Victoria Abril

Victoria Abril stands out as the most widely recognized Spanish actress of her era, with her international profile shaped chiefly by repeated work alongside director Pedro Almodóvar. She also ventured into music, delivering her first album, Putcheros, in 2005. Born Victoria Merida Rojas in Madrid on July 4, 1959, she trained in dance at the Conservatory of Madrid and entered television at fourteen through programs such as Uno, Dos, Tres...Responda Otra Vez and Los Libros. Following several minor parts, she took the role of a male-to-female transsexual in Vincente Aranda’s 1977 film Cambio de Sexo, inaugurating a run of bold, sexually explicit characterizations. Over the next ten years she completed at least thirty-one further pictures, many shot outside Spain, among them a succession of French productions; eventually she settled in France. Her first project with Almodóvar arrived in 1989 with ¡Atame!, in which she appeared opposite Antonio Banderas as a drug-addicted porn star. The picture achieved global success yet stirred debate beyond Spain for its explicit erotic content, prompting a second collaboration two years later on the melodrama Tacones Lejanos. Their partnership ended after Kika in 1993; the following year she made her American screen debut in Barry Levinson’s poorly received comedy Jimmy Hollywood. Returning to Spain, she led the cast of Nadie Hablará de Nosostras Cuando Hayamos Muerto in 1995 and received the Goya Award for her depiction of an alcoholic prostitute. Also in 1995 she starred in the Golden Globe-nominated romantic comedy Gazon Maudit. Already Spain’s highest-paid actress, she sustained her worldwide presence through appearances ranging from The Astronaut’s Wife in 1997 to 101 Reykjavik in 2000, though she reduced her once-prolific schedule in subsequent years. In 2005 she issued Putcheros, an album shaped by jazz and bossa nova influences.