Following the season two renewal news, the Berlín actor sits down with us for a chat about his dedication to his craft and take on stardom.
PHOTOS: Antártica
TALENT: JULIO PEÑA
VIDEOGRAPHY: Lalo Romera
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LOCATION: Espacio La Boreal
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Meet Spain’s next powerhouse
Luckily, the place is not crowded during our interview. “Sometimes I have social anxiety when people come up to me,” Peña admits, recalling how his Berlín co-star Pedro Alonso would attract attention in the street, yet remain unfazed. Over the last few years, Peña has been quite prolific in his native country and made a splash beyond the borders through his work with Disney and Netflix. “It’s only happened once, but I remember I was in Gran Vía [one of Madrid’s main arteries] and someone stopped me for a picture, then a bunch of people started stopping, and there was a crowd.” Away from the screen, he has learned the blessings — and pitfalls — of fame. “A couple of days ago, I was in my house in the countryside. It’s a really small town, and a few girls knew that I was there and rang at my house,” he says calmly. “I was like, ‘You have to understand that this is maybe going a bit too far,’ but then I felt bad and I went down to take the picture. Even though it’s not my favorite part of the job because I appreciate my alone time and private life, I get to do what I love, which is amazing.”
The San Sebastián-born performer carries on the conversation in English confidently without a noticeable accent — something he credits to his time in a boarding school in England and watching his go-to TV shows like Friends and Modern Family. “I’m really a homey person, I like staying in and watching movies and series.” He is fond of immersing himself in different cultures, mentioning that he is currently into learning Italian and Japanese, and studied German at school. For Berlín, he spent one month in Paris where the whole plot takes place. “It was really quick but beautiful to be able to film in Paris with this huge and awesome team. One day we had Notre-Dame in the background, or we had to film on a rooftop and we had the Eiffel Tower and Montmartre in the background. It was a day I realized that I loved what I was doing.” But in fact, the eight-part series required nine months of shooting mainly in Spain. “In the second episode where we are trying to steal the chalice, this whole scene with the bike took 10 days to film between Paris, Madrid, and a lot of different places.”
The prequel to Netflix’s global sensation La Casa de Papel (known in English as Money Heist) revolves around Pedro Alonso’s character Berlín, offering a deep dive into the past of the enigmatic criminal mastermind. “Because it’s coming from La Casa de Papel which is so huge and has such a huge fanbase, we were nervous about living up to the expectations, but I think we did,” Peña says a month after the release of the show’s first season. “I was expecting a huge wave of people with Berlín, and I got really beautiful messages on Instagram, but it was pretty chill — more than I expected,” he adds with a laugh. The actor joined Berlín’s gang of thieves as Roi, an expert lock picker that the titular character took under his wing. While Roi is extremely loyal to Berlín and sees him as the father figure he never had, Berlín describes in his own words his protégé as a faithful dog. “I really like the scene [in episode four] where Berlín is really rough with Roi and tells him that he is like a trained dog, but Roi stands up to Berlín.”
For Peña, the filming process for Berlín was intense and full of surprises. “When we started filming, we only had two episodes, and then we received the episodes while we were filming, so there was always something new,” he explains. “Imagine compressing nine months into a couple of hours. And we filmed so many takes of some of this stuff — the post-production team, they are magicians. I think it was this mix of a really nice team that works together in such a beautiful way.” In the season one finale, Berlín’s crew is split into pairs and one of the storylines follows the journey of Roi and Cameron [Begoña Vargas] to escape the police. “This last episode has so many things, like us running through the sewers and the animatronics in the RV. I was reading the script and I was like, ‘How are they going to do this?’ And I also really like the last part where they hide in the truck. It was a claustrophobic [place] at some point because we filmed some of it in the actual truck, but the parts inside were filmed on a set. We were in the middle of just a couple of pieces of tarp stuck together. And that moment was close to June, so everything was difficult to shoot because it was really hot that day, but I had a lot of fun. And when we arch over [the truck], we are actually doing it and I remember us trembling.”
Though Peña is now widely known for his most recent roles on Netflix, he began honing his acting chops in theater. “I was doing theater with a couple of friends until a few months ago. I love the stage and doing theater once in a while because it’s like coming back home in a way.” He recalls, “I started in school when I was a kid and I think I kept doing it for eight years, and I used to do musicals.” As a triple threat, he continued exploring his musical side after finishing high school, when he was offered a role in an Argentinian musical soap opera for Disney. “I miss singing and dancing, so that’s something I really want to explore right now, but it has to be a nice project. The other day, I was watching The Greatest Showman and I would like to do something like that — I also really appreciate Hugh Jackman. And right now, they are doing more musical stuff with Wonka or Mean Girls, so the musical genre is good in movies.”
“Hopefully I will get to work with A24. I love that they are brave enough to pick projects that are different and special in some sort of way,” he replies when asked about his career goals. “I’ve wanted to work in the States for a while now, since I went to Argentina in the first place.” Because Alien is his favorite movie, he cites Sigourney Weaver as someone he would love to work with, and shows appreciation for the work of Uma Thurman and Tom Holland. “I really want to work in movies right now. I have a couple of projects here in Spain this year, but hopefully after that, I could work out things to be able to go to the States or get into a production there.” He adds with a gentle smile, “I have the English for that, so that’s a nice point.”
While walking to the studio, Peña hints that he has to exercise more to prepare for his next role in Alejandro Amenábar’s The Captive (El Cautivo). This, of course, is in addition to the newly announced second season of Berlín. Meanwhile, he can be seen reprising his wildly popular role as Ares Hidalgo in the third and final installment of Netflix’s Through My Window (A través de mi ventana). “I’ve been maturing as a person, and that goes together with how I evolve as an actor. It’s easy to get stuck in one place, but I think being open to [embracing] that learning process is the key. It’s been such hard work and I’ve had some down and up moments, but I’ve been learning all the time.” Thoroughly kind, generous, and inquisitive, Peña is poised for the next chapter in what has already been a remarkable journey. “I try to stay focused and grounded. I have the same friends that I had when I went to Argentina six years ago, and I know if I ever wander off, [my friends and family] will grab me and bring me back.”
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