Elena Trapé (Barcelona, 50 years old) has greatly enjoyed watching Gilmore Girls with her 14-year-old daughter, just as she enjoyed Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place as a teenager — she’s more of a Dylan fan than a Brandon fan — and she says she would love to direct a Marvel movie. Sitting in one of the rooms at The Mediapro Studio, where she has filmed part of the second season of Celeste, she says that the series starring Carmen Machi, and Yakarta, another series she has also directed, have the virtue of not labeling the characters. She says she has learned a lot from all the projects, from Elite to Rapa, including The Courtesan’s Secrets, Yo, adicto, and her three feature films.
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Question. You studied Art History, then did a master’s in Cultural Management and entered ESCAC specializing in directing. What was the landscape like back then?
Answer. In my class, there were two girls in directing, but that has changed over the years. Above all, I think we have conquered technical specialties that have always been very male-dominated. But it’s not just the presence, it’s how it changes the dynamics within the film crew.
Q. What dynamics?
A. More than gender, it has to do with earlier times when behaviors and relationships were tolerated that are unthinkable today. There are two things I really like to see in younger female colleagues. First, how they detect these behaviors and don’t allow them. Second, how that deeply rooted idea of rivalry between women is slowly being destroyed. There is more sharing than competing, and I really like that.
Q. Who were your role models?
A. Isabel Coixet was that person who lets you see that it’s possible. It was also seeing Carla Simón pregnant entering the screening of her film at Cannes. Those are images I see and say: “Wow, how envious is the fifteen-year-old girl at home watching this.” It opens up a world.
Q. You said: “I was very happy as a viewer of Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place.”
A. Of course. Those summers when there were no camps or you didn’t have grandparents who could stay with you, there were many hours of television. That’s why I really like TV fiction, because I have been and still am a big series viewer. Starting with Anne of Green Gables, which when it ended I remember crying from the sadness it gave me, how English and Australian series came in through TV3. Of course, The Crystal Ball, something unthinkable today in this mainstream thing where things have to be for all audiences.
Q. Have you been a victim of prejudice?
A. I’ve had to break them more myself. I used to live in Barcelona, and when some people saw me in Madrid, they asked: “Oh, but you do series? Do you do commissions?” Because they had me very much placed in Catalan, independent, auteur cinema. And it was like: “Yes, of course, yes, yes, I can.” And then another barrier to break down was the one related to genre, that they wouldn’t only offer me a romantic comedy. I’m a fan of romantic comedies, let that be clear. But it’s true that it’s harder for a female director to be offered a police thriller, or something horror, fantasy, things like that. Women need an extra fifteen minutes in the meeting. Now it doesn’t happen as much because I’m a lady, but I remember when I entered a meeting at twenty-five and I noticed the look of: “Well, let’s see, this girl, let’s see what she says…”. But it has happened to me and all my female colleagues, for sure. From being called “Elenita” to someone saying at the end of a shoot: “Come on, tomorrow will go very well.” And me: “Well, of course it will go very well, why wouldn’t it go very well?” Has a male colleague ever experienced that situation?
Q. Is there still a tendency for men to lead big-budget projects?
A. Yes, it’s very clear. For me, the hardest thing remains to maintain and build a long-term career. I mean, we didn’t come to make first films of 600,000 euros shot in four weeks. We came to play as well.
Q. As a viewer, I connected a lot with your protagonists in Celeste and Yakarta, when they might be people you wouldn’t necessarily want to resemble.
A. I think the beautiful thing about what arises when I work with Diego (San José) is that there is a lot of mutual respect and each occupies a space. I know he will be very meticulous with the script and he knows I will be very meticulous with the actors and the staging. These are character-driven series and I think neither of us is comfortable with labeling and saying: “Well, this is the bad guy, this is the loser, etc.”. It seems very simplistic to us and we always approach the work with each protagonist from complicity. You can be a loser, a gambler, a liar and at the same time have a very deep wound and be very endearing and need a hug. Or Inspector Sara Santana, who at the end of the first season is going through a crisis as a woman who feels invisible, who has to learn to desire things happening in her life again, right? And that is a feeling you can connect with regardless of her job
Q. In the second season of Celeste, what are we going to see?
A. We’re going to see a new case, move a bit in time, and better understand Sara’s personal situation.
Q. What is it like filming with a dog?
A. Horrible. I never want to film with a dog again. And I’ve filmed a lot with children of all ages, huh? From a one-month-old baby to an eleven-year-old child. But the dog is very difficult…
Q. A meticulous person like you…
A. I don’t control the set when the dog is there, the dog controls it. I say: “Okay, I have to relax,” which is hard for me, and go with the flow of whatever the dog wants. And that makes me very nervous. The upside is that when you get something authentic it’s incredible, it makes your heart explode.
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