Vanesa Romero: “Beauty is nothing without self-esteem, and it has cost me a lot of work to have it” | Culture

Yes, Vanesa Romero is as beautiful as in the photos. I would say more, because, unlike other beauties, hers seems natural, although, certainly, there may be certain reinforcements from a good aesthetic medicine office, and it is accompanied by the mastery of gesture and body from her past as a model and athlete. They meet at their house, a designer chalet in a wealthy municipality of Madrid, in whose living room three little dogs, littermates, whose elderly canine father has been accompanying their owner all his life, chat. On the table, books signed by the hostess, with titles such as Reflections of a blonde y alone with me, and fashion magazines with her brilliant face on the cover.

While we chat, a messenger arrives wearing a dress borrowed from a company for a red carpet. Romero flies tonight to Argentina, whose Mar del Plata film festival has chosen his short, Sex at 70as the only fiction (the short won the award last night). A “great way” to celebrate, at 47 years old, 30 years of a career that began at 17, in the living room of his parents’ house in his hometown, Alicante.

How was that?

I remember the day perfectly. I was returning from sports class one afternoon and I found some people from the festival committee at home who wanted my sister, four years older than me, to be the beauty from the neighborhood bonfire. I came exhausted from training, sweaty, with my braid half undone, they saw me and, since my sister didn’t want to and I was going to turn 18 just before the holidays, they told my parents: well it has to be her.

And you did want it?

I said yes unconsciously. For enjoying the festival of my city in another way. And to explore other paths. Right at that time I was in a moment of change. My life was sports, I was an athlete and I specialized in speed: I ran the 100, the 80, the 200 meters, and I was good: I became the best athlete in the Valencian Community. Running was my passion, I felt like I was flying, and I abstracted from everything, but the injuries were beginning to weigh on me. When they proposed that to me, it seemed like a way to try other things: I signed up for a school to learn how to walk, how to pose for photos, I started working as a model, then TV came, and then acting. It was all natural.

What was he abstracted from running? About the bullying that you have confessed you suffered?

Completely. Sport has shaped me. It has taught me to motivate myself, to manage frustration, to have discipline. It’s today and my hair still stands on end. At school, I was very studious, one of the first in the class, and I began to feel rejection and isolation. They changed my school, and at the new one it happened again. I wondered what it was about me that made this happen to me, I didn’t understand. By doing sports I escaped and felt free.

Did you notice that they looked at you since you were little?

What I noticed, from a very young age, was that my eyes attracted attention. Everyone told me that. I was the girl with the pretty eyes, but all that didn’t protect me from the other thing. I always wore a braid and I remember one day, in the playground, the whole school started throwing water balloons at me to wet my hair and see if it was curly. A teacher passed by and said that those were kid things. I felt very alone. That, at a time in your life when you are developing, is something that stays deep inside you and stays with you for a long, long time.

And, suddenly, that girl becomes a model, she is on the cover of magazines and the actress of There is no one who lives here y The one that is coming. Was it his revenge?

What’s up? You don’t feel that way inside. Beauty is nothing without self-esteem, and it has taken me many years and a lot of work to achieve it. It has been a very long process of self-discovery. If you don’t feel good about yourself, it doesn’t matter how many times they tell you how beautiful you are. For me, fashion and TV were work, I worked very hard and, as in sports, I did it based on discipline. Now, I know who I am and what I am, but that didn’t happen until I was well into my 30s.

Was there a click?

There were a lot of little clicks. Above all, there was in me the humility of wanting to learn, the curiosity to do other things, to discover myself in other facets. I tried to write, I have written since I was a child, since those school days I kept my diary, and I continue to do so: it helps me to position myself, to discover myself. In the breaks of The one that is coming, Instead of going to the dressing room to study the script, or to rest, I stayed on the set and looked at the technical team, the cameras, everything. I would sit with Alberto (Caballero, director of the series, who was her husband for a year) or Laura (Caballero, also director) and I would be amazed. I think that, without knowing it, I learned a lot, and, with all that, I dared to direct.

He’s been living this for 30 years. He must have done something.

And it hasn’t been easy. I thank life because I have been lucky enough to be able to make a living from this. But it is also true that I have not stopped. There the honor of the sport comes out again. If you lose, you get up, work harder and keep going. I have been reinventing myself. I have been a presenter, model, performer, and now also a director. It was a big step to discover that what motivated me was to create.

How did you choose the theme for your short film? Sex at 70?

Because I don’t want to be left without trying things. And, one day, thinking about possible topics to address, talking to my mother, like every day, I started thinking about what intimate relationships between parents would be like and I asked her directly.

What do you say to me? But that is the great taboo of children.

Well, for that reason, for me the first. But at that moment I had the courage to ask, and I began to pull the thread. I realized that there was an issue there, I talked to many more people and I met everything: from women who had never enjoyed sexuality, to others who, when they were older, had found a new partner and were discovering it. I decided to address the topic through comedy, because I have been doing it for so many years, that I am very good at it and I apply it to everything in my life.

Time passes for everyone. How do you get along with the mirror, are you friends?

Sometimes, no. And it doesn’t always have to be. I look at myself and of course there are changes. I have taken care of myself all my life. It’s like what we said about sexuality, it’s going to change and you can’t fight against it. It will come and I have to accept that, as time goes by, you gain some things and lose others. But every body can be desirable at all ages.

How many times have you felt prejudged as a professional and as a person because of your appearance?

That’s the topic. People are free to think what they want. There comes a point where the only opinion that matters to me is the one I have of myself, of my environment and of my family. But I also tell you: there is my work. I’m not in those anymore. The criticisms I have had have helped me analyze myself and learn to know myself. For me, the basis of success is self-esteem. The important thing is how you felt doing that work. And what I am sure of is that I have given everything. Everything else is what has to be exposed.

Can you enter a place and go unnoticed?

Honestly, no. And that is also difficult to manage. It’s not easy. There are days when you need your space, your time, your story, but you learn to live with it. Maybe I have it very normalized, but when I have people around me you realize that you also put them in the focus, and it is not easy, but I have learned to accept it. That said, everything has its side A and its side B. I am very grateful for what life has given me and I have learned to live with what I have.