“Watching Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill as a young girl triggered my passion for acting,” says Laia Manzanares. “I loved seeing how strong and free Uma Thurman is in the film. I remember thinking, ‘Yes, that’s what I want.’ And at 14 I signed up at an acting school in Barcelona.”
That determination has continued. During one of her first jobs, Manzanares asked the director of a commercial if she could audition for a series he was working on called Cites; she won the part. Merlí — another Catalan series, streaming on Netflix — and a music video for Australia’s Tame Impala followed.
She does not conceal her passion for the job. “Telling stories helps us understand each other better, heal us even and I’m happy trying new things, open to all sorts of projects.”
Two highlights in film have been The Realm by Rodrigo Sorogoyen and Girl Unknown by Pablo Maqueda, her first time in a lead role. Manzanares is a powerful presence in the latter, a psychological thriller that premiered at this year’s Malaga Film Festival. She plays a naïve minor who communicates online with a boy her age. When they agree to meet, he turns out to be a middle-aged man (played by Manolo Solo).
“We found humour the key to relaxing between takes,” she says. “And, trust me, laughs were welcome in a shoot where the temperature was often below zero and I was wearing shorts, a T-shirt and chewing ice to avoid my breath showing on camera.”
Manzanares has recently worked in Lo Que Queda De Ti, the debut film by Gala Gracia, and also has a part in the Netflix thriller series The Longest Night. In February next year she will star in a production of Laura Wade’s The Watsons, a play adapted from the unfinished novel of the same name by Jane Austen, at Catalonia’s National Theatre in Barcelona.
Manzanares expresses her admiration for the work of Richard Linklater, who makes exactly the type of films with which she would love to get involved. “I’d also like to work with Rodrigo Sorogoyen again, Carla Simon, Tarantino. A one-line role would do. Wouldn’t that be a great way to go full circle?”
Contact: Carlos Ramos, Cram Talent
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