(Not) lost in translation : FAMED MEXICAN ACTOR IMPROVES ENGLISH WHILE AT LOCAL LANGUAGE CENTER
Posted on Sunday, September 21, 2008
BROOKE McNEELY Northwest Arkansas Times Mexican actor Damián Alcázar poses next to Old Main on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville. Alcázar is currently taking English classes through the Spring International Language Center, some of which are held in the famous building.
The cheerful sunlight is told to leave by a briskly closed door. As is any type of sound. The only commotion in the mostly barren room comes from the twitch in a man’s shoulders and the slight flicker of his black hair trying to unfurl out of the back of an alabaster-like mask. He pauses. Showtime.
As the man turns, his mouth is that of a mannequin’s, yet his brown eyes give off a radiance that could seemingly burn a hole through one of the blank walls. After about 10 seconds of staring, he turns away says. “ You need to take out your behavior to become another person. I try to be different in every role because this is another person. ”
‘ Nothing there but Wal-Mart ’ As an internationally renowned actor, Alcázar has portrayed numerous people and has done well enough to win a bevy of awards and the admiration of his fans on a worldwide level.
These days, though, Alcázar is playing a role unlike anything he’s ever attempted — with no script. His part is simply that of a student trying to improve his English skills at the Spring International Language Center’s location at the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville.
“ My son said, ‘ Arkansas ? Father there’s nothing there but Wal-Mart, ’” Alcázar later says while standing near Old Main’s shadow.
Through the help of two nine-week sessions of intensive English classes, he hopes to land more English-speaking film roles after he leaves the program at the end of October. Although he has no intention of ever moving to Hollywood, he would like to get the attention of the top producers and directors such as the Joel and Ethan Coen, David Lynch to his original position.
“ If you put this on, you’re showing something inside of you, ” Damián Alcázar says of the mask. “ Something only you own. ”
Alcázar refers to the mask as “ neutral. ” It was issued to him by an acting professor at an energy technique class in Toronto who studied under famed French acting instructor Jacques Leqoc.
“ Sometimes I teach acting and I use this mask because [with it ] it’s possible to find your … esencia. ”
Translation: essence.
“ When you act, you need to know your essence, ” he and Bruce Beresford.
“ If I don’t go now, I’ll never go, ” Alcázar says he told himself. “ I chose this place and I came and I’m happy with it because I feel like my English is more fluent but, of course, my vocabulary is just … small.
“ I want to work with [the filmmakers ] so it’s necessary to improve my English. If not, it’s impossible. ”
The 55-year-old thespian’s lengthy résumé includes more than 70 productions in both movie and TV, but only six movies have been in English, a language he began learning about eight years ago.
The potential career move is a new challenge for an actor who has won seven Silver Ariels — the equivalent of the Mexican Oscar — including Best Actor in 2006 and 2007 for “ Las Vueltas del Citrillo” and “ Crónicas. ” In the latter film, based on a true story, he stars as a serial killer who preys on children in Ecuador opposite of John Leguizamo, a Colombian actor who first made a name with English audiences with his stand-up comedy.
Alcázar made swift progress toward his newfound goal after playing the malicious Lord Sopespian in “ Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, ” a movie that landed in American movie theaters on May 16. He says that the producers of the Narnia movies, based on the books by C. S. Lewis, specifically tried to find him for months to offer him the role. They heard he might be in Spain or Argentina. They found him in his native Mexico.
“ It was the only way I could work with them because I never thought to go to L. A. or Hollywood, knocking on doors, ” says Alcázar, who spent five months in 2006 in various European locations shooting the movie that is set to be released Dec. 2 on DVD.
His agent calls Mexico home, not Hollywood — a place with a reputation that could be considered a polar opposite from his generally affable nature.
“ He’s real personable. He’s not like what you’d expect a Hollywood actor to be. He seems like a real down-to-earth guy, ” says Greg Buchanan, a Spanish faculty member at the University of Arkansas. An unlikely destination
It was Buchanan’s
wife, Magaly, who
first planted the seed for Alcázar to head to Fayetteville. She met the actor on the streets of her hometown of Guanajato six years ago while Alcázar was on set playing Gen. Rodolfo Fierro in the 2003 made-for-TV film “ And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself, ” which starred Antonio Banderas as the title character. Greg met Magaly in November 2003 while studying abroad at a university in Guanajato. They later married in July 2004 before heading to Fayetteville so Greg could finish his bachelor’s degree in Spanish at the university. While he was studying, Magaly entered the program at Spring International. After chatting with Magaly, Alcázar determined that the nationally recognized program would fit the bill. He also liked the idea of going to an area with a large Hispanic population but where English was still the chief means of communication. “ This town you can see Mexicano, and some Latino [people ] but you can go outside and speak English, ” Magaly Buchanan says. “ It’s not like L. A. ” “ Perhaps he thought that this area was quaint enough or small enough that he wouldn’t be distracted by other things and that he could completely submerge himself in the English, ” adds her husband. When Alcázar started taking classes at Spring International earlier in June, he was overwhelmed by the course load that, in the words of the program’s director, Leyah Malcha Bergman-Lanier, is “ designed for people to learn English for their particular purpose as quickly and as efficiently as possible. ”
“ It’s fast and we push them hard and it’s a really intensive immersion program, ” Bergman-Lanier adds.
The Denver-based language center, which opened its doors in Fayetteville in 1992 after the university closed its own intensive English program four years earlier, currently has an enrollment of 94 students representing 30 countries.
“ We have a really nice balance right now, ” Bergman-Lanier says of the student body.
Although Bergman-Lanier says that having a person of Alcázar’s stature is in the program is rare, he has blended into its fabric rather easily.
“ He’s outgoing and that’s a real key thing for being a good speaker, ” she says. “ He’s using the language accurately. ”
When Alcázar moved to the area he lived with fellow older nontraditional students. For his second session, he has moved into an apartment a stone’s throw away from the campus. His living arrangements can best be described as sparse. Only a folding chair and a colorful print of a work by Austrian artist Itzchak Tarkay can be found in his living room. A book dedicated to English grammar rests near the breakfast bar. His bedroom consists of a mattress, minus the luxuries of box springs or a frame, plopped on the floor. It sits next to a table adorned with six scripts of possible future movies as well as a laptop with three more scripts. One of the scripts is in English, but most are not. “ This isn’t exactly a comfortable place, ” Alcázar says. “ I’m just a student. That’s all. ”
Role call He’s a student who will be on hand at the Multicultural Center in the Arkansas Union at noon Thursday as part of a program titled “ Brown Bag: A conversation on Mexican Cinema ” as part of the festivities surrounding Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from Sept. 15 — the anniversary date of independence for five Latin American countries — to Oct. 15. In addition, two other Hispanic countries celebrate their independence dates near the same time: Mexico on Sept. 16 and Chile on Sept. 18.
Last Thursday, Alcázar was scheduled to be in attendance as one of his film’s “ La Ley de Herodes” (Herod’s Law ) was shown at Kimpel Hall in an event sponsored by Greg Buchanan and the rest of the university’s Spanish department.
The movie is one of the favorites of the Buchanans and several others. Even though Alcázar has made a name for himself by playing villains, Alcázar plays the lead role in a comedic film that generated a political stir. The movie criticizes the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party ), which ruled Mexico for 70-plus years before its reign ended in 2000 by now-former Mexican president Vicente Fox of the Centrist Democrat International party. The film debuted in 1999 right before the historic election.
When it comes to choosing his next role, Alácazar has one steadfast rule: no melodramas.
“ He doesn’t do soap operas because I think he always likes the good stories, ” says Magaly Buchanan, who adds that he has a reputation in Mexico for doing films that “ sometimes are not very commercial. ”
“ I always try to make [my role ] complex like a human being because we are not good people and bad people, ” Alcázar says. “ We are kind of mixed. All the time I try to discover another behavior. Always, if the story is good and it’s interesting, it’s because it’s complex. ”
He thought the “ Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” fit that description. Through his appearance in the film, Alcázar has begun to be greeted by “ hey-Iknow-yous” in the local English speaking community — especially children. Still, he can walk the streets of Fayetteville or peruse English monologues at the Dickson Street Bookshop in relative anonymity.
In Mexico, Alcázar refrains from driving his car. He prefers the streets, where he can embrace his fans instead of hiding from both them and the paparazzi like his American counterparts often do. In Mexico — and throughout Latin America — he is a movie star.
“ But not here, ” he says as he weaves through campus pedestrian traffic. “ I’m just a bad student here. ”
In essence.
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