Reportes de eventos
By Jorge Smith
 Othelo Rensoli, a Cuban mulatto (46) who recalls physically young General Harry VillegasTamayo (Pombo in Che Guevara´s guerrillas) granted an interview exclusively to Cubasi.cu about his acting in Steven Soderberg´s (Ocean´s Eleven) film on the Heroic Guerrilla.
For 20 years, Rensoli has lived in England and this is his first major Hollywood production in which he shared roles with Puerto Rican star Benicio del Toro (Oscar secondary performance by the film Traffic).
- Who is Othelo Rensoli?
A Cuban actor, primarily theater, who had the honor of studying with a great figures from Cuban scene like Paco Alfonso, in the ICRT group La Quebrada del Yuro, Olga Alonso and the FAR Art Group.
- How did you get involved in Steven Soderberg´s project?
I was in Madrid, and my friend Jorge Perugorría (Fresa y Chocolate), who had finished La Mala, with Lena Burke (granddaughter of singer Elena Burke), was negotiating with Steven Soderberg for his entry into the "casting" ( cast) of the film about Che Guevara.
Soderberg expected Perugorría to play the role of Commander Fidel Castro, and then Pichy (Perugorría) called me to serve as translator in his conversation with American moviemakers and also encouraged me to do the tests for casting.
- What did you do then?
-I traveled to Cuba and I went to Che Guevara Studies Center. I visited libraries. I bought the book of Pombo´s memories and other guerrilla survivors. I read again Che´s Diary, Passages of the Revolutionary War and Man and Socialism in Cuba. I conducted a very detailed study in which emerged strongly the personalities of guerrillas.
I think Che´s heroic deed in Cuba, Congo and Bolivia along with their comrades is something of which every honest and humanist man should feel proud of.
- Who integrates the casting of the film about Che?
Well, there are two films, one is entitled El Argentino, that started when Ernesto Guevara met Fidel at Maria Antonia´s home, in Mexico, until the Battle of Santa Clara; the other, Guerrilla, covers Che´s internationalist campaign.
The first film starts from an interview granted by Che to the media during his visit to New York to address the United Nations. This interview becomes a kind of leitmotiv of the theme for the film, because Che talks about his relationship with the Cuban revolution and his political, social, and humanistic concepts.
The casting is composed of Benicio del Toro as Che, Mexican star Demián Bichir as Fidel, Brazilian Rodrigo Santoro personifies Raúl, Vladimir Cruz is Ramiro Valdés, Colombian Catalina Sandino is Aleida March, Cuban and “Almodovar´s girl” María Isabel Díaz personifies Maria Antonia and German Franca Potente (Corre Lola, Corre) is Tania the Guerrilla.
- How do you think Hollywood dealt with the subject?
I had my doubts at the beginning because Hollywood has preference for the show, pulling power of interest and everything that attracts takings, but I must say that as I sensed, the entire shooting team and producers accepted it with great passion and respect.
They traveled frequently to Cuba in that time to meet relatives, comrades in fight, friends and scholars. The film is, moreover, an approach to the real history of Cuba, which is not spread by the media for other purposes.
I think it's very important to insert outside the usual commercial part, the image of Che in the United States, that the U.S. citizens can see that there is a new kind of man that does not work for money or selfish interests, that there are really high human values.
- What impact had the film, did you watch it?
-I watched the first part at the Cannes Film Festival and it had a fantastic reception. Benicio del Toro won the performance award and directors of the festival chose the film to screen it in schools. I have not watched the second part, but both parts will be screened in Cuba with almost all the shooting team to present it.
- What does Othelo Rensoli expect after this Hollywood recognition?
-I do not feel compelled to Hollywood as an actor, I liked the script and the shooting team and I took it.
Cubasí Translation Staff
Distributor's website with various performance details:
http://www.ifcfilms.com/calenderByMonth.htm?eventId=1664
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