Elena Anaya

Logically, her great beauty has helped her, that very deep look with her dark, large and bright eyes, and that enormous smile that shines on her face with its square and proportionate contours. But her great naturalness before the cameras is unquestionable, her talent to give credibility to her characters, no matter how strange or far-fetched they may be. But we must not believe that Elena Anaya had it easy, she even had a hard time getting to the top more than normal.

Elena Anaya was born in Palencia on July 17, 1975. From a very young age she experienced the consequences of the separation of her parents and perhaps that influenced the fact that she was not a student what is called a model. Specifically, she repeated two courses at school, 6th EGB and COU. Come on, that digging her elbows was not going. At that time, she helped her mother with the cleaning and cooking of a student boarding house. At the age of 21, Elena Anaya decided to leave her city and went first to Cádiz and, finally, to Madrid, where she took the entrance exams at the Royal School of Dramatic Art (RESAD). But she did not enter and she had to settle for an acting course taught by the actor Manuel Morón , famous for her roles inthe ball orSmoking Room . Around that time, she went to a casting for the filmAfrica . They needed a teenager and the director Alfonso Ungría believed that Elena Anaya was 15 years old. He gave him the role and when he found out that it was a lie he maintained the same decision considering that the viewers would also believe it. Later, Elena tried again to join RESAD and this time she succeeded. However, soon after she was expelled for not going to class. The reason was actually that she was immersed in the filming of her second film:Family , by Fernando León de Aranoa . But Elena Anaya did not want to stop training and she then went to the acting school of Juan Carlos Corazza. During those years she continued to combine her studies with appearances in various films, such asblack tears or the stupendousThe traces erased . She also participated in several plays.

The step she needed in the world of cinema was given by Julio Medem , when he offered her the role of Belén in 2001Lucia and sex . Elena Anaya convinced her with her role as “Lolita” and got a Goya Award nomination. Already as a known face, she began to swell the casts of larger films, such as dramas.No News From God (2001) orGrudge (2002). Pedro Almodóvar himselfrequested his presence inTalk to her (2002). Despite being a very secondary role, Elena Anaya could not refuse the director from La Mancha. In 2003 she shot the criminal comedy, Spanish-style,Two tough guys , with Antonio Resines and Jordi Vilches . Then came the time to take a quality leap in his career: leave Spain. After shooting a short film in the United States, director Stephen Sommers signed her to be one of Dracula’s girlfriends in the action movieVan Helsing . And in England he then shoots a thriller with Gary Oldman called Dead Fish . And from the action Elena Anaya then goes on to form a terrifying team with the Spanish Jaume Balagueró . with the rolledFragile , accompanied by Calista Flockhart .

She returned later to take another leap in her successful career, at least with regard to her popularity, with her role as the malevolent Angélica de Alquézar inAlatriste , where they made Unax Ugalde have a hard time . And after starring in the despicable comedyMiguel and William , once again flaunted his internationality by participating in the stupendous and violent French thrillerMesrine Part 1: Death Instinct , opposite Vincent Cassel . And after putting himself back under the command of Agustín Díaz Yanes in the failedI just want to walk , he took a big risk inRoom in Rome , a disappointing lesbian-erotic film by Medem. Elena Anaya made it very clear that she was willing to do everything for herself and to be seen doing it. The fact is that it was news, of course. She then went to Egypt to shoot the romantic drama Cairo Time , opposite Patricia Clarkson . And in 2010 Almodóvar went after her to, this time, give her a leading role in her next film:The skin I live in