Ángeles Martín, who played a key role in the hit Spanish series 'Paquita Salas', has recalled how she filmed one of the show's most viral scenes, known as the "Pastillote", ten years after the series first premiered.
The scene takes place in the third season, when Magüi, played by Belén Cuesta, mistakenly sends the wrong dress to actress Úrsula Corberó. To fix the error, Magüi shows up at a fashion event Corberó is attending in order to deliver the correct design. At the party, she accidentally takes MDMA after drinking from a glass containing a "pastillote", a pill dropped into a drink.
Rehearsing with Los Javis
In an interview with Vanitatis, the Madrid-born actress said the scene took very little time to shoot, and revealed that she had rehearsed it beforehand with the show's creators, Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, known together as Los Javis. She said this preparation gave her confidence in both the character and the situation.
Martín described being gathered in the creators' office along with the wardrobe team and the full crew, calling the atmosphere pleasant, comfortable and relaxed, which she said suited her. She said she was given direction on the scene and the character, but that the actual shoot was chaotic because of the number of cameos, people and commotion involved. She admitted that without the rehearsal she had beforehand, she believes she would have panicked.
A packed, professional set
Martín said the character was so vivid, wild and confused that she used the real confusion she felt on set to fuel her performance. She said the crew and cast were exhausted from the sheer number of people involved but remained extremely professional throughout, estimating that between the extras and the sequences, close to 400 or 500 people were involved in the scene. She said it was all managed in a very professional, calm and composed way.
Becoming a viral moment
Asked about the scene going viral, Martín said she was not aware of it happening at the time. She explained that she was performing in the play 'Cuidados intensivos' at the Teatro Luchana just before the pandemic, a production that was highly successful. She said that next to the Luchana theatre was a well-known nightclub, and the pavement outside would be packed with people queuing.
She said that once someone mentioned the connection to her character, she was not sure exactly how it started, people began waiting for her at the stage door asking her to perform the scene for them. She said she would tell people close to her about it and they would not believe her, adding that her director, Blanca Oteyza, would come out with her to see it for herself.
'Paquita Salas' was created by Los Javis and remains part of Spain's collective television memory a decade after it first aired.
