Biography for
Victoria Abril More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

4 July 1959, Madrid, Spain

Birth Name

Victoria Mérida Rojas

Height

5' 2½" (1.59 m)

Mini Biography

This actress started studying dancing. Her teacher encouraged her to participate in her first film, in 1974. After that, she was taken by the director 'Narciso Ibáñez Serrador' to be one of the maids in his famous TV contest Un, dos, tres ('One, two, three'), and so she became well known all over Spain. Since 1975 she made several films in France and Italy. In Spain she had great success with _Muchacha de las bragas de oro, La (1979)_, directed by Vicente Aranda. In 1987 she won the prize to the Best Female Performance in the Festival of San Sebastián for El Lute (camina o revienta). In 1991 she won the Golden Bear to the Best Actress in the Festival of Berlin for her work in Amantes (1991). In 1995 she won the prize to the best actress at the San Sebastian film festival for her work in Nadie hablará de nosotras cuando hayamos muerto (1995).

IMDb Mini Biography By: Dalton2

Spouse

Gustavo Laube	(1977 - 1982)
Pierre Edelman	(? - ?) (divorced)

Trivia

Has lived in France since 1982

Has two sons with director Gérard de Battista, Martin (born in 1990) and Felix (born in 1992).

In addition to her native Spanish, she is perfectly fluent in French and Italian. Her English is not quite as good as the other three languages, but good enough for some English-speaking roles (as in 101 Reykjavík (2000)).

Her powerful performance in Pedro Almodóvar's ¡Átame! (1990) ("Tie me up, tie me down!") inspired Penélope Cruz to become an actress.

Personal Quotes

Compared to dancing, films seemed to me to be the work of lay bums. There was no physical pain; it was enough to say and imagine what was in the script. It was very easy for me.

For most of my career, I've played roles that were written for other actresses.

I chose the most explosive dress I could find. I put a ton of makeup on and some great round earrings. I looked like Jennifer Jones in Duel in the Sun (1946).

I didn't go to school a lot.

Acting is the work of two people-it's only possible when you have the complicity, the help, even the manipulation of a director.

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