Interview with El Mundo (2021)

Freddie Highmore: "You need a different model of masculinity, not a unique one"

The actor from the series 'The Good Doctor' debuts in the Spanish production 'Way down' by the hand of Jaume Balagueró in an adventure 'thriller', perfect robberies, football and Iniesta's goal

Freddie Highmore (London, 1992) speaks Spanish with a slight Chamberí touch, completely immune to the ravages of 'jet lag '. "I have just arrived from Vancouver, I have not practiced it for a long time and he will forgive me if I do not find a word," he says, it is not clear whether to apologize or simply to humiliate the interviewer. His Spanish is perfect and throughout the conversation he only stumbles over the fricative riddles of the word "sensation." During a break from filming the new season of 'The Good Doctor', the former Charlie in ' Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' and formerly a prodigy actor from the age of seven presents ' Way Down ', by Jaume Balagueró, a*of perfect robberies in which the victim is the Bank of Spain right in front of the Cibeles fountain. Everything happens during the World Cup in South Africa at the gates of the goal of 'Iniesta-de-mi-vida'.*

Q: What is your relationship with Spain and Spanish?

A: I studied philology and one of the subjects was Spanish. Part of the course consisted of spending a year in Spain. In 2012 and 2013 I spent it in Madrid doing an internship in a law firm. As an intern. The funny thing is that it was in this same building [the interview takes place in the Sony offices next to the Museum of Natural Sciences]. I find it strange to go back to exactly the same place in such a different situation.

Q:Have you had time to see how Spain has changed?<br?
A: What has changed is the world. After the pandemic, everything is different. But I have the impression that the things that I liked then are still there. For example, the Plaza de Olavide. I haven't been there yet, but that was my favorite place in Madrid. And it sure will continue to be.

Q: What motivates an international star to make a Spanish film?

A:The most important thing for me is the European character of the film. Despite adopting a clearly American gender, her identity is specifically Spanish. It is local, but with a global projection.

Q: The film takes place during the World Cup that Spain won in 2010. Is football for an Englishman something different than for other mortals?

A: I love football and my team has always been Arsenal. We have two season tickets in the family. Go this ahead. I won't talk about Spanish teams ... But having lived in Madrid determines something. For the rest, what fascinates me about football is the character of celebration as a whole, the feeling that you are part of something in a collective and emotional way. I think this same analogy can be made with cinema. It is not the same to watch a movie at home than at the cinema. Where the cinema is lived is in the cinema. The experience, in one case or another, is different if you live with others. I would have liked to be a footballer, but I have to settle for being an actor. But I've gotten over it.

Q: On the other hand, football has acquired an invasive and aggressive character that is not always desirable ...

A: I imagine that it is also a way to channel hatred, to tame it. I don't like Tottenham, but I don't get carried away by animosity. Brings together what you like more than what you don't like. I remember when Barça beat Arsenal in Paris in 2006 and I remember everything I cried. That emotion has value. Silence is also important. When the stadium is silent it is like in the theater. There is something intense that you do not change for anything. It's a bit of a religious experience.

Q:Every Spaniard remembers the exact moment of Iniesta's goal that appears in the film ...

A: I remember It too. I was in Madrid and I went to Cibeles to celebrate it with the Spanish. It was very strange to me when we shot the same scene in the movie that I had experienced in reality.

Q: His character in the film has something to do with the protagonist of ' The Good Doctor' , the two are heroes in an almost unconscious way, despite himself I would say. How do you see the evolution of the role of the male hero in cinema and popular culture?

A: It is important to offer a different model of masculinity, not unique. I think it is necessary to represent masculinity in a broader way. It is important to give other options to simply that of the invulnerable superhero who can do everything. That makes it clear that I also love James Bond. I am interested in the hero who makes his own decisions rather than simply doing what is expected of him.

Q: Bond has also become more vulnerable lately.

A: I am not saying that what has been seen so far about the characteristics of the hero or of masculinity is bad. But it is much more interesting to be able to choose and have more options. Children have to be able to see in the cinema different references to which they can later choose.

Q: What does it mean for a child to be an actor when he does not even know what it is to act?

A: When I was a child and despite working in movies, I don't think I was an actor. I didn't act like I do now. My normality was not the cinema, it was going to school with other children my age. On the other hand, I always wanted to go to college. That was my priority, it was not to dedicate myself to the cinema. And having been trained has allowed me to actively decide what I wanted to do. What I do now is a very conscious decision.

Q: Fernán Gómez, a Spanish actor, used to say that he lived surrounded by bitter people because they all had the vocation to be successful actors, not simply actors. Was your vocation to be a successful actor or actor?

A: The feeling [stumbles] ... Sorry, but I just realized I came from Vancouver last night [laughs]. The feeling I have is to be lucky. I don't work for fame, but she, suddenly, is a punctual consequence of the current job. I have always kept a distance between work and my private life. I don't even use social media. Also, in Vancouver I live in a bubble and you find out very little.

Q: Why don't you use social media?

A: It has always worked for me not to expose myself. It may have influenced that when I started it was not even a possibility. For a couple of years, I got rid of Facebook. It was not so much a decision against, but more an inertia than what I had. If I was doing well without social media, why change? I imagine if I started now, I would be bound to get hooked. On the other hand, I think there is something special about not knowing exactly what actors do. If you tell everything, if you share everything, you end the mystery. And in film and television, a bit of mystery is necessary. For the rest, my life is very boring. This morning I had bread with tomato and an orange juice for breakfast. I need a more interesting life to join the networks. [bursts out laughing].

Q: Finally, the film touches on a sensitive topic: a group of British people who rob the Bank of Spain ...

A: I'd rather stay with the film's Europeanism than with the rivalry between states. It is a group of Europeans (an Irishman, an Englishman, a German, a Spaniard ...) who come together for a common purpose. I feel European.

Q: What do you think then of the anti-European drift of your government?

A: I think that with what I have said my opinion on the matter is quite clear.

(Translated from Spanish using Google Translate)

## External Links

* Freddie Highmore: "Es necesario un modelo de masculinidad diferente, no único" on El Mundo. November 18, 2021.
	+ The article on WayBack Machine.