“In Spain, when we try to be realistic, we end up making comedy.” The phrase is from Paco Plaza and not only defines the spirit of Luck. A series of coincidences his new series co-directed with Pablo Guerrero, but it is also a declaration of principles about the way in which Spanish society and culture interprets life. Because if there is something that luck clearly reflected is that gaze between fascinated and perplexed with which the creators themselves look at a universe that, for them, is as close as it is foreign: the world of bullfighting.
The Disney+ series was born from an unexpected experience: one night, Plaza and Guerrero ended up in a bullfighter’s hotel room, in the middle of a party. “It was like entering a zero-gravity atmosphere,” Plaza remembers. That experience marked the starting point of an idea that took five years to develop and that, more than about bulls, talks about friendship, tolerance and prejudice.
At the center of the story is David (Ricardo Gómez), a shy, urbane and anti-bullfighting taxi driver, who by a twist of fate ends up becoming the driver of a bullfighter on tour. That bullfighter is the Maestro (Óscar Jaenada), an extravagant and charismatic figure who returns to the bullring to recover his lost brilliance. The premise becomes a literal and emotional journey that travels through Spain while confronting two opposite worlds: the modern and the traditional, the urban and the rural, normal life and the one played in the sand.
“It’s a series that talks about overcoming prejudice, and how you don’t need to understand someone to respect them. Even to love them,” explains Plaza. This tension between opposite poles is what sustains the plot and gives rise to the evolution of the characters. Guerrero adds: “Tolerance was the process that we ourselves experienced when immersing ourselves in that world. We started with prejudices and ended up fascinated.”
Far from making a satire or a moral judgment, luck choose to look this unusual universe in the face. The world of the bullfighter, its creators affirm, is an encapsulated ecosystem, which is governed by values and codes different from those of contemporary society. “It is a world out of time,” says Plaza, “but also deeply human.” For this reason, both he and Guerrero insist that they have treated that universe with the utmost respect, moving away from caricature to look for the humanity behind the artifice.
This approach has also marked the work with the actors. Jaenada, who plays the Master, prepared by living with the bullfighter Alejandro Talavante, who helped him understand the logic of a world about which he knew little. “It led me to do things that are only understood if you live with a bullfighter,” the actor confessed in San Sebastián. The result is a performance that, according to the directors, manages to turn extravagance into something natural.
For his part, Ricardo Gómez faces the challenge of a character who is, in essence, the viewer’s point of view. “Everything happens through his eyes,” says Guerrero. His containment and silent gaze build an emotional arc that gives balance to the series.
The objective, in the words of its directors, is clear: to entertain, provoke conversation and, if necessary, invite us to reconsider certain prejudices. “Good movies have long after-dinner moments,” Guerrero concludes.
