Cineuropa: What did you like most in the screenplay?
Javier Ruiz Caldera: The first thing I fell in love with when reading the screenplay of Three Many Weddings [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Javier Ruiz Caldera
ficha de la película] was the fact that the heroine is a girl. In Spain, it's not often that a young 30 year-old woman is at the centre of a rollicking comedy like this. Usually, the girl is the romantic element accompanying the plot, the second more serious character, so it's rare for a woman to embody the very core of the movie's humour.

So who is Ruth?
Ruth is a girl who isn't capable of saying "no". Throughout her entire life, she has always said "yes" to all her boyfriends. When she was with a rocker, she became a rocker herself; when she was with an elegant guy, she became elegant herself. Which is why none of her romantic relationships ever work out, until she meets the guy in the film. In spite of everything, when three of her ex-boyfriends invite her to their respective weddings, she can't say "no", and decides to attend them.

This is Inma Cuesta's first comic role. Why did you choose this actress in particular?
Inma Cuesta is an incredible actress. In Spain she is very well-known - she was nominated for the Goyas. Until now, she has always kept to dramatic roles. So this is indeed her first comic role, and I must say that I take my hat off to her, and am very grateful to her for the work she has done because it is very risky for a dramatic actress to suddenly transform herself into a total clown. She should really be complimented for what she has accomplished. Furthermore, as one might have expected, her acting is spectacular and she is certainly going to amaze the audiences.

Which scenes were the funniest to shoot?
There are lots of scenes in the film that are hilarious, completely off the wall, but one sequence in particular stands out: my first sex scene. I had never filmed one before, but on top of that, I really believe it's the craziest sex scene in the history of Spanish cinema, at least! We laughed so much. Even the cinematographer sometimes had to take a break from filming, he simply couldn't stop laughing!

Will you continue to explore the comic vein or do you think you'll move on to another genre?
It's true that this is my third feature film, and my third comedy. I really feel at home in comedy. I remember when I saw Mary à tout prix: it was then that I decided I would make comedies. But I hope to enjoy a long career – I'm still young. I want to make a lot of films in my life and try out different genres, such as horror movies and dramas. That said, whatever happens, there will always be an element of comedy in my work.

In your opinion, is comedy the genre that could help bring the Spanish public back to movie theatres?
I think that, for people to go see movies, the array of choice should be extremely wide. Healthy cinema should be made up of lots of different styles of films: there should be comedies, which are always very popular, but also dramatic movies, horror films and small author films. I don't make comedies for commercial reasons, but because I like making them so much, I hope that my public enjoys going to see them. You can never tell whether people will go to see a film or not. It's very hard to survive in this profession, everyone fights hard to succeed. We try to do our work as perfectly as possible in order to survive.

Was it easy to find funding for this film?
The situation in Spain is hard in all sectors of activity, including that of the cinema, though it should be acknowledged that, when the producers and other investors read the screenplay, they immediately agreed to back us because they sensed the movie's commercial potential and thought it was very funny. We were lucky enough to obtain the backing of lots of different institutions. It's very uncommon – it's usually very hard to mount a movie project in Spain –, but in this case, within a difficult context, this project was not as impossible to set up as others. This movie is a film with a medium-sized budget for Spain. The result is well beyond what it cost – though it goes without saying that all the funds we received were invested in what you see on the screen.