Ernest Alterio impresses with his personification of the sinister lieutenant colonel Carlos Eugenio Moori Koenig in the miniseries Saint Avoid. He is the key actor in the plot, the man who is in charge of making the embalmed body of Eva Peron three years after his death. She is also the one who, before, had been aide-de-camp to the first lady during her years of splendor and who passed on the reports to Juan Domingo Peron during his wife’s illness. And the same one who later developed a sick passion for the corpse that ended up driving him crazy.
“I am very happy to have participated in this great production, with very talented people and telling this story that is fascinating,” Alterio tells teleshow about the seven-part miniseries that airs on Star+, coinciding with the 70th anniversary of Evita’s death. The play is based on the famous novel by Thomas Eloy Martinez published in 1995, and the cast is completed with Natalia Oreiro like Eva, Dario Grandinetti like Peron, Francis Orella like the embalming doctor Pedro Ara and Diego Velazquez like the journalist Mariano Vázquez, a kind of alter ego of Eloy Martínez.
The role marks a before and after in Ernesto’s career, especially in his relationship with Argentina. It is that the journey of his character goes from 1947 to 1971, and to a certain extent dialogues with his personal history of uprooting, with that country that saw him born in 1970 and four years later pushed him into exile due to the threats suffered by his father, the prestigious Hector Altherio. “My dad was able to come back here in the year 80″, says the actor who lived most of his personal and professional life in Spain, and who feels a bit of each land.
—Moori Koenig is a very interesting dark and crazy character to play.
—Actually, yes. The proposal was very attractive because of the possibility of playing such a complex being, with such a strange conflict. And also with an incident, such a long journey, right? Because the character appears at the age of 35 at the height of his prime and suffers a deterioration process until he appears at the end of the story, aged 65, completely drunk and psychotic. He is a very rich character
—And that he has become obsessed with Evita’s body.
-Y… is to a certain extent also the story of an obsession. It is the story, yes, of this character who is entrusted with this mission at first to take care of someone he detests, let’s say, ideologically, but a strange attraction begins to play in him, right? I think that creates a tremendous cocktail. Also located in a historical moment, to properly measure what that figure meant at that time. So, well, he is a very rich character that has also allowed me to explore aspects of the human condition, also very strange.
I want to stay in character first. When putting it together, had you previously read the book?
-Nope. Before receiving the proposal knew of the existence of the book. I had read Peron’s novelbut I had not read Saint Avoid. It was as a result of making contact with the project that I was able to read it.
—And how is the link to the distance with Peronism?
“I don’t know very well. Not living here, I don’t have a day-to-day of what it is. What I know is from what my parents tell me, from what I learned from my grandparents: it is a movement that has interested me as well as the history of Argentina, which is my country of origin. In Spain they ask me about Peronism: they don’t understand it. Likewise, it is a movement that has been mutating until today.
Do you feel Argentine?
-Look, I am Argentine but I am also Spanish, and I feel lucky because it is something that adds up. I mean, I’m Argentine and I’m also Spanish, and I’m also the son of Héctor and Angela. And besides, I’m brother of Malene. And also, the father of Lola. In other words, they are things that add up. I don’t feel like a conflict.
-I go back to Saint Avoid. It is very interesting how the series tells, through what happened to Eva’s body, a difficult historical moment in Argentina.
-Yes. For me, what is interesting about the series is that it is based on the novel by Tomás Eloy, in which it is based on a historical fact, but it makes a construction in which the terrain between fiction and reality is not so clear. Tomás Eloy himself said that the things he invented people thought were true, and the things that were true, people did not believe. So for me the interesting thing is that puts the ball on a playing field where reality and fiction do a dance.
—Well, it’s clear, it’s a big gray area where we don’t really know what happened.
—It is clear that it starts from historical facts, but I think it also has to do with the very structure of the myths. I think of Jesus Christ: there are historical facts, but what is true? The myths are made by men.
—Well, something of that also appears in the first chapter and has to do with the reason why they decide to steal the body: so as not to turn her into a saint.
—That’s what they entrust to my character: “Turn her into a quiet dead person”. They were very afraid of the power that she had first in life, and once dead, they were still very afraid of what she could do. We find ourselves at a time when the military that overthrew Perón also mounted a campaign to eradicate everything that had to do with Peronism. and in that sense, Eva’s body was a very powerful emblem. So they had to see how to expropriate that body, make it theirs and make it disappear.
—How was the bond with Natalia?
– I had already been able to work with her in Clandestine Childhooda film of Benjamin Avila. We knew each other. It is very pleasant to work with her. In addition, she is super well placed in this project, and that made it very pleasant and very easy.
“You have done an incredible job, of course. The realization, the period setting is wonderful. And I like to highlight how this world in which we are living with platforms allows products of amazing quality that reach different parts of the world.
—Actually, yes. And it is something to thank Star+ very much: for having had this initiative and this courage and this commitment to make a product and summon such talented people here. we have the Chango Monti which is a jewel here in Argentina, a great illuminator. Mercedes Alfonsin in art direction. Is it so Rodrigo Garcia Y Salma Hayek as executive producers… It’s a very good time because high-quality streaming products appear.
—What do you want to happen with the series?
“Well… may it be a worldwide success.” That is what I wish. I really want you to see it and share it with people. Let it be of the people.
—And we want you in more projects in Argentina.
-Wow, me too. They’re going to see me.
-You are willing? Do you feel like it?
—Yes, for me there is something very special about coming to work here. There is something in me that is complete.
:
