Ester Expósito: el fenómeno (Elle interview translation)
Ester Expósito: the phenomenon
She uploads a photo: five million ‘likes’. A dance: 81 million views. You might think “a cute actress with many followers”. You’d be wrong. She uses the tools of her era and understands her audience, but there’s much, much more.
A cute girl that dances reggaeton and acts. A cute 20-year-old girl that takes selfies and dances. So much smartphone. So much duckface. So much story. And 25 million followers. That is what so many people think when they see her. But, in life, you almost always have to swallow prejudices, and with Ester more. After chatting with her, one realizes that she’s clever, very clever, with a clear discourse, talent, and empathy. Analytical, with clear things and lifelong friends. After overwhelming with her charisma in the series Élite, she has just premiered on Netflix ’Someone has to die’ (on set she met her partner, Alejandro Speitzer), directed by Manolo Caro, and in December she presents the comedy ‘Mom or dad’, alongside Paco León and Miren Ibarguren.
I was warned that ‘Élite’ would be a ‘boom’ and I prepared myself in order to understand that there are up and down moments. That you don’t please everyone. That you can’t get carried away by having a bad day
The reggaeton dance that she published in the middle of confinement has 81 million views. «Nonsense, nonsense», she says discreetly. It has been seen almost twice as many times as the population of Spain. A constant trending topic despite herself. You might consider: «A fruit product of social media». You'd be wrong again. She is the one responsible for her success. Long live the queen of generation Z.
Manolo Caro (director of The House of Flowers) believes that the secret of your success is understanding the moment in which you live.
COVID-19 aside, it's a moment of change, with so much force on social media. It’s been important to prepare myself and to prevent the boom that I was warned could happen with Élite. To understand that there will be up and down moments. That you won’t always please everyone. That, although sometimes it’s overbearing to be recognized, you’re in a privileged place and fulfilling your dream. It’s a very difficult profession, and I’m conscious of the fact that I must value where I find myself. I can't get carried away by a bad day.
It was nonsense of a video, but it went very viral... Even I, when I saw that it was a ‘trending topic’ on Twitter, it disgusted me. It's not my thing to be in the firing line all the time. I'm more discreet
Are you affected by criticism?
We all have to create a shell so that it doesn't hurt us. At first, there was not so much criticism circulating because it was novelty. But later, after a couple of years, there are people that get tired of seeing you everywhere. I noticed it as a result of my dancing video (the one with 81 million views). It’s nonsense, nonsense of a video, but it went very viral... Even I, when I saw that it was a trending topic on Twitter, it disgusted me. It's not my thing to be in the firing line all the time. I'm more discreet. It’s true that an overwhelming majority of people send me affection, and it would be unjust to look at the three that write me something bad. So I relativize it, it almost doesn’t affect me.
What would you say to a girl that suffers from something like this on social media?
It’s even more unjust that it happens to someone that isn’t exposed by their work. I’d say never to lose sight of the fact that social media is a showcase for entertaining you, for sharing a piece of your life, like a personal tool… I’d say that maintaining distance and, of course, that, in the case of it being something like acts of hate, report it. And, if it affects you too much, get off social media.
Do you believe that your generation knows how to use it better than the previous ones because they were born with it?
We make more use, although we’re also very enslaved because we don’t know life without social media. And we suffer a greater pressure, especially women. If before there was already that pressure, now even more so. It’s true that it allows us to show our voice and to defend our causes, but it’s a dangerous place for little girls and not so little girls. They’re seeing bodies all day that aren’t real, which can distort their own image. I do not get up each day like in the photos that I upload. I'm not glamorous like that. But I don’t get to take a picture just out of bed and post it. Do not forget that it is a piece, a showcase.
What battles do centennials have pending?
We need to fight for many things. For example, for feminism. We can’t say that things haven’t changed: not long ago women could not vote and a thousand other things. We’ve made progress, although there is still something that permeates society. Of course, there is violence and abuse, but I also speak of the fact that women are questioned about absolutely everything. You have to have zero tolerance for any micromachismo. Even I notice that I don't feel equally free to express myself in groups of friends. We need to understand that we are conditioned, that we act in a macho way in our environment without realizing it. Many people see it as something punctual: «This guy killed his girlfriend». But machismo is much more subtle. And I insist: it permeates everything.
Do you feel identified with Cayetana, your character in Someone has to die?
Not much. With Carla (whom she embodies in Élite) we did have things in common: being very rational, not moving on impulses, analyzing everything constantly… Some people can't help but continually think about things that happen. At times it’s very enslaving and very exhausting. But, well, it’s a way of reacting. So, yes, I had things in common with her. However, Cayetana doesn’t think about the consequences of her actions. She only focuses on what she wants. She goes to it like an animal, to death, without calibration, without considering if what she does is okay. Let alone thinking about others. It’s true that the moment in which it’s set (the 50s) was difficult, with a very macho society, but she is the darling little girl of a good family. She lacks empathy. Her family hasn't taught her to put herself in people's shoes. She crosses a boy that she likes more than Gabino (who is the one they had in mind for her). It doesn't measure. I’d dare to say that there isn’t any of myself in her. Although it’s been nice to interpret such a distant character.
Doesn’t it scare you to get yourself a bad role? Or is Cayetana just reckless?
Being bad is a bit of a black and white concept. She is the result of a social group with some concrete political characteristics and that at that time they used to not see beyond their noses. I don’t believe that what Cayetana does is because she doesn't realize it: she knows that she’s gonna mess it up, but she doesn’t care. She knows that she’s one of those who always wins, of the social class that never loses. She doesn't measure her actions because she feels supported.
And is that still happening?
Yes, there’s a social class that has things, I don’t know if it’s easier, but they’re in a privileged position. Everyone has the right to find themselves a job in the place that they can or to stay where their family is situated, but they have a responsibility as a human being: not to leave others lying around. Not like Cayetana, who only thinks about herself; she doesn't care about the suffering of others and what might happen. I believe that, wherever you are, you must take responsibility and help to the extent of your abilities. I don’t know if it’s exactly a social class, a circle… For example, when we were all in quarantine and had been at home for two months, they started to go out to the street to make demonstrations without any type of protection or distance. They were the same ones that complained everything had been the fault of the 8M demonstration. They wanted to end the confinement in order to go to work, but, at the same time, they said that they should have confined us earlier.
I think about what happens in the working-class neighborhoods of Madrid...
I believe that so much comfort exists and that, when you possess those privileges, you must be responsible, be more with those who don’t have them and collaborate in not muddying or generating more hatred than there already is in this country, which there’s always been.
We’d been at home for two months and there were people that started to go out to protest in the streets without protection or distance. They were the same ones that blamed everything that happened on the March 8 demonstration.
Are young people understanding this?
Everyone votes and thinks what they want, but, when things go against human rights, it seems very egotistic and irresponsible to me. If you live in a country in which there’s public health and education, more security and more opportunities, you must undeniably take responsibility and not make the picture more difficult. I think, for example, about the refugees. Nobody gets into a boat adrift at sea unless they have to flee hell. Do things need to be regulated? Of course, but it seems to me that it’s a matter of human rights. I’d like to believe that the new generations are more empathetic, but I don’t know.
Is there still that elite that’s inherited?
Of course, and discrimination, inequality… There are many people that are still comfortable, that prefer that nothing changes because they want to maintain their privileges. Although I like to think that something will change.
Do you now feel more privileged?
Well, I have always had luck. I didn't have a complicated childhood. I haven’t lacked love. I haven’t suffered difficulties. And now I don’t feel that I belong to an elite because I’m still the same. Do I have success? Yes, but I still consider myself part of the same group, which isn’t measured by the standard of living, but by what you do for others and by what you care about certain causes. For example, we are absolutely not different from refugees. Being born here is a matter of luck.
It’s been a very hard year. I’m very concerned about the situation of families without resources, that aren’t going to have anything to support themselves with. And I feel an enormous impotence because I don’t know how we’re going to get out of this. Not only because of the virus, but because of the effects of this crisis. Besides, we’re tired. We want to return to normal life, but we can’t. I also feel that saturation, that exhaustion… Although I’m very fortunate to be at the moment in which I am professionally and with desire and enthusiasm because things are already being done again. I’m glad that people go to the cinema and to the theater, that they don't forget about the sector. I am choosing very well every step I take. I want to focus on my career long-term, and I believe that for that you have to think carefully. Especially if you’re lucky enough to be able to choose.
Your next project, Mom or Dad, is a comedy. Have you seen yourself comfortable in that terrain?
The truth is yes. It’s a humorous movie about a couple that goes to separate and neither of the two desires custody of their children, despite loving them very much: he has been offered a big position and she wants to go volunteering. I have a very small role, and I was very excited to work with Dani (De la Orden, the director), whom I already worked with on Élite and to whom I can not say no, and also with Paco (León). It’s a fun comedy, which at this moment is good.
Ernesto Alterio and Carmen Maura, two of your castmates on Someone has to die, say that you’re amiable. Would you define yourself like that?
I have a hard time opening up, even with my surroundings. I strive to be kind to who I just met, with the team and with castmates, my disposition is caring. But I’m not going to tell you my life. I want to be friendly, as I like that they are with me. That's what I've been brought up on.
Yes, I’ve always been educated in respect, in courtesy… Being kind costs nothing. I’m introverted and can seem cold, but I strive to be kind.
What would your friends say about you?
I have more quality than quantity of friends, and they’re the same as many years ago. I don’t know what they’d say, but they do love me so much and rejoice in all the good that is happening to me, that I can be fulfilling my dreams. You should ask them.
I seem to see two people: one is the one from Instagram and the other is this Ester. Does knowing that there are 25 million people waiting for a photo that you’re going to publish determine it?
Yes, I feel pressure, although that doesn’t mean that I don't value all the affection that I receive day to day from others. And, when I can, I remind them that I read them and that I know they’re there. It’s a responsibility to thank them… Let's see, people aren’t waiting for my photos, they’re living their life. But it’s true that if I click… I'm wearing a distance chip.
