The Cordovan Fernando Tejero is one of the best-known actors in Spain thanks, in particular, to a couple of comic characters from two twin television series that have made us laugh a lot: he is Emilio Delgado from There is no one living here (2003-2006), concierge in the Madrid building at number 21 Calle Desengaño and the Fermín Trujillo de the one that is coming (since 2007), espetero, beach rogue and amateur embedder in Mirador de Montepinar.
But he also wanted to get into the skin of dramatic characters like Coque de Willslong by Joaquin Carmona (2022), entirely produced in the Region of Murcia, where it shares the frame with Óscar Casas, Nerea Camacho, Adriana Ozores and Carlos Santos, and which is currently filming. “He is a very different character from almost all the ones I have done; well, everyone”, he tells us during an interview at the El Churra hotel in Murcia.
“His story is beautiful, and with a great range of emotions, many edges and a brutal emotional journey, and for me it was a challenge”, he continues to explain what attracted him to decide on this work. “Then, being that I wanted so much to be a father in life and I’m not, in the end this film talks about precisely that, about the relationship between a father and a son that has not existed, and he wants it to exist.” Perhaps, feeling so identified with Coque will help Fernando Tejero to embody him better.
The introspection of Fernando Tejero to create his character of ‘Last Wills’
“I think that, for an actor who does comedy, it is easier to make a drama than the other way around”, the Andalusian interpreter abounds. “It is not the first drama that I do because there it is five square meters [2011], for example. But it is true that this is a challenge and, curiously, I have thrown away a lot of my experiences, of the history that I lived with my father; or that I live because, fortunately, he is still alive. And I have pulled from that paternal instinct that I was talking about before, looking for a lot in me”.
“And I’ve had plenty of time to prepare it; I’ve had the script on my nightstand for a long time,” she continues. “AND I have worked from intuition, common sense and heart, because it’s a character that, if you don’t put a soul into it, can never work. It exudes feeling, and I think the film is a love story. He is a thrillerbut I think that, ultimately, it is a love story, that he moves mountains and that anything can be done for him”.
“I try to create a pleasant work environment and I like to laugh with my colleagues and so far very few have complained. I try to to have a good time because, for me, the character is being hard because life has gone very badly for him and, in the end, it ends up affecting you and touching parts of you, even in personal injuries”, admits Fernando Tejero. “That’s why I try to put a little humor in life; if not, this character would end up devouring me”.
Joaquín Carmona, a respectful and enthusiastic director
Joaquín Carmona and the original screenwriter, Salvador Serrano, thought of the Cordovan from the beginning to star Wills. “Six or seven years have passed and I thought the film would never be made,” says the aforementioned. “But how am I going to say no to people who are so excited about a project, who have had a hard time getting it off the ground and who I wanted tomy From the beginning?”. Under these circumstances, it was impossible for him to refuse.
“Since we have had so much time to talk about the film, I have been able to get to know him very well. [a Joaquín Carmona], listen to their expressions and live that great illusion that I had to make this film”, says Fernando Tejero. “And then there is the knowledge that he has about cinema. We have continued talking and, apart from having seen his work, I know that He is in love with this profession and we have very similar tastes. And all of that gives me confidence.”
“It’s nice because he’s a guy who has a lot of respect for the profession and for the actors, and that’s fundamental, it’s very much appreciated,” he admits. “He leaves you your space, he listens to you, he lets you create, he asks your permission, he speaks to you with great respect… It is very easy to work with him. He is a humble guy, who he allows himself to be advised as well for the fact that it is his first film”. And he concludes like this: “I wish I felt the same excitement and respect with the directors he works with that he has for and for the profession.”
“He allows you to change, for example, a dialogue that you find more difficult or unnatural,” says Fernando Tejero. “I love that my colleagues who have much more experience advise me and teach me. Because this is a long-distance career and there is continuous learning in this profession; never leavess to learn and that’s fantastic. And I would have liked, in every filming or theater function that I have done, to have had someone who would have advised me”.
The referents in interpretation for Fernando Tejero
“Eduard Fernández I love. Like Luis Tosar, Javier Gutiérrez… There are many actors from whom I learn and whom I have as references. But, while others ask about them and say that Marlon Brando, when I wanted to be an actor and started in this, I didn’t know who Marlon Brando was, “admits the Cordovan. “My references were Jose Luis Lopez VazquezFernando Fernán Gómez, José Luis Ozores, José Sacristán, Pepe Isbert… I have drunk from these people more than anyone, and I wanted to be an actor for them”.
“And aside, I remember that the year they gave me the Goya for best revelation actor [por su Serafín en Días de fútbol, en 2003], they gave the Honor to José Luis López Vázquez, and he told me something that I will never forget in my life”, tells us Fernando Tejero. “I ran into him in the corridors of the Goya, and He told me: «You are an actor like us, of intuition, of hunger». And it is curious because several of that generation have told me: Concha Velasco, Juan Luis Galiardo when I worked with him in The spark of life [2011]…”
“And something will have to do with the fact that my greatest references have been them, that I wanted to be an actor because of what I saw in their work”, concludes the Andalusian artist, who would be able to gobble up films like Apartmentby Billy Wilder [1960]or Rebeccaby Alfred Hitchcock [1940]. “These are movies that I have seen, I don’t know how many times and they continue to amaze me Like the first time I saw them.” Perhaps, because of how much he will have learned from Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Laurence Olivier or Joan Fontaine. Although these interpreters were not of intuition and hunger.