‘La Bola Negra’ Directors Javier Calvo & Javier Ambrossi On LGBT Casting & Pedro Almodóvar’s Support

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:01][music] [music] >> Hello, my name is Melanie Goodfellow and I'm the senior international film correspondent for Deadline Hollywood and it gives me great pleasure to be here in the Deadline studio in Cannes with um Javier Calvo to my immediate left and Javier Ambrossi. And we're here today to talk about your film La Bola Negra which is in competition. So, can you I think it's a convergence of two works. I was wondering whether you could tell me a little bit about the story and how it came together. We were going on a on a trip to Ibiza uh to write and uh I remember I I I was like let's let's pick something to read uh in the plane um fast so I can read in the in the one-hour plane uh trip and and I said a play. So, I took I like kind of chose me like I saw it and I remembered we liked it and I was like I'm going to read that and just get inspired. And I remember the plane didn't it didn't took off when I I read the prologue and I started to cry and I didn't I didn't know why but it was it it really moved me.

[00:01:12]Like some it was like a signal in my soul that we had to do something with with that.

[00:01:18]And I told him I said uh I think I think there's something here Javi. We should we should we should read this play again and and and and then we read it and in the play uh they talk about the finished work of Federico uh the black ball. Lorca. The Federico Garcia Lorca. La bola negra is there. The black ball and four pages only that exist. And that play took us to the black ball to the unfinished play of Lorca. And we're like there's some connection here. We should uh sue.

[00:01:49]You say it like that?

[00:01:50]>> out or sew it together.

[00:01:51]>> Yeah, we we we like there's something that can um connect >> connect and they and they can live together and then we we we started to elaborate uh this this script.

[00:02:01]>> Yeah, once we read it again, uh it was like I I we had it in our mind. Like, we have to find different storylines that can converge in in in in in one piece.

[00:02:14]And that's what we tried to to do. So, ultimately, you end up with a story about three men, like impossible love stories. Um Something like that. It's It's a movie about uh how not being able to communicate to each other is the way to violence.

[00:02:33]And we have different context. We have the context of the pre-Civil War in the '32, and we have the Civil War in the '37 in the middle of the Civil War, and uh we have a kind of a present uh 2017 kind of present, and where being gay being a gay man is very different, because you can express yourself, but you find another difficulties. So, it's it's a it's a way to talk about >> [gasps] [sighs] >> how difficult it could be to express yourself uh when you're queer, and how important is to to do it in order to to be happy. And and and and now about inheritance in in many ways. There's a There's a physical inheritance in the in the movie, but like the black ball Federico um used to that as a metaphor of of of our of the fear, the the the shame you have inside.

[00:03:31]And it's something like I we feel uh we feel inherited uh gay men and and LGBT people and queer people. Um there's this black ball that comes through generations, and and there's something about that connection uh that talks about inheritance, talks about the art that comes uh like survives uh through time.

[00:03:54]So, yeah, it's it's it's about it's about the inheritance of the shame and the pain and and the and the blackball.

[00:04:02]And the three actors, remind me of their names who are playing the three men throughout. Guitarrica de la Fuente, who is he's very famous as a kind of a folk Spanish singer, uh who like full full stadiums in Spain. He He sang with uh Troy Sivan a song like he's he's quite well known and he's amazing in the movie. Milo Quifis, uh who is a new rising star. And Carlos Gonzalez, who is one of the best actors of his generation.

[00:04:35]And they're all openly gay, and was that important Is that important to you that Yeah, when I I I was remembering before that when I was a kid, I was in love with Rupert Everett because I can tell when I watched My Best Friend's Wedding, I watched something that was very truthful in him.

[00:04:53]Because he was gay.

[00:04:56]And he was connected to the character in a way that was very special, and you can tell. And I was a kid, and when I watched him, I was like, "Mhm, I know I'm connected with him."

[00:05:06]And um I always miss gay actors portraying gay characters. I don't think it's it has to be mandatory, but I think it's very special when it happens. And uh yeah, we we tried to made a casting with gay actors, openly gay actors, and um and behind the cameras, too. A lot of LGBT people making a a queer movie because at the end is a tribute to Federico Garcia Lorca that is the most important gay man in Spanish history, I think. To me, he is so it is a tribute to him, and I'm I'm I I'm sure this makes it very special. And the people when when when gay people and queer people watch La Bola Negra, I'm sure they're going to connect. They're going to feel there's a truth there.

[00:05:59]Um and also gay actors, they know how to express what it's like to be rejected, what it's like to be given the black ball in your life.

[00:06:10]And we wanted to do that. We like catharsis when we are when we are uh creating and and directing. We need the uh the stories move us as as a crew, as a team, as a as actors in order to move the audiences. And and that catharsis comes from truth, and I I think I believe we as actors when we were young and actors um we didn't get that many that many auditions, and and and one agent said to me, "You have to hide your queerness." It's political. [laughter] It's It's kind of political. It's It's a revenge.

[00:06:43]>> political statement. Uh because I think it has to be true, but it's also has to be mean something. Yeah. So, yeah, that's I think that's I think that's the only way to make movies.

[00:06:55]Moving yourself, making it true, having a catharsis when you make it, and changing your lives in order to change people's lives.

[00:07:02]>> you do also have Sorry to bring it back down to Hollywood. Um but you do >> [laughter] >> But you know But you do have like Penelope Cruz in there and Glenn Close and Elena Anaya as well. Um but you wanted You wanted to make a mix of stars as well. And how do to make it We wanted to make a big movie.

[00:07:18]And I um I think we had enough uh of this feeling that LGBT stories should be a small.

[00:07:28]I think that's not real, because LGBT stories can talk to anyone in the world.

[00:07:36]And they're human stories and universal stories, and we wanted to make it big. And to have Penelope is like a dream because a lot of people is going to be like, "Oh, Penelope is there." And and and we'll connect with the story also, and they will discover a movie that maybe they will feel that it's not for them.

[00:07:57]But with her and with Glenn Close and Lola Dueñas that is a superstar and one of the best Spanish actresses I think we make it big. That is our dream. La bola negra for us is a big movie about being queer and and and about being free.

[00:08:19]And one last question.

[00:08:20]We've got cuz we're already running out of time.

[00:08:24]So we have two. We have three.

[00:08:26]>> [laughter] >> But you are in competition with Almodóvar who we know a bit here at Christmas. I was wondering what does that does that what does that mean to you? Um We never compete with him because he is better. He's the he's he's the king.

[00:08:38]And In family, we feel like having him we just had breakfast with him. We had a coffee and and he was telling us don't be nervous. You'll get nervous when you enter the ballet.

[00:08:51]You'll like he was giving us advice. And I feel he's like kind of a he's like a father. He's like um Yeah, he's also a producer of the movie.

[00:09:03]>> in the movie. He helped us and and having him by our side in this important times and to feel his knowledge.

[00:09:13]>> Yeah, and also if you look at Spanish film history with queer characters, with gay men leading, you have to go to Almodóvar and then to us. There's not that much. So we are very connected and and I'm very grateful.

[00:09:35]He did a lot for all the community. When we were talking before, you you were also talking about the importance of Lorca and how you wanted to kind of reconnect it with young audiences or young youngsters in Spain cuz you felt like they maybe didn't know appreciate Lorca in the same way. Do you want to explain that a little bit?

[00:09:50]Well, there's an importance in in in the movie. There's an important message that we like art is important because we know other societies, other generations. We know we know who we were through art.

[00:10:04]So, it's important to keep it alive in a way. So, I think we have a responsibility.

[00:10:13]We have a lot of young audience we have a young audience looking at us, watching our movies and and and I think it's important to to remember him and and and and bring his art into the screen and and and make our young audiences approach him in a in a way that the school can't teach. In school you can't In school you don't they don't talk about his personal life, his sexuality, the way he struggled with his loves and and and why it resonated in in his poetry, in his theater. So, it's it's it's interesting for me and I I wanted him to make it interesting for for young audiences.

[00:10:53]Well, thank you very much. Thank you.

[00:10:54]>> Thank you. Thank you. Very quick but so lovely. Thank you very much. Lovely to see you again.

[00:11:02]>> [music]