We met at the Maravillas theater, which for Amparo Larrañaga is the same as meeting in the living room of his house. She is happy because 2025 begins by premiering Jordi Galcerán’s work, FitzRoy, directed by Sergi Belbel and alongside actresses Ruth Diaz, Anna Carreño and Cecilia Solaguren. Four women willing to climb the highest mountain in Patagonia. And the work is about how far you are capable of achieving your goals. Amparo is very clear about it. We spoke about those goals and his life and work on a sunny Madrid morning and with that feeling of comfort that he always evokes.
Four women who embark on achieving a hitherto impossible feat: reaching the top of Mount FitzRoy. And you, to what extent are you capable of achieving your goals?
Honestly, I would never be able to do what these women propose. I don’t understand the challenge of high-risk sports assuming the possibility that you could kill yourself along the way. I assure you that it doesn’t suit me. It doesn’t produce any passion in me. I would kill for mine, but I understand that everyone has their passion.
Do you know where your limits are?
Now, over the years, it’s clearer to me, although there are times when you’re surprised at how far you can go. I felt that when I was accompanying my father (Carlos Larrañaga) until the end of his life. It was something I couldn’t even imagine, but I was there until my father’s last breath, and I don’t want to imagine what would have happened to me if I hadn’t lived it that way.
His luck is that he was able to say goodbye and accompany him in the final stretch.
It’s true, but then the following days were horrible. I couldn’t get those last breaths out of my head and at the same time I felt that it had been a relief to have him so close. That’s why I assure you that life often surprises you with things that you think you are incapable of.
She has been attached to her father’s ashes for a long time. Today can you say that you have overcome it?
At first I couldn’t separate myself. Look, I’m a sensible and very rational woman, but at that moment I couldn’t get used to the idea or resign myself. Well, today I am still unable to watch his films or performances from recent years. I only see the jobs I did when I was young. The truth is that I have had his ashes in my house for twelve years and we have scattered them for one year. I also wanted to wait until my sister Paula grew up to do it and, as life is, then she couldn’t be there. I assure you that life has moments that are the most absurd, like what happened to us the day we spread his ashes in El Pardo. My father loved going to Pigeon Shooting and we looked for a place nearby. I didn’t want to touch the ashes with my hand and it was my brother Luis who told me that he didn’t know how to dump them. He picked up the urn, tipped it over, and the wind hit him directly and he was left with all his clothes soaked in ashes. The truth is that it was a situation that if his death had only occurred would have been tremendous, but thank goodness the years had passed. I admit that I didn’t want to let go of his ashes, don’t ask me why, and when they told me to keep a handful and let go of the rest, I didn’t. I understood. What is a little bit, a piece of your body? No no. That being said, I still have a hard time understanding that my father is not here.
The truth is that it is a carbon copy of Carlos Larrañaga.
Lately they also tell me that I look like my mother but I don’t find that similarity.
And in personality?
My father was more shameless than me (laughs). All brothers have their humor, even Pedro who could surprise you. It is a mood of letting everything out wildly that we have inherited from my aunt Amparo Rivelles and my grandmother María Fernanda Ladrón de Guevara.
His mother, María Luisa Merlo, is, however, sweetness made flesh.
She is sweet, charming, happy, always cheerful… the other day, at 83 years old, she conducted a concert for us on La 2 that had me dying of laughter while using a kitchen stick as a baton. She is very generous in everything.
Do the Larrañagas get together for Christmas?
Not really. Years ago we did, but now the children have grown up, each one has their in-laws, there are those who don’t celebrate… My mother, for example, told me that she was going to have a spiritual night but I know that what she wanted was to see her Pasapalabra and go to bed at 9 without anyone bothering him, he loves that.
How is your brother Caco?
Well but damaged since he had his cancer. Although he is well cared for, it is true that he is the one with the worst health of all.
Perform a work only with women. Is the man out of context already?
We are really women because it is about achieving a challenge that to date an expedition only for women has not managed to achieve, which is to climb that mountain.
He will not deny that now is the time for women and I would add diversity as seen in all casts. Do you think it is a trend, a quota or that diversity is really already a reality?
I assure you that my son’s generation is horrified by the perfection seen in the Victoria’s Secret fashion shows. Today we like diversity, differences. Boris Vian already wrote it in his book wolf man when he told a story where the ugly people were always locked up until the day they were released and the women went crazy. Perfection is tiring, boring and exhausting. Wherever there is diversity, everything should be removed, so I don’t think it’s just a fashion, although obviously there will be those who do it by quota. But I assure you that the new generations are like that and don’t see what lessons they give you.
And how do you handle the passage of time? On the contrary, we have the example of the actress Demi Moore, who at 62 years old looks incredible and demonstrates with her efforts that the pressure still exists.
The pressure of course exists and over the years you become invisible. Luckily in the theater I haven’t felt it because the roles are not so marked by age or they are not so fixed. A year ago, in Lapland, I played the mother of an 8-year-old boy and no one judged me. But that doesn’t happen on television. You don’t exist there. The highlighter doesn’t care about your wrinkles because they think you’re old, while the young girl cares that her bangs don’t overshadow her. It keeps happening.
His comfort zone is the theater.
Of course. I don’t have to put up with bullshit or anything like that. I also work with family and that is an added joy that I don’t even want to tell you about. If I worked in other companies I confess that it would not be the same or similar.
The luck is that all the brothers get along fantastically.
Absolutely. We have blind trust in each other and we know perfectly well what each one has to do without getting into someone else’s territory. I have seen families break up over a business or an apartment and that between us is unthinkable.
What is your role in the family?
Although my mother is very well, the truth is that I am the matriarch. Pedro is the one who handles business with impeccable honesty and I confess that neither Luis nor I would know how to do it. Mine is emotional intelligence but Pedro’s work is the hardest.
Is it still as good in love?
I have been with the father of my little son for 28 years and everything is fine. In relationships you have to give yourself freedom, understand that there are good and bad moments and think if it’s worth it. The most difficult thing is not falling in love, the difficult thing is seeing what happens a year later when you have already woken up and the smells are real and the hormones do not disguise anything. Coexistence, day to day life, sleeping together… that’s what’s real. Within our enormous freedom and setbacks, I understand that we are also friends, partners and life partners and that is how you want to continue. If one day you feel no, then it wouldn’t be a trauma either because it would be an end from absolute maturity. Nobody knows what can happen to you in life but I assure you that even if that moment came we would still be the best friends in the world.
In this he has the example of his parents who adored each other despite ending their union.
I’m just telling you that if my father hadn’t died, the next role I was going to perform was with my mother. They adored each other.
She is one of the actresses who doesn’t like to talk about politics.
It seems to me that they are all scoundrels and on top of that they take over all the programs because they are exhibitionists and egomaniacs. They lie with all their face and they don’t care. That’s why when I’m giving an interview I refuse to talk about them because on top of that I hate them and they’re all the same. Disgusting.
I understand you no longer vote?
Yes, I vote, but I already do it without enthusiasm and thinking about the least bad thing I can find.
2025 arrives with new work. What else?
This work is my great plan and for the rest let me stay as I am. May my mother remain healthy, may my children be well, may my entertainment continue, my work… I don’t know if I want to. die with boots on. Today I find myself with strength and desire but think that I started when I was 15 and I have missed many things. This job absorbs everything, it is six days a week after the pandemic without stopping. Just to have heart surgery.
How are you feeling?
Better than ever. It is true that heart surgery is very shocking because they stop it. There was a small risk of mortality but I also knew that in this type of intervention you can stay in the operating room because they stop your heart for 50 minutes. I was very confident in the medical team but I had a hard time seeing my family’s faces when they carried me on a stretcher down the hallway to the operating rooms. Then I didn’t find out anything. The night before I did ask them to go away and leave me alone because I needed to stop acting strong and falling over with the whole team. It happened to me and then I had fun watching things online of what I would need after the operation.
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