Tamar Novas ('Clans'): "Filming a story in Lanzarote creates an atmosphere and a magic in itself"

The Galician actor Tamar Novas (Santiago de Compostela, 1986) is in Lanzarote this weekend for the island's International Film Festival. Novas, with a career of more than twenty years, the Galician has been part of films by Pedro Almodóvar or Alejandro Amenábar. With the latter, he played Javi in the famous film Mar adentro (2004) with which he won a Goya for Best New Actor at just 19 years old.

Furthermore, many will also know him for starring, alongside actress Clara Lago, in the Netflix series Clanes, a platform hit about a love story between the two that revolves around drug trafficking in Galicia. On the occasion of his visit to Lanzarote, Tamar Novas reflects with La Voz on his career and the works that have most marked him.

• You had been to Lanzarote before. What strikes you most about the island?

Lanzarote is one of the places I visit most often. After Holy Week I was there again, I had already been, but I was able to go to La Graciosa and I think Lanzarote has a personality that no other place has. Since I discovered the island, the figure of César Manrique and so many places that you don't find anything similar anywhere in the world, it's not only worth visiting, but also that the effort to protect it continues to exist. Furthermore, in the audiovisual world, telling a story here creates an atmosphere and a magic in itself, it is a very great attraction.

• Do Lanzaroteans or Canary Islanders in general have a lot in common in their way of being with Galicians?

What I notice, generalizing, is that Galicians feel very comfortable here. I think it's a good contrast and it has to do with the climate, but yes, hospitality, warmth, and protecting one's own is something I find in common. I think Canary Islanders and Galicians complement each other very well.

• What expectations do you have for the Lanzarote International Film Festival? 

Just seeing the shorts, which have an incredible level, has been a pleasure. I love the short film format and I think it's a genre that is by no means minor, but rather fundamental. Dani Sánchez Arévalo, with whom I just made my second film, talks about short films as their own genre... he feels like a short filmmaker and there are stories that call for this format. Having such a consolidated festival as this one and seeing young people here doing internships related to the audiovisual language is fundamental for what is happening with Spanish cinema to continue, which, at the same time we are here, we are in Cannes with three films.

• Did you always think about dedicating yourself to acting? How did it come about?

The decision came to me at 11 years old because they tested us kids in Santiago and that's where I discovered cinema. I was a big movie buff without knowing there was a profession or a person dedicated to it, I had no awareness. The professional aspect came later, and the first films, both The Butterfly's Tongue and The Sea Inside, were a stroke of luck. Then I worked at the craft and I continue to train as an actor because I find it fundamental. It was with practice that I decided to dedicate myself to this and there came a point when I took it seriously.

• Do you think that to be an actor you have to have that 'gift' or is it something that is worked on?

In my experience, I don't consider that I have been able to survive in this and live exclusively from it thanks to any vocational talent. I had no role models in my family and I feel more like an actor the more I train and the more I learn from other people who are dedicated to this profession or other departments because cinema is a team effort. There are people who do have natural talent, but I think it is fundamental to learn and have the tools because it is a craft, more than artistic, although it is also that.

• What did winning the Goya at just 18 years old mean to you?

Apart from the wonderful anecdote because it was a huge gift, it meant responsibility. It was a symbolic moment because I thought that if they awarded me for something I don't master, I have to learn this profession. It was a push to take it more seriously and to professionalize myself as an actor.

• What did you learn from the character of Javi and from the film itself in The Sea Inside, being so young and having such a big impact?

The biggest learning was that, if you are with good and talented people like Alejandro Amenábar, Lola Dueñas or Javier Bardem who know the craft, the more you can learn. Taking advantage of being surrounded by these people is fundamental.

• How was that call to film Clanes? How did you get the role?

Clanes was a casting with several tests and, beyond the world the series narrates, I saw something of the character's nature very Shakespearean, saving the distances. Beyond being a character dedicated to drug trafficking, he has issues with his father and a family system that I think was fundamental in building him.

• What is it like working with Clara Lago?

She is a wonderful colleague and I also think she is a very difficult character. In the end, it's this story of a fish out of water who arrives in an ecosystem that already has its rules and suddenly everything happens to her. We laugh a lot, there is a lot of trust, and this thing about chemistry sometimes has to do with doing things well, beyond getting along better or worse.

• What do you think has made the series so successful?

Impossible love is a universal theme and it's very engaging. I think the screenwriter Jorge Guerricaechevarría is one of the most important in the history of our cinema and it is very well constructed. There are many characters that people can identify with and things are happening all the time, and the proof is that people are watching it compulsively. It is an entertainment story that has very interesting themes.

• Do you think the plot regarding drug trafficking is something that hits close to home in Galicia?

I think what is so captivating about this series and others is not so much the world of drug trafficking because it's a bit of an excuse or the vehicle it travels in. What happens here is that there is a story of being on the margins and the limits of society. In real life, it's something terrible, but what happens in family systems is very interesting on a human level and to see how those people with so much power behave.

• Will there be a third season of Clanes?

The first season theoretically ended there and it seemed to me to have a very coherent ending, as did the second. However, it is true that in this type of story with Netflix in the end, the public is the one who decides... people's participation is very active, who have a feeling that it can continue and it is a probability that it will happen. Things also have to be known how to end them but if you ask me, I think my character still has things that can be explored and I will be happy to do so. 

• What do you find hardest about filming?

The waiting in cinema, the downtime, is what is most tiring. Also the cold or the nights because they are very intense schedules but what happens is that you have to be enthusiastic about it. Spending three months with people you may not know much and being such an intense relationship is a part of the job that you have to like.

• What are the good and bad things about your profession from your experience?

The component of fame does not interest me in this job, but recognition and when people approach with so much pleasure and respect, it goes well. On a cultural or artistic level, the most dangerous thing is that stories are censored. For our culture to be rich, there must be plurality, and the objective should not always be large audiences and an economic end.

• And regarding upcoming projects, can you tell us what you have in hand?

We have just released the second season of Clanes, we have the film Cruzados pending release on Netflix and Ardora for Movistar Plus+. I am also working on other things that are pending announcement.