Rodrigo Palacios, actor of “LXI”: “There are many terms that are treated in the film as friendship, love and suicide”

Rodrigo Palacios had been captivated by Wik, Rodrigo Moreno del Valle's feature debut. From that moment on, the actor and director began to talk to work on an upcoming project. However, Moreno del Valle was postponing it until one day he called him to let him know that he had a script prepared - which varied during the shooting - and he wanted to be part of the film LXI.

The Peruvian film is about four former schoolmates (Cynthia Moreno, Rodrigo Palacios, Sebastián Rubio and Javier Saavedra) who reunited after almost 20 years due to the suicide of a mutual friend. Despite the great attachment they had during school, they each decided to take different paths for a life-changing episode in high school.

—Daniel, the character you play is macho and homophobic, was it a big challenge to represent this figure?

“Daniel is nothing like me. And it represents a type of people who have stayed at a stage in their lives and have not been able to mature or look beyond. I studied at a conservative school and I have crossed paths with 40 people very similar to Daniel. The atmosphere was familiar, not the character, but it had several references; and I was able to use them during the shooting.

“Besides, you didn't want to fall into the cliché.

—It's very easy to generalize and stereotype. One challenge, as an actor, was that I wanted to make this character more human. My job was not to typify it or judge it, but to understand it: why it thinks or reacts like that. When the film is over, I would like the audience not to hate Daniel, and that is a big challenge I have as an actor.

—In the character of Daniel, the family background was noted so that it becomes what he represents in LXI.

“I wanted it to be understood that my character had been raised that way. This happens a lot in macho societies, it happens from generation to generation, and if you don't think the same as your parents, you're the outsider of the family, which is very strong. It is a cross with which Peruvians and Latin Americans carry. That was a big challenge because it is only explained between the lines.

—Could you say that LXI was a recording between friends?

“I was excited to record with friends. Some of us knew each other from other recordings and with others we became very close friends in the process because we got together a lot to rehearse. It was a minimal team in the style of the film and there was little budget (laughs). We became like a small family for the short time it lasted.

— What do you expect from LXI?

“I hope a lot of people see it, but I don't know how real that is because here they usually last a week or two in movie theaters, especially for Peruvian independent films that tell a very nice story, but not necessarily big or commercial. I would also like word of mouth to work and, above all, to fit in the public. There are many topics that are dealt with in the film without saying much like friendship, love and suicide.

—As an actor, what are you left with from this film?

“With friendship. Because, despite the differences between these four people, they still love each other, miss each other and continue to treat each other as if nothing happened after 20 years of leaving school. It happens to all of us: I meet friends from school that I haven't seen for a long time and it's as if nothing happened; yes, we have more gray hair, we are a little fatter, but the affection remains the same. Friendship transcends. We often try to force friends to think and act like us, and I think that there should always be diversity in friendship.

— What is your vision of Peruvian cinema today?

—There is a lack of money as in all the cultural industries of Peru. If there are resources to allocate it to the industry, there are resources to educate people about Peruvian cinema, so that there is more promotion of culture, to make more cinemas, among other things. There is a lot of talent and many stories to tell. We have the resources, but there is a lack of support.

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