In just under a resounding ¡Fuck the Queen!, Robert Aramayo (Hull, United Kingdom, 1992) has gone from being an actor whose face - complicated and full of angles - rings a bell to being almost unforgettable. His role in Uncontrollable (I Swear), where he utters the above expletive in front of the Queen of England, not only earned him the Bafta at the latest British film awards ceremony held in February, but also has left cinephiles (or series fans) from around the world hitting themselves on the forehead: "Ah, he's the elf!". Indeed, he is the tormented Elrond in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and also John Davidson in the film by Kirk Jones that brings British cinema back to its best times of social, realistic, inspiring, somewhat didactic, and necessarily popular cinema.
"Beyond the recognition and awards, what makes me proud of the film is the reception it has had among people and that it has helped raise awareness about a disease that was little known until recently. The fact that it has sparked the conversation it has is bringing back to cinema a sense of service that may have been lost," says Aramayo referring to both his latest acclaimed work and the Tourette's syndrome that his character suffers from.
The director, by his side, talks about the meticulous work that has pursued him for years. "I remember watching a documentary about Davidson in 1989. It impressed me. He was 14 years old at the time and his suffering had just begun. Later, about ten years later, I saw another documentary in which Davidson himself recounted his impossible existence. 'How am I going to date a girl if I can spit in her face at any moment?', he said. It was moving, undoubtedly. And finally, at 30 years old, he made a third documentary where he appeared almost as an activist and disseminator of his disease. It can be said that the film we have made is almost the necessary consequence of the close relationship with cinema that Davidson has maintained throughout his life."
"The preparation for the role," Aramayo now speaks, "has basically involved understanding a completely incomprehensible disease. It was not about imitating but about getting close to that suffering. It's like living with a voice separate from you, almost like another person; another person who is resentful and always seeks to harm and annoy others with what they say. Sometimes it can be funny or clever, but most of the time it just seeks to annoy, hurt, anger, and embarrass."
The result is, for now, a Bafta, a controversy at the awards ceremony (John Davidson, present in the audience, uttered a loud nigger in front of actors Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo, and the BBC, which promised to remove it from the delayed broadcast, did not) and the honour of being an actor with a name, surname, and even a past. No longer the proud elf from the TV series.
"It's interesting to see how suddenly my career and my opinions generate interest. In the time I've been promoting the film, I don't know how many times I've already talked about my grandfather." His grandfather? "Yes, he is Spanish, Basque, from San Sebastián. He emigrated and ended up in Wales with my grandmother. He worked in Hull, where I was born, which at that time was a huge fishing port. He wanted to be the captain of one of those huge trawlers. He became an important man in Hull. He had a reputation for being strict and somewhat intimidating. I loved him very much. He died in Hull, even though whenever he could, he would go to San Sebastián... My father speaks Spanish, and I am a bit ashamed of not having learned it." And there, for now, Aramayo leaves it, no longer the elf.