Inés Efron

Since her first role in Alexis Dos Santos’ Glue (shot in 2005), she has played the lead in 3 of the 7 films she featured in, which range from romantic comedies like ’Amorosa Soledad’ to dense and cerebral auteur films like Lucrecia Martel’s ’The Headless Woman’. She was born in 1985, and is now one of the leading young actresses in Argentine cinema. So yes, she’s definitely rising. Yet it all started, in fact, without doing any acting at all: “When I made Glue”, she tells Nisimazine, “I barely realised I was making a movie. I was going to Zapala with a couple of friends in the summer, and neither of us knew exactly why we were going there. Alexis gave us so much freedom and comfort we almost forgot about the camera”.

That approach towards her craft hasn’t really changed since, and that’s why one can hardly depict her as a “star” in the excessively diva-like sense of the word. Not that she isn’t successful, or didn’t create her own film persona. It’s just hard to think of her as a star simply because of her natural manner and loose style (which suited beautifully the sweet coming of age story in Glue). And although her innocent, open eyes may lead you to think otherwise, that’s something she’s very conscious of. “Victoria Galardi, one of the ’Amorosa Soledad’ directors, says the thing about me is that I look like I’m not aware of the camera”, she says. “I think that´s basically true, I’m not the kind of actor who pays attention to the camera, or takes time to see how the scene is being shot - I really admire those who can do that - I like to mix truth and play when I work; and to respect something natural inside me without trying to change it. That is, not acting”. It’s a style Inés says was inspired by Argentine actress Mariana Chaud, but which she also finds in many actors: “right now I can think of Meryl Streep, Catherine Keener, Valeria Bertuccelli, Miranda July… They never cease to amaze me”.

Ricardo Darin, perhaps the most respected Argentine actor today, played her father in her first leading role after Glue, a teenage hermaphrodite named Alex in Lucía Puenzo’s XXY - winner of the Critics’ Week Grand Prize in Cannes in 2007. He certainly made a difference in Inés’ life: “Ricardo is a very powerful being”, she says. “I’m very grateful to have met such an intense and passionate person. And for the sharing we had when acting together”. Her relationship with the director has also proven to be quite productive. Inés stars alongside singer Mariela Vitale (in her first cinema role, a truly breakthrough performance) in Puenzo’s second feature El Niño Pez, based on the helmer’s own novel. “With Lucía, I feel fate brought us together, like we definitely had to meet”, she says, “and she found in me someone who can express the things she feels. Working with her is not easy for me; I always have to get through my own difficulties, and I find that very interesting. We’re very important in each other’s lives.”

Actually it would be hard to picture a future Puenzo film without Inés. But as Puenzo seems to be focusing on her writing projects, she won’t be directing another film anytime soon. “My next project is a film called ’Llamada Cerro Bayo’, by ’Amorosa Soledad’ director Victoria Galardi. My character is lovely: it’s a girl who’s obsessed with achieving an orgasm so she can ease the tension she claims to have between her eyebrows, which according to her is also what will prevent her from becoming Miss Cerro Bayo”.

So, yes, let’s call her a rising actress then. Because it seems Inés Efron will keep on rising and blossoming in her career. As long as no one tries to change her into a star.

by Agustin Mango