The actor who plays the main character in Puertas Abiertas advocates the word and fights against prejudice and stigma through culture

Ayoub el Hilali: "Puertas Abiertas talks about fear from a universal perspective".

photo_camera Ayoub el Hilali

Puertas Abiertas "Open Doors" is the play that takes us back to the night of the attack in Paris on 13 November 2015. Directed by Abel Folk, this play by Emma Riverola arrives in Madrid, at the Teatro Español in the Sala Margarita Xirgu, from 1 April to 2 May. While bombs explode in Paris, Cayetana Guillén Cuervo and Ayoub el Hilali star in a night of intrigue between four walls. 

In the context of the chaotic night of the attacks by the terrorist organisation Islamic State, with the streets cut off and public transport without service, the hashtag #PuertasAbiertas was launched. Parisians let those trapped inside their homes and Julie, the protagonist, is confronted with her prejudices when a young man knocks on her door. 

This young man is played by Ayoub el Hilali, an actor with a long career in TV series such as "El principe", "Madres", "La pecera de Eva ", among others; plays such as "Medio ambiente, medio amigo ", "" Violencia escolar I y II ", "El destino está ocupado " and "Amina busca Feina "; and film performances in films such as "La otra ciudad" and "The promise". El Hilali told Atalayar first-hand about the play, the internal and external prejudices against his character, and his experience as a racialised actor.

Ayoub el Hilali

The character you play suffers from prejudice at a time when prejudice towards Muslims, North Africans and Arabs was very strong. Have you experienced in real life any situation in which this prejudice has affected you?

It is one of the few things I have in common with my character, and that is that we suffer these prejudices, we suffer them in our daily lives. And the answer is yes. People who follow me know that every now and then I have posted something, a discrimination that I have suffered or that someone close to me has suffered. It is something latent and that we live day by day as a racialised body.

Do you identify with your character?

Yes, there are many things that I identify with, because I think it's important that, for example, this role is played by a racialised actor who knows what he's talking about. Maybe I was born at a time in a place that is conflictive, but I have not experienced in my own flesh the conflict that my character lives through, the conflict that the character suffers. But it is true that we, as children of immigrants, know first-hand the whole world of liberating wars. The war to liberate people, to free them from what? From that life that for us is a free life, but perhaps not for them, you know the colonising discourse.

Well look, for example, I'm going to tell you an anecdote when we received the synopsis of the play in the office, I didn't want to participate at first. And look what a coincidence it was that I ended up making prejudices against which I struggle, I ended up erring on the side of prejudice. Because as soon as I read the synopsis I said no, but when I read the script, I realised that it was a marvellous text, with a splendid liturgical quality, a sensitivity and a total eagerness to empower the word. And that really appeals to me.

Yes, in fact, I was going to ask you at what point did you say "well, I have to play this role".

They asked me to do this play, at first, as I said, I was a bit reluctant and then once I read the script, as soon as I finished the last page, I called my manager. You know that the hardest thing in this world is to say I love you and ask for forgiveness, and in a display of honesty, I apologised to my manager and said "look, I have sinned of prejudice, it really is a sensitive, interesting and empathetic play and text that advocates union and the power of the word. I think it's something very important for me, for the moment in which I'm living my career at the moment". 

I think that this has come from the prejudices that you have received, because many times you will have received roles in which you have had to play the typical "Moor", so to speak. 

Yes, we are a bit tired of all these roles that are stigmatised because I think it is time to take the plunge, to take the step. And it's true that it's up to us, the first generation, the first artists, the first surgeons, the first lawyers? We have that responsibility to take the first step, so I assume my responsibility with great affection, with great pride, with great sacrifice, with its pros and cons. It is our responsibility and we have to forgive. We have to change and always with respect, love and words. The power of the word is something objective that no weapon can match.

Ayoub el Hilali

Have you found yourself in other situations where you just said no because there was no way back? Or moments when the script seemed horrible to you?

Yes, I have. I've tried to dialogue, I've tried to go down the road of dialogue and try to reach a little understanding and empathy. But there are times when things get out of hand and you also have to be smart and intelligent and know how to say no or know how to avoid that conflict. Because if you can't do it through words, then the truth is that that's as far as I can read, because I'm not a man of conflict or physical struggle. I'm more of a talker and it has often worked very well, most of the time the word works.

Talking about the play in particular, what does it want to reflect?

Well, this work keeps the debate latent, it brings it up to date and puts it on the table. A debate as necessary as the us and the you and what fears are like. This play talks about fear from a universal perspective, because fears are different. Everyone has their fears, you have your fears, I have my fears, my neighbour, my cousin from Morocco or my friend from Canada. Everyone has their own fears, but it is true that fear in essence, the basis of fear, is universal. So this play talks about fears, your fear, my fear, all fears. And it puts this starting point together, a common point, from which other themes related to fear are then developed and managed through words. It's a very beautiful journey on an intellectual level and it's something very necessary because it feeds our critical spirit.

Do you think it could be interpreted as a denunciation and criticism of the racism and Islamophobia that people have suffered during and after the attack? And all the others, like the one in Barcelona and all those that have happened in Europe. 

Yes, it is not a direct criticism of Islamophobia, but it is a reflection on the conflict of terrorism. It all starts with fear, because 80 percent of the spectators who sit in their seats to see the show identify with the character of Julie? who is Cayetana Guillén Cuervo. But of course, as the night goes on and they live with us that horrible night, they discover other things. 

There is a phrase that says "Why aren't we all Syria, or Palestine, or Yemen, or Tunisia or Nigeria or Egypt?" She says to me "Because we don't all feel, because we don't all feel the same fears". And I tell her that we would live better if we made an effort to feel other people's pain. And she tells me that this is impossible because we would die of pure suffering. And he's right. Because if I felt the fears and suffering of all people in the same way, that of my neighbour who is ill and about to die, or of my cousin whose friend died, or that of a friend of mine in his neighbourhood where a bomb killed 60 people... If we felt pain in the same way, I think he's right, we would die of pure suffering. But that doesn't mean we don't have to be empathetic and sensitive to conflicts. Because the other day, for example, I did an interview with an 11M and he talked to me for a while. Yes, because today is the anniversary of 11M, while the 15th is the tenth anniversary of the war in Syria and I don't see anyone talking about it.

Ayoub el Hilali

Do the characters evolve from the beginning to the end of the play?

Yes, the characters evolve as the night goes on, as does the audience, because it's only one night and the audience is with us from minute one to the final minute. It's a rollercoaster of emotions and feelings, equidistantly with the evolution of our characters. The characters also evolve as the fight progresses, as they get to know each other, as they lie to each other, as they look at each other, as they talk to each other, as they touch each other, as they hug each other. It's a very human thing.

Talking about the general framework of film, television and theatre, do you think racialised people are included in a positive way?

Generally speaking, I still think, and I said this in an interview years ago, but I still think that fiction is suspended at the level of social representation. Because no, fiction does not represent society one hundred percent accurately, because today we already have journalists, actors, surgeons, judges, policemen working in all sectors, first generation racialised people, racialised bodies, black bodies... But in fiction we still have these stigmas, these clichés that are reflected for the sake of sensationalism. 

But I also want to throw a spear in favour of fiction, because it is true that there has been a change from ten years ago to today. We are working on it. There are many of us who are behind the inclusive project in Spanish fiction. This year has been the first year in which a black actor has gone up to collect a Goya for best new actor. And that fills us with pride because after 35 years of the Goya gala, it's good that a black actor has gone up to collect a Goya award for best newcomer. We are also proud that a woman, after 35 years, has come to the podium to collect a Goya award for best cinematographer. A woman? Yes, she has never given one before.  She is also a racialised woman, from Bolivia. That fills me with pride and satisfaction. What a marvel, what power, what strength, this is the moment to change things.

To finish and leaving racism aside, I wanted to ask you about the work and what the pandemic is, because it is happening in the middle of COVID-19. How do you think the situation in Spain has affected culture?

Well, culture has been very upset, because as you can see from the statistics in all the figures from Health and the Ministry, we realise that the theatres and all the cultural activities have been the places where there have been no contagions. So, by this I mean that safe culture and living culture must continue to live. People still want to nourish their critical spirit, we are at the 50 per cent capacity restriction, and people are still flocking to the theatres, buying tickets... I am very grateful to the people who make this beautiful act of love of putting on their masks, holding the hand of the person they love and performing this act of love for culture and coming to the theatre. To stay with the mask on and to be attentive, to nourish their spirit, their concerns and to accompany them in the play until the last moment. And to be supporting them is something that is truly plausible.

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