His videos on Twitter went viral before the World Cup in Russia. In the car, on the street or in the ‘closet’, Jero and Jose commented comically on everyday situations of marriage and soccer. The two Argentines became a phenomenon in the networks and now they land in Barcelona with ‘A real couple’, a comic play that arrives at the Apolo from today until Monday.
First time in Barcelona. What is the first thing you thought of when you knew you were coming? Jose de Cabo: In the raw ham!
Jero Freixas: Here they call it Iberian. (laughs) Mine had more to do with my ancestors.
JC: Well, that happened to me with Madrid, but we still haven’t gone.
JF: Yes, without a doubt, but at home there was always a lot of talk about the Freixas family. There are many memories, there are books written about the genealogy of the Freixas. So, getting here, to the land where everything started, let’s say, is hard for me. And not even talk about Messi. I mean, it’s a doubly emotional land for me. On the one hand, because it is the land of my ancestors and, on the other hand, because it is Leo’s second home. The first is Argentina, obviously.
What do you most want to see? JF: José the Sagrada Familia and I the Camp Nou.
JC: I need to go to the Sagrada Familia and I need to see all those wonderful works,
about which people who came here have told me so much. And well, there we are, trying to negotiate. (laughs)
JF: I wanted to know the Camp Nou. Today, as soon as we arrived, we went to see him. Tomorrow we will do a guided tour and we will be able to get to know the museum. For me it’s a historical place, it’s where the best player in the world displayed all his magic, right? The best years were here, and in Qatar.
They were at the World Cup, they lived it up close. Were emotions on the surface as we saw in the videos? JC: Qatar was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, not just because we lived in a World Cup, but that may not be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, right? But we live in the World Cup in which Argentina was champion. I went over the first part but I lived it. Furthermore, we lived through a World Cup that was very particular, in the sense that it was very different from what most of us who attended were used to.
It gave the feeling that almost half of Argentina had traveled to Qatar for the World Cup. JC: The brotherhood with all the Argentines that we were able to go and be there was… In Argentina the social situation is complex. The truth is that politicians have destroyed a little many things. And to be all there regardless of political party, color, ideology, all united by the same shirt, by the same colors, rooting for the same 11 people, all wanting the same thing, it was magical.
JF: Yes, that’s it for me. First, being in such a difficult place to go, representing so many people who would have wanted to go and could not go due to financial reasons. It was a very expensive World Cup to go to, the most expensive so far. And then we have the possibility of being there, touched by the magic wand, it was exciting.
JC: We were representing millions of people who couldn’t go.
JF: And we had to do it in the best way. Singing as much as we could and so we did. It could be Leo’s last World Cup and there was a lot of nerve from that. I was re-excited, but re-pressed. I had a lot of pressure, because I felt it was the last chance. It was in our first World Cup and there are many haters In the networks, many told us: “hey, they are going to give bad luck to Argentina, they are mufas”. And not to mention when Argentina loses the first game. When the team lost and it was directly our fault. Later Argentina was champion and it was thanks to us, you saw how it is!
Was it a balm for Argentine society, which is going through a very difficult time? JF: Very much. The happiness that he needed and that the people deserved, without a doubt. Argentina for me is a beautiful town. We Argentines are cancheros, enlarged too. But that also makes us likeable, makes us funny. We are very relatives, very warm. So, it seems to me that it is a town that deserved not to be so hurt, a town that deserved not to be so damaged, that deserved joy like that. And since the politicians couldn’t give it to us, because politicians in general are crap. In Argentina in particular, politicians are leaving a country with half the population living in poverty, with inflation of more than 100%, a destroyed currency, the people divided, without opportunities, with families separating because people leave. Argentines leave Argentina, they leave their country that they love because there are no opportunities. Then a team of soccer players had to appear to give us joy that we will never forget and dignity. They gave us dignity, because in other countries they call us starving, they annoy us with our economy, they make us Chicanas, but we are world champions. We are world champions, dad!
Messi and Barcelona? Does it have to come back? JF: For me yes, for me it would be justice, it is what should happen. Messi and Barcelona are married and I made a video about it that when Messi and Barcelona separate, I compared it to the fictitious separation of my parents. That separation was a rupture that broke everyone’s hearts because Messi and Barcelona were one. They were together because the two gave everything. Barcelona grew up with Messi and Messi grew up with Barcelona and was trained with Barcelona. So you can’t end the relationship the way it ended, it’s not fair. It would be a beautiful image for the world, that the story ends as it should end, without a doubt
And speaking of videos, when did you have the idea of making funny videos on social networks? JC: To begin with, we are actors and this man is a very persevering person, who always knew what he wanted and did not stop until he got it. And in the midst of that, the social networks that open up the opportunity for us to be self-managed. He told me one day: “we are going to start making videos for the networks”. I told him it seems wonderful, but I don’t even fart. And then I also began to have fun and we began to make videos together and we also began to realize that the videos that worked the most were the ones in which we were together and in which we touched on couple themes and that generated identification. And soccer.
And was it fair for the World Cup in Russia? JC: Jero told me: “we can’t let the World Cup go by, something has to be done.” He came up with the World Cup video and it changed our lives.