[image]
[title]Julieta Díaz is everywhere. She’s releasing two films back to back — one a blazing long take (Gatillero), the other a light romantic piece for Netflix (Corazón Delator) — and continues touring with her music project, where she puts voice and soul. She acts, writes, sings, champions poetry, and raises children. In this conversation, she talks about what drives her, how she inhabits each project with the same dedication, her love for music and words, and how motherhood changed her rhythm (and priorities) forever.
You just premiered two very different films: Gatillero, an intense cinematic experiment shot in a single long take, and Corazón Delator, a light and heartfelt romantic comedy for Netflix. What was it like inhabiting two such different styles almost simultaneously, and what challenges did each pose for you as an actress?
Well, it’s what I’ve been doing since I started working. Anyway, Corazón Delator is a film, a drama, a romantic comedy, and of course we’re not going to say it’s a psychological drama, but my character is a woman who loses her husband and finds out that the person she is falling in love with has her husband’s heart. So I didn’t feel it was that light — I felt it as intense as Gatillero. I work the same way, whether the projects are independent or mainstream. In these cases, I didn’t feel much difference because both are dramas. Yes, the style, way of working, the script, the character, of course. And yes, when I do comedy there’s a big difference from drama, right? But honestly, I inhabit both the same way.
"I work the same way, whether the projects are independent or mainstream"
With Diego Presa you found a shared voice that already has an album and stages. What do you feel music allows you that film or theater do not? Can you imagine a future more focused on songwriting?
We have two albums: an EP of six tracks called El revés de la sombra, and a full-length album with eight songs and two versions, one by Alfredo Zitarrosa and one by Gabo Ferro, called Río. We’ve been a duo for four years now, and honestly, it gives me a more personal space because most of the songs are my lyrics with Diego’s music and production. Of course, the overall artistic production is both of us, and we both sing; some songs and lyrics are his, but most come from my poetic universe. Yes, it’s my most personal work, and I imagine music will take up more and more space, but these are long processes — people are just starting to get to know us.
You might also like: Nicolás Artusi, the launch of Atlas del Café and a trip around the world in 80 cups
You are a great reader, and your social media shows a deep connection with poetry. Which authors have influenced you? What role does literature play in your daily life?
Oh, what a beautiful question! I’m not an erudite reader; it’s not that I’m not a coherent reader or that I come from a family of intellectuals. I do come from a family that has read a lot, and I’m surrounded by people who read well and often, so I copy and learn from them. In the last ten years, literature has taken up a huge space in my life. It always had a presence since adolescence, both poetry and music, especially the lyrics, which have always been very important. I’m a big David Bowie fan — I didn’t speak English, but I looked for translated lyrics and tried to understand them. And today I’m really into poetry because it also relates to song lyrics, since songs are poetic prose in verse, there’s no big difference. Right now, I’m very into Mary Oliver, an American poet who has two Argentine translators here who are also poets: Natalia Leiderman and Patricio Foglia. They translated Mary Oliver for the Caleta Olivia publishing house. I’m also a big fan of Idea Vilariño, Alfonsina Storni, and Marosa di Giorgio. I also really enjoy novels. I just got hooked on the Neapolitan Novels series, which I had put aside because I was prejudiced. And honestly, the writing is amazing. Actually, the author Elena Ferrante supposedly doesn’t exist — it’s a pseudonym — so I’m busy with that. By the way, there’s an Italian series based on it, four seasons for the four books.
"In the last ten years, literature has taken up a huge space in my life"
Have you watched it?
No, because I want to finish the first two books before watching the first two seasons.
You’re an artist who seems to choose projects very consciously. What has to happen today with a script, a song, or an idea for you to say yes?
Thanks for that. Sometimes it’s the director more than the project, sometimes the project itself, or the colleagues, the character… By the way, I take this chance to highlight the need to work, because artists are workers too, so that’s also a necessity, just like all the people working behind the camera and in production.
Motherhood and the passage of time also appear as themes in your works and interviews. How has your relationship with work changed since becoming a mother? Are there things you now prioritize or let go of more clearly?
Yes, totally, you said it. But not just intellectually like “Oh, I have priorities,” but a very physical, energetic issue — you can’t put so much energy into so many things, and kids need presence and you want to be there too, so yes. And the passage of time, well, that’s a whole topic. Honestly, I think what happens to me is what happens to everyone, because today we’re all exposed, and my work is related to that.