The death of Itziar Castro has shaken the world of cinema and culture in Spain. In a letter written in ‘El Mundo’, the actor, director and film scriptwriter Eduardo Casanova has said goodbye to the actress, whom he directed in ‘Skins‘ in a role that earned her a Goya nomination for best new actress.

“Yes. That is the first word that would come out of Itziar Castro’s mouth if you proposed something to him.. Yes to me, and yes to almost everything,” begins Casanova, who now says he understands Castro’s yeses “perfectly”: “Itziar Castro’s ‘yes’ to being in everything possible is the most necessary ‘yes’ that this industry , our public and this country did not know what we needed.

Casanova says that before that role in ‘Pieles’, Castro had been trying for “years” to gain a foothold in the industry doing all kinds of roles. However, “it wasn’t enough,” he laments, but he finally “managed” to have a career, something that was “hard” for him not to achieve given Itziar’s “strength to fight, to belong”something that is typical of “elite athletes.”

“Why was it so important to her and to all of us? First, because an acting talent like that should be seen by everyone. Everyone had to see how a fat, lesbian actress without fear of taking a political position often appeared in ‘prime time’ of their televisions playing characters that did not always have to do with their physique (something very difficult to achieve): in more mainstream films, in more indie films, posing naked, posing dressed, in short films, in photocalls, in television series… “Becoming visible,” defends Eduardo Casanova.

The director insists on this idea of become “visible” and that “we all make it visible”: “Let’s publish her photos on Instagram; let’s remember that she was nominated for the Goya Awards as a breakthrough actress, and that although she didn’t win it, everyone understood that she was the winner; let’s talk about the short film she just directed, ‘The Cita’; and let’s return all those favors that she always did for us, even without asking, when we needed to make ourselves visible.”

“I would have liked to make Itziar happier and have filmed more with her after Pieles. It could not be. But since I know her, I know that what can make her happiest now is for us all to make her VISIBLE,” she adds. Finally, she thanks Benja de la Rosa for introducing her to her and José Cerqueda for suggesting her for ‘Pieles’. “Itzi , Thanks and sorry. I love you, Edu”, she concludes.