Exclusive. Martín Piroyansky in the skin of Tangalanga: “Because of Jim Carrey I started acting”

After its successful passage in the 37th edition of the Mar del Plata International Film Festival, The Tangalanga method opens in cinemas cinema nationals to present the origin story of the remembered Doctor Tangalanga, a master of phone pranks who dazzled more than one generation with his sparkling humor and his quick exits to those who fell into his web. Martín Piroyansky embodies the ace of humor in Mateo Bendesky’s film with a brilliant composition that combines histrionics and tenderness, giving himself fully to one of the most admirable roles of his career. in dialogue with The uncoveringPiroyansky covers funny aspects and curiosities of the Doctor who made victims and listeners laugh and insult.

– How do you get to Doctor Tangalanga?

Mateo Bendesky, the director of the film, is a very close friend of mine, and when he summoned Sergio Dubcovsky for the script was when he decided to take this approach to the story of Tangalanga, how he began to make phone jokes. I say this because when I tell everyone that I play Tangalanga, they ask me how they age me, since he is a character that we all know when he is grown up. The film tells the beginning of how Tangalanga, due to having a friend admitted to a hospital, begins to make phone jokes.

– Were you aware of this Tangalanga origin story?

No. The truth is that I knew Tangalanga very vaguely. In my house there was a cassette, in the late ’80s but not much else. Now with the film I had to investigate it, study the way of speaking in partying, which was actually quite fun to work on.

– In this research process about Tangalanga, what was the joke or fact that you liked the most about his life?

Well, not everyone knows that Tangalanga was a close friend of Spinetta’s. “El Flaco” was a big fan of Tangalanga and invited him to eat and it seems that Tangalanga insulted him and Spinetta thought it was very funny. There is an idea that Tangalanga is a great whore, that he was, but for me the most interesting thing about him is the absurd humor that he handled. If you listen to the phone jokes, to entangle the victims, he always installs very absurd images that make it so that people cannot hang up the phone because they try to understand what he is saying.

– Was it like that about Tangalanga’s shyness?

It is all a fiction that Mateo and other scriptwriters invented, where Jorge is a company employee, super shy and with many problems, and after hypnosis he manages to overcome this defect when this character from Tangalanga appears. He’s like a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. What is real is that he starts making jokes because his friend was hospitalized.

– In the film the one who plays the hypnotist is Silvio Soldán, how did you two meet?

I met Silvio when I was 19 years old and he was acting in a comedy show with a very small character, and he came to do a group scene, in which there were 20 characters and I had to say a little bit. In the cut, he approached me, looked at me and said: ‘you are a very good actor.’ I was very surprised and obviously I liked that he said that to me. Silvio is a great guy, it’s a lot of fun working with him.

The Piroyansky method

– What place does humor occupy in your life? Do you consider yourself a funny person outside of your work?

I don’t know if I’m that funny. Sometimes I think people meeting me for the first time expect me to be funnier than I am. Obviously, in confidence I am. I come from a family with a lot of humor, family lunches are pure jokes and I think my histrionics or facility for humor comes from there a bit.

– You developed a career with more roles in comedies, but would you like to explore other genres?

Yes, I `d love to. It happens that once I did well in comedy they started calling me for more movies of this style. I really enjoy when I get to play other types of characters. As a director I am interested in starting to explore and investigate other genres.

– Are you going against typecasting?

No, that’s how my path was given. I like comedy and it comes naturally to me, so I don’t fight against it either.

– Do you have a movie from your childhood that marked you?

The first film that marked me was The mask, which drove me crazy, when I discovered Jim Carrey I became a big fan of him. This is partly why I started acting, especially because of the possibility of an actor doing all that and having those abilities, as if he were a cartoon.

– Jim Carrey was your beacon in acting

A bit yes, and the funny thing is that later my career as an actor has nothing to do with that search for expressiveness; but a little in The Tangalanga Method tells a story very similar to The mask: a shy man who through a mask manages to be very outgoing. That excited me a lot during the shoot, the idea of ​​doing something similar to the germ of why I started acting.

– If you were not in the film and entertainment industry, what would you do?

I would like to be a cartoonist.

– Do you draw? Who are your referents?

Yes, I draw. I really like Yankee independent comics, like the works of Daniel Clowes or Robert Crumb. Of the national ones, there are a lot that are incredible, we have a very good tradition of cartoonists in Argentina.

The Tangalanga method. Our opinion: Great.

Direction: Matthew Bendsky.

Cast: Martín Piroyansky, Julieta Zylberberg, Alan Sabbagh, Rafael Ferro, the special participation of Luis Machín, Luis Rubio, Lucía Maciel, Antonella Saldicco, and the stellar performance of Silvio Soldán.

Premiere in theaters on Thursday, January 19.