Sex, Love and War: How the Racist Gay Epic "La Bola Negra" Won Netflix's First Best Picture Oscar

For Guitarricadelafuente and Miguel Bernardeau, the romance fueling "La Bola Negra" was no challenge. Bernardeau says, looking at his co-star: "Falling in love with him wasn't hard." The two Spanish men, both 29, have still not grown tired of each other despite a world tour that kicked off in Cannes this spring.

For Guitarricadelafuente and Miguel Bernardeau, the romance that fueled "La Bola Negra" was no challenge.

"It wasn't hard to fall in love with him," says Bernardo, looking at his co-star. The two men, both 29-year-old Spaniards, have yet to tire of each other despite a world tour that began in Cannes this spring and now brings them to New York. "It was hard to make a war." Related Oscar stories: Rwanda chooses Ben Imana as the first participant in the international competition. Canada's Oscar, Berlin Prize-winner 'Nina Rosa' acquired in US by Dekanalog (Exclusive)

These two forces, love and war, coexist painfully in what may be the most ambitious film of this year's Oscar season. La Bola Negra, directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrosi, the duo known as Los Javis, depicts the lives of several gay men in Spain in three separate timelines: In 1932, young Carlos (Milo Koifs) is blackballed — hence the film's title — from a social club for his sexuality. In 1937, at the height of the Spanish Civil War, Guitarricadelafuente and Bernardeau play a soldier and a prisoner of war, respectively, who must protect them as their affection inexplicably blossoms across political lines. And in 2017, historian Alberto (Carlos Gonzalez) tries to figure out how the two previous stories intersect, until an academic (Glenn Close in a stunning cameo) steps in to help.

The story of the breakup of Spain and its fall into a repressive dictatorship was not news to the actors. "That's what's hit everyone — our grandparents were all involved," says Guitarricadelafuente. "It's common in our DNA in Spanish society." But for history to be real and immediate, they had to learn how to behave like soldiers. "We got the military training — how to hold a gun," says Guitarricadelafuente, who has a soft-spoken demeanor both in person and on screen. SEBASTIAN He prefers to trumpet her - he fights only reluctantly. He is more at home in his emotions than in war. He continues: "He's naive, but he's not stupid. Playing the trumpet is what gives him hope for the future - one day, he can go to Madrid and become a musician." Indeed, in a stunning scene at the heart of the film, an encounter with a vivacious lounge singer played by Penelope Cruz convinces Sebastian that the world is wider than he ever imagined.

At least one of the stakeholders in "La Bola Negra" wanted to make sure that Guitarricadelafuente could be authentic as a fighter as well as a lover: Pedro Almodóvar, one of the film's producers, when meeting her for the first time, asked her if the singer had any superiority at all.

Before translating Almodóvar's question, Guitarricadelafuente first puts it in Spanish: "Does he avoid being like ... good?"

He needs some armor as he prepares for awards season. After blowing up sleepy Cannes earlier this year with a 20-minute standing ovation, La Bola Negra won joint Best Director and Netflix sales awards worldwide. And since it was the first non-English-language film to win the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival since 2011, it is considered the only Oscar contender that may topple "Odyssey" in March. ("Odyssey" is a technically stunning, time-honored examination of the power of love against the madness of war, while "La Bola Negra" ... is also all of those things, only made on a much smaller budget. And for those who consider Los Javis too much to pass up on Nolan - well, who had heard of Daniels before they failed?)

This means that these two actors, who are not yet known in the United States, are going to be everywhere. And this beauty that Almodóvar recognized might make Guitarricadelafuente very long. The singer tends to be sweet and serious, with a floating tendency to recall the emotional truth of working with Los Javis, while Bernardo is more frank, analytical, and frank, never once speaking Spanish even when his co-star utters the soft sí. Like punctuation, however, together they're comfortable enough to pick up lines where the other leaves off and laugh—sometimes wistfully, sometimes with Vertigo - as they recall the filming of the movie that made Guitarricadelafuente an actor and changed both of their lives.

If the film scores at the Oscars, it will be a milestone for world cinema, for Netflix and for queer artists: Although Bernardo doesn't identify as queer, Guitarricadelafuente is among several gay actors to play gay characters in the Oscar race, including Elsinore's Andrew Scott and Cee Lou Jordan Firstman. That makes for an even more interesting Oscar race this year than the one in which "Moonlight" beat out a confusing Faye Dunaway musical.

But more than 20 years after 2005's "Brokeback Mountain" won nearly every major motion picture but failed on Oscar night, are audiences ready for a film this edgy and provocative? What's on screen is so strong that the actors say they have to be careful not to make the romance so overpowering that it strains credulity. "We had to work against that and try to manage the volume of that love, because that love is impossible," Bernardo says.

Through their efforts, something universal emerges — assuming post-Brokeback, post-Moonlight audiences are open to it. "The older generations who were scandalized by them Guitarricadelafuente says: "This 20 years ago we understand it now. And it's more than that: it's a story about love that everyone can relate to."

"La Bola Negra" connects itself to the emotions of the audience through its deep character. It refuses to hold our hand and trust us as the story of Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca's work and life becomes increasingly woven into the text, or when the notification sound from the gay sex app Grindr is the signal that ushers us into modern times for the first time. "I don't like movies that treat me like an idiot," Calvo, 35, says during a joint interview with Ambrosi via Zoom. "The audience is smart enough. When I see "Chernobyl," I might not get the nuclear stuff, but I'm in it. In the gay world - there is no difference.

In an unprecedented show of confidence, Netflix is giving the film a 47-day theatrical release starting October 16.

"We made this film for the screen," says Ambrosi, 42. We shot it on 35mm. So it was good news, that people can experience the movie as we thought. "But Netflix, you can rewatch — you can watch all the Penelope Cruz numbers over and over again."

"And over and over and over!" Calvo jumps in.

The purchase contract of Netflix was announced on the last day of the festival. For a broadcaster that has won Oscars - but disappointingly for its ambitious lead, never Best Picture - for such stalwarts of world cinema as Jane Campion, Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro, the relatively new Los Angeles may surprisingly represent its best chance to win an Oscar. Two years ago, the company bet on another Cannes prize-winner about a Spanish-language quirk, and the fate of Emilia Perez after old incendiary tweets from leading lady Carla Sofia Gascón surfaced may help explain why the La Bulla Negra team is speaking thoughtfully and sympathetically. Directors eager to become world-class writers: Les Javis previously produced the biographical TV series Veneno about Spanish trance singer Cristina Ortiz Rodriguez, which aired on HBO Max in 2020. In their own country, they are famous as judges on "Drag Race" - and they became the subject of their romance. During the making of "La Bola Negra", however, they remain creative partners.

Calvo notes that while both "Brokeback Mountain" and "Moonlight" increased the acceptance of queer love, he hopes that "Labula Negra," which is more straightforward in its portrayal of gay feelings and the male body, can go even further. "There's no better way for people to understand things than through art and film," he says. "They're a really good way to empathize — because when you cry with someone, you're always connected to that story, to that person, to that community."

He sees the changes that movies have brought about as incremental rather than revolutionary. "Thanks to the work of activists, artists, step by step, it is a better place. But hatred is a shadow that still haunts us." The success of "La Bola Negra" may represent something hopeful in our dark moment in history — that a love story, especially a seemingly impossible one, can stop us in our tracks and make us feel.

But to achieve this goal, the directors needed to find their leading men. What Almodóvar considered simply beautiful, Calvo calls "this sad look, the gay-little-soldier look"—an easily wounded, fragile quality that was featured in Guitarricadelafuente's music. As a singer, he has collaborated with Aussie pop star Troye Sivan, cutting a similarly dreamy figure, only in Spanish. Although he hasn't crossed the state, Guitarricadelafuente is selling out arenas in Spain.

The singer's casting was also political: as a young actor, Calvo played a gay character in the teen drama Física o Química. "And nobody hired me again," he says. "People tend to hire straight stars because they don't want to risk money, which I think is homophobic. We wanted to make it Zimbian."

The directors caught up with Guitarricadelafuente at Primavera Sound, a music festival held in Barcelona, where he lives. "You're saying that because everyone's drinking right now," the singer recalled telling them. "You've had too much to drink!" However, the next day, Calvo texted Guitarricadelafuente and asked him to come to Madrid, where Los Javis lives. They explained the character they had in mind, a character they hadn't started writing yet but knew would be perfect for him. This was the "star is born" moment - which Guitarricadelafuente has now heard a thousand times.

"Gaga is exactly the example that everyone talks to me about!" He laughs. “You're Lady Gaga! You are Lady Gaga!” (He's most closely related to Rosario Flores, the Grammy-winning Latin singer who appeared on Almodóvar's Talk to Her album. "If I'd been born in that village, in those circumstances," Guitarricadelafuente says, "that's exactly who I am." Among the points "La Bola Negra" makes is that our contemporary understanding of queerness is not a historical constant — people who follow their hearts, despite massive opposition, learned and fought for. A young man in a small town in 1937 may never understand what lies beyond.

Guitarricadelafuente's background as a solo musician helped lead him to his future managers. "All the decisions you make when you sing to make the voices one line louder and one line quieter—it's all an acting decision," Calvo recalls telling her. "So we guide you. We've been acting teachers—we know how to work with newcomers." But Guitarricadelafuente's stage partner must be someone less green. "We couldn't have two non-actors," says Calvo. There's something interesting about a wildness in a newcomer who's ready to give it his all, reminding seasoned actors to let go and the technique of professional actors teaching newcomers.

Enter Bernardo, who studied acting in Los Angeles but returned to Spain to find fame on the Netflix teen soap "Elite." In it, he played the popular stud at an exclusive prep school. The show ran for eight seasons, but Bernardo left after the fourth season. "I learned a lot doing 'The Elite' about what I wanted and what I didn't want," he says. He says the practice of being in front of the camera in a big production was helpful, but the global popularity of a Netflix hit brought him tabloid fame. Not every actor wants their Wikipedia to have a "personal life" section like Bernardo's.

"What happened next was something we didn't expect and it changed our lives and made us rethink everything," he says. "I had to protect myself from getting too caught up in what people were saying. It helped me know what I wanted - the actor I wanted to be."

Bernardo met Les Javis at the Goya Awards and they told him they wanted him to sing for them. A week later, he did, and felt like he'd screwed it up. Every morning I would wake up and say, please give me one more chance. Then the casting directors called me again." At the next meeting, the directors offered this role to Bernardo.

"I hate auditions!" He doesn't even remember that first test, says Ambrosi. Los Javis knew they wanted Bernardo, and the rest was a formality. We have a lot of confidence in ourselves as actors and directors. That's what I told Alvaro." (Guitarricadelafuente's real name is Álvaro Lafuente Calvo; his grandmother gave him his nickname, a combination of "guitarica," a lowercase letter that means "little guitar," with his last name.) "It's not your song, but you have to find a middle ground between the text and your voice."

It was important for the directors to give a gay actor a chance to lead their film. But Bernardo's frankness did not prevent him from choosing. "I totally understand why straight actors want to play gay roles," says Ambrosi. "It's their art to portray people who are different from them. I'm not against that. The political statement is still with LGBTQ+ people in front of the camera and behind the camera. I guess Miguel is at a good point in his career where he wants a challenge." Bernardo's character, Rafael Rodríguez Rapon, was a real person - an activist and actor who was Lorca's romantic partner before the poet was assassinated by Franco's forces in 1936, and who encouraged Rodríguez Rapon to fight the fascists. Ambrose notes that his sexuality was a source of confusion. "Raphael was not openly gay. He was confused - someone who could not say what he wanted.

For his part, Bernardo says he had no qualms about playing a gay role, although for the past decade or so, many actors have shied away from on-screen intimacy with other men. "I never really thought about it, or cared what people thought about my sexuality," she says.

As filming got underway, Les Javis relied on the trust he had built with his leading men during the casting process. The actors did not use the intimacy coordinator and did not feel they needed it. "We just worked with Javis," says Bernardo.

Guitarricadelafuente adds: “No. I remember that Ambrosi said: Just kiss. Just a little more. The cast and crew lived in the northern city of Comillas, where they were shooting in an old hospital. They gathered in Ambrosia's kitchen one night to "go, how do we do?" Doing it Guitarricadelafuente says: We wrote a script that was supposed to happen the next day between us - meet ourselves thanks to Javis' direction.

"We learned how to be directors and do our own thing and learn on our own, so we're very aware of how much room you need to make mistakes, try new things and make mistakes," says Ambrosi. We always wanted to give them this space of freedom."

Bernardo had a teenage television image that he was objectified not only by playing gay but also by allowing himself to be played by Sebastian. And yet, she didn't feel conflicted about it when filming a nude scene in which her character is recovering from her injuries on an army couch. "I was very comfortable doing everything because I understood exactly what they needed," he says. And it wasn't like these directors who are on the monitor and have this tent somewhere far away. They hold your hand, cry with you many times and tell you: Thank you for this.

Only in romantic scenes did the directors shed tears. Guitarricadelafuente agrees: "They cry with you." "When we were preparing the character, I went to Madrid to meet with them and do acting exercises to reach the emotions - places inside you that you haven't reached before." He gives an example: because the innocent Sebastian is deeply attached to his mother, Calvo and Ambrosi asked Guitarricadelafuente to imagine that he was held in his mother's arms. On shooting days, they'd pull him aside, put on music and talk about what the singer calls "hurts" — they'd cry, then get ready to shoot.

"There was something very therapeutic about it," says Guitarricadelafuente.

"We cried together many times."

Les Javis talks to me on the day of the film's release in Toronto, and they offer a study in contrasts. Ambrosi can't sit still, and leaves his hotel to walk briskly through the city, talking fast and barely glancing at his phone screen. Meanwhile, Calvo sits at the desk in his hotel room, calmly staring into the camera lens while idly sketching on a sheet of paper.

As we speak, the film's success at TIFF is coming. And waiting is not suitable for them. In fact, at Cannes, Calvo sat through the screening in agony. He had arrived at the theater at 3:00 a.m. the night before to adjust the sound. "I was so tired, and I was like, play it really loud. And then when we were there, I think I turned it up too loud. Javi was like, shut up! Let me enjoy it!"

Ambrosi is used to micromanaging – because he's always had to. "The posters, the merch, the networks - please, I need more money - I'm so used to it. So this film - everything was so hard. It was the biggest thing I've ever done." So Ken provided a moment of peace. "I felt relaxed and relaxed was a new feeling for me. I saw Tilda Swinton's face in the next row - oh my god, what's happening? "

Diva worship is the thread that binds the ex-lovers: Calvo sharply corrects me that between Ken and "Drag Contest Spain," the pair moves between high and low culture. "For me, drawing is great art," he says. For their part, the stars of "La Bola Negra" are surprised by the different interests of their directors. "I think it's great to have Christopher Nolan as a judge on 'Drag Race,'" says Bernardo. "Woody Allen!" Guitarricadelafuente shoots hard.