Miami, .- The American actor and director Emilio Estévez, who devoted 12 years to his new film, “The Public”, tells Efe that he dreams of some of his original films disappearing and that he did well to get out of the way of the typical Hollywood star.
So much so that when one of his first works is crossed on television, the filmmaker “closes his eyes” and changes the channel as fast as he can to forget a time when what “moved him was money”.
At that time, in the 1980s, Estévez was part of the so-called “Brat Pack”, as it was called a group of young actors who participated in a series of films focused on the end of adolescence and the first years of maturity .
He did not reveal which are the ones that make him wrinkle the most, but he justified himself: “I was a very young father, first at 22 and then at 24. I had to support my family.”
The accounts reveal that he speaks of a stage from 1987. At that time, Estévez had already appeared in the acclaimed films “The Breakfast Club (The Club of 5)” and “St Elmo’s Fire”, by director John Hughes. The series of the “Mighty Ducks”, “Stake out”, “Highjack” and “Young Gun” awaited him.
The dissonance with his artistic sensibilities and the experience of seeing the ups and downs in the career of his father, Martin Sheen, and his brother Charlie Sheen convinced him that he had to have “control” of what he was doing, because “just like everyone today they love you, tomorrow they let you go and nobody listens to you. “
Leaving “stardom” became a necessity, and, although he recognizes that his path in the “cinema has been very lonely and very hard”, he is convinced that he made the “right decision”.
“Now I am very proud of what I have done as a filmmaker and I know that the best of my work is to come,” he says.
His first feature as a director and screenwriter was “Men at Work,” which he co-starred with his brother Charlie in 1990. He was followed in 2006 by “Bobby,” about the assassination of US presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, and in 2010 he led his father in ” The Way “, the film he wrote, directed and produced about a man who travels the Camino de Santiago after the death of his son.
In “The Public” he bet again to take control of the film, which he wrote, produced, directed and starred in, although he shares posters with Alec Baldwin, Jena Malone, Taylor Schilling and Christian Slater.
The film tells the story of librarian Stuart Goodson, who, in the face of an Arctic snowstorm in Cincinnati, is in the middle of a confrontation between a large group of homeless people who refuse to leave the public library and the authorities who insist on Take them out by force.
“The idea came to me 12 years ago, when I saw in a newscast the story of a librarian who said that reality had turned him into a kind of social worker, because he was in constant contact with the most vulnerable populations,” he recalls.
“My idea was to tell that reality and teach how politicians, the police, and the actors of a city would react to a crisis,” he says.
The film touches topics such as addiction, “something I know quite well for my family”, the sense of humor that shines in the most extreme situations and loss, “something that is always present in my works.”
Getting funding was not easy and filming was not the easiest either. Barely had 22 days with the actors and even then at times thought that perhaps the “film would not see the light”, but recognizes that this is the best time for it to be seen by the audience, given the political situation in the country.
“The Public” was exhibited at the Toronto Festival in October 2018 and since then Estévez has taken her to some of the main libraries in the United States, while the premiere will be on April 5.
Estévez is 56 years old, although the idea of his next birthday makes him put on the same face as his opening films, because he wants to eat the future and his dream is to turn “The Public” into a television series and that each season will be anchored in a library in a different city.
He would also like to generate for the United States library system the same interest that “The Way” created on the Camino de Santiago, which makes him proud to have contributed something to the land of his grandfather, Francisco Estévez, a native of Pontevedra (Spain).
As a very obsessive, something he reluctantly acknowledged, he already has a new idea in his head, a story of immigrants.
“I want people to see how they value the country and the possibility of accessing citizenship, what is said about immigrants, about Latinos today, is a great stupidity.” (EFE)
