Andrés Parra is one of the most beloved and charismatic actors in Colombia. His films, series and projects always attract attention and manage to remain in people’s memories. Many remember his work as an unusual priest in The Passion of Gabriel: the detective who lives with his own demons in the film The Initiates or the funny policeman in the comedy Sanandresito.
Of course, that is just a glimpse of a very broad panorama of national and international roles and productions in which he has explored drama, comedy and even action. He is also a very active actor on social networks, who always offers very profound points of view with an irreverent and very approachable style. Adding to a stage show in which Vine get another interaction with the public; with Venga que si es pa’ eso: an invitation to wake up, in which he takes a relaxed and very personal tour of his experiences through pain and his journey to find balance.
An actor with more nuances
But while he adds new artistic adventures and a very special communication with his followers Andres Parra He has not been able (in a good way, of course) to escape the shadow of one of his most remembered and applauded works: that of Pablo Escobar, in the series Escobar: the patron of evil. Although the actor has acknowledged before that he likes that role, but like everyone, it is part of a structure of experiences that has to grow with other roles, the truth is that people recognize him and ask him about that job.
An unusual request
It recently happened to him in a radio space in which the topic of Escobar came to light again and attracted attention for a detail that borders on the anecdotal, the unusual.
In an interview the topic of that role came up and Andrés Parra commented on an anecdote that reaffirmed the impact and mark that this work left, not only in Colombia. His story focused on an occasion in which he was offered 200 thousand dollars (which today would be more than 800 million pesos) to play Pablo Escobar, or rather, to appear in character at the opening of a reggaeton concert in Sinaloa, Mexico.
‘Frank Molina’ in The Initiates, is another of the characters that the actor played.
Photo:Prime Video
He did not accept. One thing is memes, repetitions on television or on platforms, messages from fans and greetings on the street that ultimately remind you of that character; but bringing it back after years of leaving it behind is not something that interests the actor.
Don’t let yourself be pigeonholed
“It was a good thing, but I left it there. I couldn’t let myself be pigeonholed as an actor. If I had let myself go down that easy path I was talking about, possibly I wouldn’t have to work so much anymore and I would be the eternal bad mafia; but “I prefer to have a house in which there are paintings of different interpretations: a drug dealer, a priest, a dwarf, a prostitute… Everything, and not just decorate it with posters of drug traffickers one, two or three,” He told in an interview for EL TIEMPO years ago, about the issue that many insist on.
He will almost certainly smile, take a breath and think about other adventures in front of the cameras, the stage or life itself. As in the project in the series Hypno, in which according to the IMDB page, Parra will be there, along with John Leguízamo.
