She came to the interpretation from Instagram after rejecting her as a child. Today she is a star after passing her through La Casa de Papel, Elite and Toy Boy.

María Pedraza (Madrid, 1996) came to this of interpretation without wanting to. This is not an exaggeration. Her mother encouraged her to try as a child, she refused and chose dance until in a car accident she broke her fibula. Goodbye to dance. Hello, Instagram. Welcome to fame. “I think I was one of the first to have Instagram in Spain, I loved it to express my most personal part”. This is how Esteban Crespo chose her to star in Amar with Pol Monen in 2017. And, from there, upwards.

That year she fell into La Casa de Papel, she alternated with the start of Elite and, shortly, she started in Toy Boy, produced by Plano a Plano and whose second season Atresplayer Premium is broadcasting. At the same time, she was combining with two movies. Five projects in just a few months. And her body said enough. “It was a very strong anxiety attack. I stopped and learned to listen to myself because I live to the fullest all the time”. Needless to say, each response is a festival of gestures and movements. “I am a runaway horse, it is difficult for me to control my emotions. When I feel happiness, I feel very happy. Being such an intense person has good and bad things, but I want to live to the fullest, not waste a single minute”.

At just 20 years old, how did you manage all this?
He wasn’t very conscious either, but we put a lot of pressure on our work and even more if you think everyone is watching you. I feel very grateful but I try not to be very conscious and focus on what I feel at that moment.
But the pressure is on.
I have gone through many moments, today I can say that I have it super well. But there have been days when I was walking down the street, I wanted to go unnoticed and they asked me for a photo. I have always tried to have a smile for the public, it sounds a bit typical, but without them we are nothing.

Miguel Bernardeau, his partner in Elite, said that sometimes that’s why he missed his previous life.
I understand that it is part of this and I take it as something normal, but certain lines are passed that I do not like. For example, have someone pick up the phone and take a video or photo of you.
Have you suffered from being a target of the paparazzi?
At that moment the only thing left for me is to pose and at least look good in the photo. You have to count on it and make your life without being limited by having your photo taken.
Have you felt underappreciated going from Instagram to actress?
In my case I have received a comment from a person more or less my age, but never in the profession. I try to keep the career I want but we can all be everything. There is a lot of pigeonholeing, but this is my profession, I am passionate about it, and I can also like photography or being a model. No problem.
As a child she was not so passionate about it.
My life was dance, which has helped me because it makes me feel very intense things that I would not feel without it. My mother was very determined that I do interpretation, but I refused. I like to do things on my own time. She had invested so much in dance that at the time she was going for it 100%. When I am passionate about something, I like to go with everything, but I had a car accident, I broke my fibula and I left it. After I was in an advertising agency, I received the casting of Amar and it was as if my mother had predicted the future.
Don’t you miss the dance?
Nothing, I have completely closed that stage of my life.
And suddenly as an actress she meets La Casa de Papel, Elite and Toy Boy almost at the same time.
I felt in a cloud, but you have to take time to reset between projects. When we released Elite, I was shooting a movie and rehearsing Toy Boy, everything was mixed up and I couldn’t focus on anything.

Did you decide to stop there?
I am a person who moves for love, it sounds very romantic, but I do not know how to do things without passion or love. At that moment I felt that I was going very fast and I stopped because not everything is working, you have to reflect, go to acting and voice classes…
She suffered from anxiety problems, I understand.
The body warned me and told me to stop, I can’t take it anymore. It was a very strong anxiety attack and since then I try to listen to myself more because I am hyperactive and very nervous, I find it difficult to be relaxed and the warning was very serious.
Is stopping and talking about mental health normalized?
I would say yes. Although it’s scary, I see that my generation talks more about it. It’s nice not having to hide anything that happens to us inside.
That also makes certain people say that this is a crystal generation.
We are the same, but we live in a world with brutal and constant levels of constant information that did not exist a few years ago.
And to that are added precarious conditions or an exorbitant youth unemployment.
Everything is coming together, we are in a world in which we seek an almost impossible level of demand. The body does not allow you to reach that level and we have just experienced a pandemic. We have gone from being locked up, with constant information and misinformation, to going out and working hard again… Which is wonderful seeing the situation of other people our age, but on a mental level it is an impact.
How much does social networks influence that and the continuous search for perfection in them?
Much because we look for it all the time even if it is not voluntary. You wake up in the morning and the first thing you do is look at Instagram, which seems wonderful to me, but if we had control and a healthier conscience, we would do better with our mental health.
And how does it take to pronounce on public debates?
It is something that I like, I consider myself a feminist although I am not an extremist, I like equality in every way. With ecology, I think we are progressing a lot even if we still have. We young people are fostering debates that are not recognized for being young.

Source : elmundo.es