Spanish Actor Oscar Jaenada On the Struggles of Playing Cantinflas

*I thought Jaenada’s portrayal of Cantinflas was spot-on. Of course, the task of bringing such a well known icon to life on film, opening yourself to criticism from all flanks, is a feat in itself. Given that, his portrayal was, I think, well done. VL

By Kiko Martinez, Remezcla

As was probably the case with actors Robert Downey, Jr. for his lead role the 1992 biopicChaplin and Jim Carrey for his portrayal of comedian Andy Kaufman in 1999’s Man on the Moon, Spanish actor Óscar Jaenada was faced with two distinct roles in his new filmCantinflas.

“It was a huge, double challenge because there are two characters in this one role,” Jaenada, 39, told me during an interview earlier this month. “On one side was Cantinflas. On the other side was Mario Moreno. It was tough because I had to look at the characters differently.”

In the film, Jaenada portrays Mexican comedian Mario Moreno, who had an extremely successful career in the film industry for nearly 40 years playing his alter ego known as Cantinflas. During this time, Moreno starred in 25 films as Cantinflas, including El circo,Sube y baja, and Puerta, joven. In the films where his character had another name (for example, he played the character Passepartout in the Oscar-winning 1956 film Around the World in 80 Days), Moreno was billed as Cantinflas.

During our interview, Jaenada, who has starred in such recent American movies as Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and The Losers, talked about what he did to prepare for such an iconic role and revealed what question he would like to ask Cantinflas if he were alive today.

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[Photo courtesy of Remezcla]

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