A strong detective, passionate about his work, seeking justice, is how you could describe Hugo Alcantaraa character played by the Mexican Harold Torres in the headband murderer without memorywhich is exhibited in theaters cinema.
The film directed by Martin Campbell tells the story of Alex (Liam Neeson) a murderer who wants to leave his occupation and, in his retirement, one orcriminal organization He assigns him one last task: to kill an underage girl.
Given the refusal to comply with the order, he becomes the target to eliminate, not only those who hired him, but also the FBI will be after him. The situation complicates due to the mental problems suffered by the protagonist.
The character de Torres is a researcher working at the border north of the country, which has been trying to find those responsible for sex trafficking for some time; Thanks to his efforts, he receives the invitation to work in coordination with the FBI detectives. Vincent (Guy Pearce) and Beautiful (Taj Atwal), in the United States.
“My character has a personal link, not just a professional one, with this issue (sex trafficking) since an investigation did not go very well for him and, as a consequence, more people were hurt, that is why there is a kind of guilt, a anger, a real need to find those responsible.
“I was very pleased that they invited me to play this character because I think I can better understand what this type of problem means to us Mexicans, especially because of what happens in different places, such as Ciudad Juárez,” Torres said in an interview. .
For the creation of his character, Torres resorted to reading the book The water pit: Disappearances and femicides in the river of remediesby Lydiette Carrión, which exposes this problem that occurred in the State of Mexico.
“The book of Lydiette helped me to have that freshness of those quite dark events that are very complicated, “he said.
Without imagining it, the opportunity to be part of a production Americana arrived a year and a half ago. Her public relations team informed her about the project, they coordinated a talk with Pam Dixon, casting director and, she says, it was a very fast process.
“I had a rushed talk with Pam since the internet did not work, the microphone and the image had some problems, but Pam was super good to me,” he said.
Then he talked to the director, Martin Campbell, who described in more depth the character he would play, as well as the course he would take within the story.
“Hugo (his role) does not fall into what, in general, Latin people are invited to. I felt extremely lucky that they gave me this character because he has a very peculiar story that unfolds within this plot and that helps to solve the case.
“For me as actor having a character that travels through so many places makes me feel proud, they gave me a chance, they trusted that I could play this role, for that I am very grateful, possibly in other films they could invite me for other things or other characters, but here it was to do that function of those movies that I have seen that I love where there is a detective and he is a kind of vigilante, “he said.
The headband is an adaptation of a novel that had already been taken to the cinema. “I never read the book. I saw the movie in 2013. Someone gave me a DVD and i loved it. I tried to make the film, but I couldn’t. Someone had the rights. Three years later, I tried again and succeeded. I sent it to Liam Neeson and he liked it. Then we got funding because Liam Neeson was involved in the story,” says the director.
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For Campbell, Neeson was his ideal leading man. “Alex Lewis he must have been Liam’s age, 67 or 68 years old. In the original movie, she was almost the same age. There’s also the fact that the character is a hitman, someone who kills for a living and doesn’t question it. It’s a reprehensible run from a character standpoint, but, in the film, he redeems himself. When you have Liam, you know you’re going to have a character with empathy. Liam has this kind of aura around himself. You see him as a human being. It always happens to me with actors like Tom Hanks and Liam, whatever character they play, you like them regardless of their profession or the character they play.
The director explains that it was a proposal by the screenwriter Dario Scardapane that the story take place on the border between the United States and Mexico. “Dario understood that area well because he also wrote bridge (the series set in El Paso). Also, it’s relevant. I mean, sex trafficking is something that happens a lot all the time at the border. And there was a lot of fuss during the Trump era, seeing people in cages. In one scene, we play that. While the film doesn’t preach or try to convey a position, at least as a backdrop, it has a serious message.”
Source-www.elsoldemexico.com.mx