Diana Bracho does not look back

Diana Bracho lives in the present. She is not a fan of social media personally and is somewhat indifferent to criticism, both good and bad.

To the characters she has played throughout her life, with participation since she was a child in the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema in films such as Saint Philip of Jesus (1949) e Immaculate (1950), until today, has lent them his skin and his voice, but not his personal anecdote.

Her gaze is that of an attentive woman, who has clarity, depth and absolute presence.

The winner of the 2022 Ariel de Oro, daughter of actor and director Julio Bracho and niece of actresses Dolores del Río and Andrea Palma, will turn 80 on December 12, a few months after that, stars in the play Mothers and sonswhich ends its season tomorrow at the Teatro Milán.

In an interview with ExcelsiorThe actress shared her feelings about what she has experienced in her profession and her love for theatre, film and television.

I love my work in every medium I’m involved in. I feel, I can’t say satisfied, because one is never satisfied, but I am happy to have had the professional life I have had. I hope, as long as I can, to continue. Then they ask me ‘when do you plan to retire?’ Well, I don’t know. When the theater kicks me out, when television kicks me out, when the cinema kicks me out, I will retire. Not before. I don’t know.

I really don’t look back much. I’m a person who isn’t very settled in the past, I’m not even interested in past glories, those that are discovered by the people who love me, my family and some crazy historian who is interested in what I’ve done. I’m not worried about the future either, more than taking good care of myself to be as good as possible and the present is my everything. That’s how I live and it works pretty well for me. I want to keep working, because it’s my great passion, but I do have a personal life too. I’ve had very rich relationships, a very full life, great friends, a wonderful daughter and two granddaughters whom I adore. Each one is doing her own thing too, we don’t see each other that often, but we communicate, we’re very close and they live four blocks from my house. I’ve lived a very full life, both professionally and personally.

I would like to continue (in acting) as long as I can do it well. One thing that terrifies me with age is giving pity or compassion, the ‘oh, poor Mrs. Bracho, she’s gotten old, she can’t walk anymore.’ That’s why I worry that people think I can’t walk. No not at all. The day I can no longer do things well, I am not going to do them. I am not going to sacrifice my job to look like a preyed old lady, far from it,” said Diana Bracho.

Then, he remembered that first moment when he fell in love with acting.

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It was in the workshop of José Luis Ibáñez. When I entered, according to me it was out of curiosity, but of course I was dying to be an actress, but I was terrified. In the first class I had, when she put me on stage and made me do something, I said ‘this is where I’m from.’ And from there I went.

Today I still get nervous, my left arm falls asleep and I think I’m going to have a heart attack and I can’t walk. Every performance the same thing happens to me, the dread of entering a stage. As soon as I enter, I forget the fear, that restlessness, and I completely surrender to what I am doing.

That’s how my whole life is. I always give myself totally to what I am doing at that moment, 100%. If I’m with some friends, I’m with some friends, I’m not thinking about the theater. If I’m in the theater, I’m in the theater. Where I am, I am 100%,” she shared.

A COMPLETE ACTRESS

The one born in Mexico City recalled that all the projects she has done have been chosen, she has done them with “all my love, with all my passion and some have been better than others, some have fulfilled me more than others, but all I have made them with everything I have.”

He shared that he loves to jump from one medium to another, because it forces him to get out of “’oh how good I am in the theater’” or “’how good I am on TV’” and break with what he is doing and enter another something that, for her, is always new, as if she were starting life for the first time. “If I enter a play, I am starting and learning for the first time. “This is how I perceive my work,” she explained.

In cinema it was The castle of purity the first title that marked his career. The film addresses what happens to a family that has been locked up by the father for 18 years, who is convinced that the outside world is harmful to his wife and his three children, which changes when they enter adolescence. In it, Bracho played Utopia, one of her daughters, and thus won her first Ariel Award in 1973 for Best Female Co-Acting.

My first movie, The castle of purityby Arturo Ripstein, opened the door to the cinema for me, although I already had it half open because my father was a film director, so, in some way, I already knew the inside of that room called the cinema, but there was no actively participated until I made The Castle of Purity.

That film was a turning point in my life and I am very grateful for everything it gave me, because I really learned a lot by making it and over time. That marks the beginning of what would be called my career,” he emphasized.

The actress also later starred in films that marked national cinema, such as The Poquianchis, Between Pancho Villa and a naked woman —which, she confessed, she liked more in theater than in film, although for the big screen she was nominated for the Ariel for Best Actress— and Everyone’s Feared Hell, for which she won the Ariel for Best Female Acting, among many others.

In theater he spoke about A Streetcar Named Desirewhich she made in 1997, together with her future second husband, the painter Rafael Cortés, who designed the set design.

For me, a magnificent work in every sense, with which, as an actress, I learned so much and grew so much, which was impressive. We had incredible success, one year on the billboard, a full theater, we toured the entire country, to full venues. A work that no one was betting on, because it lasted three hours, but when you see a good project, a good film, a good work, you are not looking at the clock to see how long it took you. It catches you and you watch it for the hours it lasts. It was very successful,” she said.

Of course, in such a count the work stood out Master Classwhich she starred in twice, in 1998 and in 2014, in which she played the Greek singer María Callas.

It was one of the most important works I have ever done in my life as an actress. I did two versions, one directed by Francisco Franco and, years later, another directed by Diego del Río. Two fantastic versions, different but very rich, that left my soul full and touched people’s hearts, because it was about Maria Callas, a wonderful woman,” she recalled.

Bracho also spoke with great passion about his work on television.

I have done very cool things. I really like doing television, although many actors do it to make money. No, I do it because I love it! I did Cradle of wolveswhich was my first very important soap opera. Chains of bitterness, also. They are the two that have marked me. Fire in the bloodlater. I have done a series of soap operas that, for me, have been very important from an acting point of view.

I take television very seriously. I study a lot to do it: I design my character, I work a lot, sometimes I record more than 12 hours a day. It really is a tremendous job.

I have done voices for documentaries like one about the universe for the Papalote (Museum), another about science. “I have done a number of voice things that I have found very interesting as an actress, because exercising the voice is exercising a very important instrument for an actor,” she said.

“IN HEALTH, VERY GOOD”

Today, at 79 years of age, he stars in the play Mothers and sonsalong with Juan Manuel Bernal, Eugenio Rubio and, alternating, the children Luca Guerra and Antuan Trejo.

In this film, the actress plays Betty, a widow and mother of André, who died of AIDS in 1990. On her way to Rome, Betty stops in the city where Chris (Bernal) lives, her son’s ex-partner, who has rebuilt his life and is married to Pierre (Rubio), with whom she has a six-year-old son, Danny. More than two decades have passed since Betty and Chris last saw each other, but this meeting will allow them to heal resentments and reflect on things they have to forgive.

Following this play, some viewers expressed their concern on social media about Bracho’s health, since her character has compromised mobility, especially when walking. The actress clarified that her health is fine and that this is part of fiction.

I’m in very good health. I had a small problem, I had surgery and I won’t say anything else. I’m recovering very well. The great thing about the play is, Diego del Río, the director, told me, that it seems like Terrence McNally, the author, wrote it for me, because the character of Betty has problems with her knees, she can’t walk well and she expresses it by walking and moving with some discomfort. All of that is acted out.

I am 79 years old and I have had certain walking problems, but it is not an excuse for the character to walk badly. That’s how the character is and if I walked perfectly well, I would have to act like I walked badly to do it. Tell those who worry, not to worry, that I am very well, here I am… I am in very good health, in spirit, I am very well. I am very happy to, at my age, be doing this wonderful work and have work projects for the future, also very nice; to continue giving life the best I can and with great desire,” he highlighted.

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