Raúl Arévalo

Raúl Arévalo doesn't have the looks of a movie-poster leading man, and has never tried to hide it. He entered the profession from Móstoles in the late nineties, when stepping onto a stage at Cristina Rota's school still meant dealing with stammering and self-doubt.

His everyday look, with that mix of fragility and nervous energy ready to boil over, opened doors that other actors take decades to reach. He didn't need to make up his doubts on screen because he brought them with him from home.

From the Commuter Train to Comedy Mud

He made his television debut with a supporting role in the series Compañeros between 2001 and 2002. That job paid the rent at the end of the month, but Spanish cinema at the time still didn't know what to do with an actor who conveyed so much truth without raising his voice.

In 2006, Daniel Sánchez Arévalo offered him a co-starring role in AzulOscuroCasiNegro, and his instinct paid off from the first read-through. That role earned him his first Goya nomination and sparked a creative partnership that would continue for years.

Nobody expected the comedy to hurt this much.

In 2009, he gained weight to join the cast of Gordos and won the award for Best Supporting Actor. Two years later, in 2011, he shot Primos to show that his character's humor didn't rely on cheap jokes, but on a brutal understanding of human awkwardness.

So when the entire industry pigeonholed him as a comedic actor, he decided to go the opposite way.

Eight Years of Rejections to Shoot on 16mm Film

While taking on one acting job after another, Arévalo kept a folder of handwritten notes. He spent nearly a decade writing, alongside psychologist David Pulido, a story of revenge that was raw, rural and free of any concessions to the audience.

Nobody wanted to finance that screenplay.

TV networks and committees considered the story too controversial. Producer Beatriz Bodegas risked the 1.2 million euro budget needed to get the shoot for Tarde para la ira off the ground in 2015.

Before filming, he decided to shoot on 16mm film to achieve a grainy, gritty texture. The movie screened at the Venice Film Festival in September 2016 and at the 2017 Goya Awards, where it won four statuettes, including Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best New Director.

But Arévalo didn't put acting on hold. By 2014, he had already dived into the muck of La isla mínima under Alberto Rodríguez, playing police officer Pedro Suárez opposite the character played by Javier Gutiérrez.

And its box office results surpassed seven million euros.

Body Fat and Margins

In 2020, he took on the role of Diego López in the miniseries Riot Police, directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen. The job demanded a physical restraint that bordered on collapse in every street intervention.

In 2024 Pedro Almodóvar, he called him back for a role in The Room Next Door, after having directed him years earlier in Los amantes pasajeros and Dolor y gloria.

For his role as Manuel in the series El castillo, filmed in 2026, he gained 22 kilos on a diet of fast food and shaved his head completely to get inside abandoned roadside clubs.

That same year, 2026, he finished shooting The Beloved in Fuerteventura, again directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen and with Javier Bardem leading the cast. The production plan ran eight weeks, with fourteen-hour days of sunlight and constant winds of 40 kilometers per hour over volcanic terrain.