Oscar Jaenada

Born in the Barcelona town of Esplugues de Llobregat, on May 4, 1975, Óscar Jaenada discovered cinema at the hands of his grandfather, who used to take him to see all kinds of films. At the age of 13, he was selected to perform a Shakespearean play on stage, and although he was originally going to be an aeronautical engineer, he finally considered making a career as an actor.

He tried acting training, but felt uncomfortable in schools, and decided he would train on his own. He founded the L’Endoll company with Ángel Torner, with which he represented “Pleasure Traffickers” in cultural centers, a work of his own harvest, which protested against the injustices of modern society. They are followed by montages of other works, almost always of social criticism.

Determined to risk everything for everything and succeed or succumb in the attempt, he went to Madrid with 23,000 pesetas that he could not afford to rent a house, so he ended up sleeping on park benches. In the end he managed to get hired as a waiter in a Madrid establishment, where he met the casting director Luis San Narciso. He realized his possibilities, and managed to get small roles in the series A las once en casa , 7 vidas and Compañeros . He made his film debut with a very small role in Aunque tú no lo sepas , a promising debut by Juan Vicente Córdoba . He was then only able to land a supporting role in the failed comedy Lysistrata.and a soon-to-be-deceased role as a film director in Thaw Out .

His career began to go well when Achero Mañas noticed his talent and gave him the leading role in November , where he played an actor, Alfredo, in constant rebellion against society and who founded his own company. Jaenada had a lot in common with the character. He obtained a Goya nomination, and became known to the general public.

However, the recognition did not immediately bring with it interesting papers. Paradoxically, she was pigeonholed in comedy, after the discreet The Game of Truth , and the unstoppable XXL sexual buffoonery . He was also one of the protagonists of the series Javier no longer lives alone , with Emilio Aragón , where he was Marcos, a young teacher with childhood traumas.

When he was about to lose all hope in Spanish cinema, director Jaime Chávarri offered him a worthy challenge: to play flamenco singer José Monge Cruz, better known as Camarón de la Isla, in Camarón . But he was reluctant to accept the role, especially because he couldn’t sing, until his brother convinced him that it was a good opportunity. For this film, Óscar Jaenada had to carry out an arduous preparation of the character, comparable to a certain extent and bridging the gap to the efforts of great actors such as Daniel Day-Lewis when he filmed My Left Foot or Jamie Foxx in Ray. He grew his hair long, learned to clap, and thoroughly studied the look and movements of the real musician, to the point that he came to resemble very much his model physically of him.

For his work on Camarón , Jaenada rightly obtained the Goya, and other awards, such as the Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos (CEC), or the Fotogramas de Plata. But on this occasion, his work did not help him get involved in big projects either. He tried his luck in the thriller, with Somne and Skizo , totally unsuccessful despite his acting efforts. The film about brotherly relations Días azules , the drama about terrorist violence , we are all invited , or the horror film The Valdemar inheritance , had not finished showing either .

Faced with the lack of prospects in his own country, Jaenada has reacted by stomping on international terrain. He has shot the biographical film Che: Guerrilla with Steven Soderbergh , where he played a small role, with Jim Jarmusch the disappointing The Limits of Control , with Rob Marshall Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and with Mabrouk El Mechri The Cold Light of Day , which stars Bruce Willis . In addition, he participates in Circuit , by Xavier Ribera , with Sophie Auster , daughter of the famous writer Paul Auster .