Santiago Segura: "My childhood was an absolute paradise and the reason I'm still a Peter Pan today."

I ask Santiago Segura (Madrid, 1965) why the virtual hater is more ferocious than the analog one. "I imagine it's for the same reason that one represses fart in society and lets out enormous farts alone. Air pressure is pressing, but politeness is above it. Hatred, bitterness, envy... also pressure some individuals, who spew them out in torrents of insults." And he concludes with a polite gesture: "I hope it brings them relief."

They say people aren't going to the movies anymore... You're taking them en masse. Again. And in this heat.

People do go to the movies... to see American blockbusters, those that already have budgets exceeding 250 million and are impeccable audiovisual fireworks displays distributed by Disney, Warner... What I make are films that I would like to go see in the theater, with all the ingenuity and love I can muster. I can't even come close to those budgets, of course.

You're making classic comedy in cynical times. Perhaps some consider it an outdated genre. Too white or naive.

I don't think the humor in our family films is white and naive. It has wit and irony, a touch of mischief, and, of course, it draws as much as it can from classic comedy because I don't think it's an outdated genre.

You've just released the fifth installment of The Father Is Only One . A saga about a large family in a country with a rock-bottom birth rate. Why do people relate to it?

For the same reason that I felt identified with the children of The Big Family or with those of the series Eight is Enough , when there were only two of us in my house.

Is the family the last refuge in such a fluid and unstable society?

In my films, I don't praise the family, which in this case is a source of entanglements that generate comedy. It could have been a less traditional one, or a band of musicians touring Indonesia, or the employees of a grocery store. But of course, family has been and always will be a refuge. Without friends or family... how disappointing.

You've said before that childhood is terrible.

I say so many stupid things that I don't remember them all. I was probably talking about school, a horrible place full of people ready to make your life miserable. The rest of my childhood was an absolute paradise, so much so that my Peterpanism continues to this day.

What can you do as a parent to prevent your child from scratching himself against the world?

Of course, the obvious solution—wrapping them in cotton—is not recommended. The most sensible way to prevent them from suffering might be to monitor the creatures' interactions with potentially inhospitable environments in a non-obsessive manner.

We're periodically on the brink of a third world war. But people want to laugh.

Laughter is a balm. Laughter can make us forget our problems momentarily. But laughter can't prevent conflicts. I wish it could.

Torrente was "sexist, racist, addicted to prostitutes, and a drinker." We thought that Spain no longer existed, and then suddenly the koldos and the ábalos appear.

I always thought Torrente was a vestige of another era, an endangered species, a ghost from the past... It's been 28 years since it was created, and I've continued watching Torrentes nonstop all this time. The colors, the details, the timings change, but the deplorable attitudes remain. And some people probably think it's my fault for coming up with ideas for the little film... Where do they think I got the ideas from? I have imagination, but not that much.

Are politicians doomed to deceive?

Picaresque fiction is our literary genre; we like scoundrels, crooks, and scoundrels as long as they're likable and fictional characters. The idea that power corrupts is universal. I don't know if our politicians are condemned to deceive, but what I'm sure of is that we'd love to see those who have deceived us in real life condemned.

You say you don't have a political party or a football team. Why?

I've said it on several occasions, because I'm already letting myself down.

Are there no more secular religions to become fanatic about?

Fanaticism is a mistake. Fanaticism is terrible. It's the opposite of logic, coherence, and reason, which is everything people should be guided by.

Is it true that your success bothers you?

Not in the least for my friends and good people; on the contrary, it's a source of pride and joy for them. It irritates the frustrated and miserable beyond measure. They should have their minds examined.

And does criticism still sting you?

Both awards and critics are very subjective and consequently respectable. Criticism doesn't bother me; it rather stupefies me. When they mess with me, I try to make me slide, but when they have the nerve to mess with the audience that consumes my films, discrediting them, looking down on them, I admit it really pisses me off: that misguided paternalism, that elitism, that arrogance are, to me, repugnant.