Preparing to play a real-life murderer in a new Netflix show

Catalan actors Úrsula Corberó and Quim Gutiérrez star in the new Netflix show 'El cuerpo en llamas', ('Burning Body' in English), based on the true crime love triangle involving members of the Guàrdia Urbana police force.

The show is based on real events and mixes elements of fiction to explain the story of Rosa Peral and Albert López, the two police officers and secret lovers who murdered Pedro Rodríguez, played by José Manuel Poga, another member of Guàrdia Urbana who was engaged to Rosa Peral.

Every actor has their own methods to prepare for playing a role, but in this case, they were not playing a completely fictional character and some elements of reality had to be taken into account. 

There were recordings during the trial and pictures of the murderers, as well as the Catalan true crime show 'Crims' which dug deep into the case, helping the actors build their character.

"I saw Crims and I also read the book that Albert López wrote in prison," Quim Gutiérrez explains in an interview with the Catalan News Agency (ACN). "With all of this material, we used fiction to fill the gaps in the story. It was difficult but also appealing, because with the facts we know are still not enough to understand why, at the end of the day, they thought that the only viable solution was the death of another police officer." 

"I found it fascinating to have all this material," Gutiérrez adds. "You usually don't have the opportunity to see the characters you are playing. And it was very tempting, but at the same time, you're not making a documentary or copying them. It's always fiction."

I was worried that maybe it seemed too much like a soap opera, something too sensationalist or sexualized or morbid

Úrsula Corberó

Actor

However, Úrsula Corberó worked on her character differently, due to the amount of media attention that Rosa Peral had during the investigation of the case. 

"Maybe it didn't happen so much with Albert, but with Rosa, I realized that everyone thought they had the right to say something about her and I decided I did not want to do a lot of prior work before the shoot," she says. "I let myself be carried away, and then, I realized that as I was filming and shooting new scenes, there were moments where all of a sudden I'd get answers to questions I'd been asking myself for months. That's never happened to me before with a character."

Basing the show on real events that still have gaps in the story was a challenge for both the actors and the creators of the show.

There are still a lot of unknown elements of that night in May 2017 when Pedro Rodríguez was murdered, and Laura Sarmiento, the showrunner and scriptwriter, tried to fill with fiction the gaps of that night. 

"I think that, considering the amount of information that had to be explained, it was really hard to give it precisely and cautiously so as not to reveal too much, while also giving all the information we had to give," Gutiérrez says. "And now, rewatching the show, I think that Laura Sarmiento's work constructing the story is spectacular."

Úrsula Corberó confesses that the show has turned out to be 'ideal' for her: "It is just as I imagined when I first read the script," she mentions.

However, Corberó admits that she had some reservations about starring in the show in the beginning: "I was worried that maybe it seemed too much like a soap opera, something too sensationalist or sexualized or morbid. I had a lot of discussions with Netflix because I had to clarify some things before I knew what I was getting into."