Ernesto Sevilla: "It was very easy for producers to see me in swindling roles."

Sin cobertura (Mar Olid, released August 22) isn't just the end-of-summer family comedy it seems to be. For starters, because its theme is something as serious as loneliness. In its first scene, a contemporary family riding in a car shows what it means to be alone in 2025: to be alone but too close to each other. The family's teenage children are lost in their screens, just as their parents are more focused on their work calls than on the world. Everyone is talking, but no one is listening. The youngest daughter realizes her disconnection and despairs. The family ends up at a medieval-themed village fair, and the child enters the booth of a witch who claims to grant wishes in exchange for a few coins. Her wish is for her loneliness to end, and so it is granted. Except, for some reason, wishes are granted in cinema, via convoluted paths.

So the family gets back in their car, crosses a bridge, and ends up in a 13th-century castle, where they have to survive the hostile Almoravids, a hateful bishop (Pepe Viyuela), the discovery of teenage love, and a visit from the King of León (Joaquín Reyes). Alexandra Jiménez is the mother of the family. Ernesto Sevilla , the father, appears dressed in a helmet and armor, swinging his sword. "To tell you the truth, as soon as I put on the helmet, I disappear. It's a double who does the combat scene. I would have liked to do it myself, but that took a long time," says Sevilla.

" Loneliness in comedy is a much more central theme than it seems. It's a very important topic for many comedians and humorists . To begin with, jokes come to us when we're alone; comedy is often born in solitude and with a bit of suffering... You realize that over the years. At 22, you don't realize anything; you do things because they're funny. Then, maybe you start forming theories and theses about what you do and you fall," says the actor, who was once a comedian.

"When I received the project, I was struck by the fact that it was a family comedy with this fantastical element of time travel. And traveling to the Middle Ages reminded me of movies from when I was a kid; it reminded me of The Princess Bride and The Beginner Witch. That's what caught my attention at first. When I saw the finished film, I realized that the film is funny, that there's more comedy than I expected . I didn't think people would laugh so much, so I liked the result."

His character is interesting: he's a not-so-good coach, unemployed for years and a bit self-conscious about his wife's professional success. "I've been called a lot, especially in films, to play a scoundrel, a shameless character. That was my character as a comedian, and it was very easy for producers to see me in roles like that. For the record, they were good, shameless, party-goers, hedonists who didn't want to hurt anyone... Recently, they've started offering me father roles, but they're also scoundrel fathers. In this case, the character is a father who, above all, is a good guy. A good guy, a bit clumsy and endearing. We all feel overwhelmed by life sometimes. Constantly, actually. And it's a joy to be allowed to tap into those emotions in my work. As an actor, I like to be offered these slightly deeper things," Sevilla explains.

Is that a family comedy? "There's something that only happens in family comedies... Look, in comedies where the humor is at its most extreme, the jokes generate arguments during filming. There are people on the crew for whom the jokes are too much, and others for whom they're not. That doesn't happen in a family comedy . The joke is transversal; it has to appeal to both the children and the parents, and there's nothing to argue about, nothing that makes us feel dirty. It happens to all of us; we feel like with humor, you often flirt with the limit. I like that, humor that pushes the limits of discomfort. The problem is knowing what the good side of that limit is."

Isn't the problem that there are too many people on the edge? That humor is the language that is everywhere and, therefore, loses its value as a stimulant? "I'm optimistic about my profession. I don't think it's a genre in crisis. There are many very different types of humor. What I do believe is that social media has gone against humor. Irony is very difficult to understand in X, very difficult to understand in writing, in general. People don't distinguish who is speaking, everything falls into the same bag and everything is taken seriously. Everything is the same. On the other hand, humor in films and TV series still works well. I no longer live the life of a scoundrel, but I still see myself in that role. Besides, it's very embedded in Spanish culture ."

Something else: What would you say has been your most important learning experience as an actor? "There's one thing great actors tell you: you have to know how to listen," Sevilla concludes. "It seems a little corny, but it's very important. If you know how to listen to your scene partner and receive what they give you, you have a treasure. You have to know how to let yourself be influenced and learn to be open."