Photo by: Santiago Vaca Narvaja on Instagram
We were joined on the Popternative show by Santiago Vaca Narvaja who can be seeing portraying Daniel Maspons in the survival thriller Society of the Snow. The film premiered on Netflix January 4th and is based on the book of the same title by Pablo Vierci. It tells the true story of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 chartered to fly a rugby team to Chile in 1972 that crashes on a glacier in the heart of the Andes Mountains.
Only 29 of its 45 passengers survived the accident, leaving them trapped in one of the most hostile and inaccessible environments on the planet, resulting in having to resort to extreme measures to stay alive. Directed by J.A. Bayona (The Impossible, The Orphanage), Society of the Snow is Spain’s official selection for best international feature at the 2024 Oscars and received a 2024 Golden Globes nomination for best non-English language film.
When discussing the audition process, Santiago says: “It was a long and a pretty wonderful process. I remember the first time I received a flyer from a friend via Twitter […] that said something like ‘we are looking for actors age 18-25 who have ever played rugby.’ Believe or not this little body has played the sport for a very long time.”
He goes on to explain that he at first had no idea what the film was about or who the director was: “I sent my first email on December 23 of 2020. It’s an amazing coincidence that December 23 of 1972 is the date when the last helicopter trip that rescued the 8 remaining survivors took place. And it’s a detail that for me marks a mystical trend in this process. Then over 9 months I sent self tapes with scenes that had very little information, we didn’t have [any] idea of what the story was about. One day, they told me to travel to Uruguay for an in-person audition with the director who was none other than [J.A. Bayona], a person that I admire and whose entire filmography I have watched since I was a cinema student.”
Watch the full conversation with Santiago below.
Society of the Snow is streaming on Netflix.
Follow Santiago Vaca Narvaja: Instagram