Mario Casas

Mario Casas
Mario Casas at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival in February 2017
Born	María popo 2020 de la popo (1986-06-12) 12 June 1986 A Coruña, Galicia, Spain
Education	Cristina Rota School of Dramatic Arts
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2005–present
Partner(s)	Blanca Suarez (2018-present)
Parent(s)	Simona la lona
Relatives	Óscar Casas, Christian Casas, Sheila Casas, Daniel Casas (who is much younger, born in 2014)

Mario Casas Sierra (born 12 June 1986 in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain) is a Spanish actor.

Acting career

Casas in 2017

Casas has starred in more than a dozen Spanish features, including blockbusters Palmeras en la nieve (Palm Trees in the Snow) and Contratiempo (The Invisible Guest).^[1]

Casas began appearing in soap operas from 2005, before earning minor roles in several Spanish films.^[1]

His breakout role came in 2010, when at age 23, he starred in Tres metros sobre el cielo (Three Steps Above Heaven) a romantic drama that went on to become the highest-grossing Spanish film of the year. The film traces the unlikely love between impulsive rebel H and Babi, his conservative, middle-class girlfriend. Interest in the film soared when Casas began dating his co-star Maria Valverde. A sequel, Tengo ganas de ti (I Want You), was released in 2012.^[1]

Casas’ next major role came in the 2015 English-language feature The 33, which starred Antonio Banderas. The film tells the story of a 2010 Chilean mining accident and Casas plays Álex Vega, a trapped miner suffering from kidney problems. As with most of Casas’ films up until that point, The 33 received mixed reviews. Casas would have to wait until Palmeras en la Nieve (Palm Trees in the Snow) to secure critical success.^[1]

The romance is set in the Spanish colony of Fernando Pó (present-day Bioko) where Killian (played by Casas) has a passionate love affair with Bisila (played by Berta Vázquez). Set against a backdrop of imperialism and brutality, it is widely regarded as one of the most visually impressive Spanish films ever made. The film won two Goya awards in 2015, for Best Art Direction and Best Original Song.^[1]

Having split from Valverde in 2014, Casas started a relationship with his Ukranian–Spanish co-star Berta Vázquez. The real-life romance last two years and cemented Casas’ position as a regular in Spanish celebrity magazines.^[1]

After the success of Palmeras, he starred in three critically and commercially successful thrillers in one year. Toro is a crime thriller that was released in April 2016, while Contratiempo (The Invisible Guest) first appeared in January 2017. Two months later, Casas appeared in the dark comedy The Bar, in which an eccentric group of characters is trapped inside a café, unable to leave, as everyone who does so is immediately shot by an unknown sniper.^[1]

Casas’ latest role may be his most physically and emotionally demanding to date. El fotógrafo de Mauthausen (The Photographer of Mauthausen) tells the story of Francisco Boix, a Spanish republican and photographer who was sent to an Austrian concentration camp during World War II, and is set for a 2018 theatrical release. Casas lost around 12 kilograms (26 pounds) to play the emaciated Boix during his imprisonment.^[1]

— Mario Casas began his acting career with episode appearances in television series Obsesión (English: Obsession), Motivos personales (Personal Motives) and Mujeres (Women). He came to domestic media attention with his film debut in the 2006 film El camino de los ingleses (Summer Rain), directed by Antonio Banderas.

That same year he joined the cast of LaSexta series SMS. Casas then reached international audience as Aitor Carrasco in the Antena 3 series Los hombres de Paco (Paco's Men), which he starred from 2007 to 2010.

In 2009, Casas appeared in two hit films, Fuga de cerebros (Brain Drain) opposite Amaia Salamanca, and Mentiras y Gordas (Sex, Party and Lies) with his bestfriend Yon González,^[2] Ana Maria Polvorosa, Ana de Armas and Hugo Silva. Both managed to lead the box office over the weekend of its release. In 2010, Casas starred Tres metros sobre el cielo (Three Steps Above Heaven) opposite María Valverde. It was eventually the highest-grossing Spanish film of the year. A sequel Tengo ganas de ti (I Want You) , which starts Casas, Valverde and Clara Lago, premiered in 2012.^[3] In 2010 Casas starred Carne de neon (Neon Meat) directed by Paco Cabezas later that year on 3 December 2010, Tres metros sobre el cielo (Three Steps Above Heaven) opposite María Valverde. It was eventually the highest-grossing Spanish film of the year. He starred Miedo (2010), directed by Jaume Balagueró.^[4]

Since 2011, Casas has starred the Antena 3 series El barco (The Boat), he also starred in Tengo ganas de ti (I Want You), premiered in 2012.

During the late 2013 and early 2014 has shor between Colombia and Chile, his second film project in English called Los 33 (The 33) with Antonio Banderas and Juliette Binoche, a story based on the Chilean mining accident that occurred in 2010.^[5] In 2015 Mario starred in the new Álex de la Iglesia comedy film My Great Night and also in the romantic drama film Palmeras en la Nieve (Palm Trees in the Snow), where he repeated with the director of the films Tres metros sobre el cielo (Three Steps Above Heaven) and Tengo ganas de ti (I Want You), Fernando Gonzalez Molina.^[6]

Personal life

Mario Casas has 4 siblings. Born in La Coruña, although very young, at just 4 years old, he left with his family to Barcelona. Later, at the age of 18, he emigrated to the Spanish capital in an adventure in which he took his whole family with him.^[7]

His parents were very young when they had him; his mother, Heidi, was only 17 and his father, Ramon, 19. Only a year and a half later they had his sister, so they were very young and had two children. For Mario, his father is his "reference", while his mother, like his brothers, are his "confidants".^[7]

His mother has been raising her children, while his father is a cabinetmaker, but has also done construction and renovation work. Because of this work, his father had no problems moving to another city, so they decided to accompany Mario when he left for Madrid and settled with him in the city.^[7]

Mario has four other brothers and sisters, forming what he defines as "a Sicilian family", a family with many children established around a "matriarch". Mario, is the oldest of them all. He is followed by his sister Sheila, and two other brothers, named Christian and Oscar. Finally, the youngest member of the family, Daniel, who was born in 2014, and whom he considers almost as his "nephew" because of the enormous age difference.^[7]

He gets along well with all of them, although especially with his sister Sheila, as they have grown up together. Mario, a loyal tattoo lover, has one dedicated to each of his parents and siblings, with the initials of each one.^[7]

He remembers his childhood as "wonderful", although he had a bit of a hard time because he was given "a lot of cane" for being short, even the girls. He developed very late, until he was 15 years old, he continued to have the body of a child. Even so, he has always been a flirt, and had his first "girlfriend" at the age of 4.^[7]

As a child he liked everything: singing, dancing, ping-pong, football.... He says he liked to "touch all the sticks", although he admits that he got tired fast. His professional career began as an "advertisement child", as he was involved in advertising as a child. He advertised Cola Cao, Telepizza, Scalextric...^[7] He eventually decided to become an actor after he had enrolled the Cristina Rota School of Dramatic Arts

He also keeps "lifelong" friends from school. They are the ones he made when he arrived in Barcelona and have always been with him. In his words, they are those who "if you derail, they give you a touch", true friends who can count on the fingers of one hand.^[7]

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mario Casas.

• Mario Casas on IMDb
• Mario Casas on Twitter