In Los Angeles and its surroundings with Álex González
Alex Gonzalez is premiere. As soon as you have television at home or you frequently consult your Instagram timeline distractedly, you will already know that Live without permission, the new Telecino series arrives on the grill. In it, González plays one of the protagonists, Mario Mendoza, a lawyer who does not hesitate to hatch his own plan to become Nemo Bandeira's successor, his godfather and a powerful drug trafficker who has just been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and is looking for someone to continue his legacy.
In other words, Álex González plays the bad guy. “We needed a charming motherfucker and I think he has the sexiest rogue smile in Spain” , he assured months ago Aitor Gabilondo, producer and screenwriter for Alea Media, the production company in charge of fiction.
Álex González during the event
And it is very hard for us to believe it, about playing bad, because the actor smiles when he speaks, responds with the time he deserves to each question and if jet lag makes it hard for him, he stops, laughs and asks if we can start over.
“Mario archetypically represents the story of the villain and he cost me a lot. I didn't know how difficult he was until I was already doing it and, in the first chapter, I didn't get it. I loved that it didn't come out (…), I liked being lost and, in that being lost, I was working hard and in the end I found it," González explains to Traveler.es during the BMW Urban Xcape.
" First I discovered that I was judging him because a bad guy doesn't think he's bad and then I connected with the character through his hurt. Mario is a very ambitious character, but where does that ambition come from? In his case, from an orphan: he does everything he does for the love of his father, so that he loves him and, in the end, it turns out that he has left him out of the inheritance and it is not so much for the material, but for the affective”, he says.
To shoot Live without permission, Álex Gónzalez returned to Spain from ** Los Angeles, a city to which he went for a few months, which ended up becoming a little over a year, ** after finishing El Príncipe.
Professionally, as an actor, he assures that he didn't feel anything special living in the city, "not even by the Hollywood sign." Personally, on the other hand, yes. “Los Angeles has that contrast: you are in Downtown or in Hollywood and it is like monstrous, in the good sense of the word, because it is a very competitive city; but suddenly you have the coast: Malibu, Santa Monica, Venice, Marina del Rey, Palos Verdes… Then you have the desert and the mountains and that part of Los Angeles I love.”
And to enjoy these contrasts, Álex González made the city his own, took it to his land and he 'barricaded himself' in certain places like Venice, where he lived for practically the entire first year he was there. "It's wonderful, what happens is that it's very far from where you work and where the castings are held."
That didn't stop her from hooking on him. “There is a street that for me is essential and I love it: Abbot Kinney. There, there is a restaurant, which I think is my favorite. Her name is Gjelina and I love her mushroom pizza. The menu is wonderful, they don't have many things, but I love the ones they do have. In addition, you have the option that if you don't have a place inside, which you almost never have because it's not very big, you can order and eat it in the alley next to it, which has been decorated with plants. There is always room there. When someone comes to see me, we always go to Venice, we walk, we go to the beach and then we go there and I have a lot of love for that alley, ”he says.
In such a big city, to which everyone "goes to take the lion's head home", it is necessary to disconnect. The place? “I would say at the Griffith Observatory. If you decide to walk, just getting there is a kind of meditation. You are walking and it is difficult for you to come across many people. Once you get there, the view is beautiful: you can see all of Los Angeles and it's very beautiful."
And since man does not only live in Los Angeles, Álex González is capable of, in less than a minute, drawing you the itinerary of his essential road trips in the area.
For those who already know it and have a couple of days, he recommends “going north to Big Sur. If we went south towards San Diego, You have to make a mandatory stop in Encinitas, a surf town that I love”.
Encinitas
If you are one of those who premiere in the area, the actor pulls classics. “Like a trip to go by car, The first time I went to Los Angeles, I flew to San Francisco and rented a car there and drove down Highway 1. It takes a little longer, but you go along the coast.”
Once in Los Angeles, she headed to Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon. “Totally ignorant, I had calculated spending three days in Monument Valley and one in the Grand Canyon; but in Monument Valle there is nothing to see. It is a road and a desert. Yes, it is true that there is a very beautiful place called Cathedral Rock and that people who understand these issues say that it has a very powerful energy. It is a curious place with that cathedral-shaped stone and I, I don't know if motivated by everyone who had told me, in the end I ended up believing the energy thing”.
From there, he headed to the Grand Canyon. “I changed the itinerary, spent three days there and went down to see the river. Then I went all the way to Vegas.”
Almost 2,000 kilometers at the wheel. “It's all very long distances, with few corners and it can be a bit boring. In fact, you have to be careful not to fall asleep because you might go 100 kilometers without a single curve; but on the other hand, the landscapes are breathtaking. If you are used to Europe, suddenly there is another kind of landscape where there is nothing as far as the eye can see, only desert. That really impressed me."
Cathedral Rock
Among the tips to face a trip of so many hours behind the wheel, Álex González, who really likes to drive, recommends “have several playlists and have them prepared. Not be driving and go looking at the songs.
His must-have song of him on the road? “The Bucket, by Kings Of Leon. Karaoke version too. In my playlist, when I'm going to drive a lot on a road trip, I can't miss a karaoke one”.