Q: What is it about westerns that hook you so much? Could it be that
they give room for a little crazy creativity, because the Wild West is outside
civilization?
A:
Yes, it's fun because there's a lot of freedom and you can do almost anything
you want. It's like living in a time when everything is allowed.
Q: When you told Enrique that you wanted to go out in the western, he
must have said yes right away, right? Because I have you in front of me and the
truth is that it costs me nothing to see in you an outlaw.
A:
The bag or life! Ha ha ha. Well, that's what everyone tells me. I don't get it.
Another great actor who couldn't quite escape the habit of "being good at being bad" was legendary American actor Leo Gordon. He did a ton of Westerns as the villain, often in the lead.
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