Bruno Ascenzo: the inspiring story of how he became an actor and eventually a film director

Next March 18, Netflix premieres “Until we meet again”, the first Peruvian film produced for the streaming giant and the third directed by Bruno Ascenzowho is also the author of this production, starring Stephanie Cayo and maxi churches.

“’Until we meet again’ is the title chosen for the premiere of our film on March 18 and we couldn’t be happier to finally share it with the whole world! A love story that we were lucky enough to record in incredible places in Peru and that we hope you enjoy and get excited watching it as much as we filmed it; and hopefully, collaborate to continue raising awareness about how urgent and important it is to protect our heritage and our wonderful geography. Even more so in these times”, Ascenzo wrote about the premiere on his Instagram account.

“Until we meet again” tells the story of Salvador Campodónico, a successful Spanish businessman who has decided to build a 7-star hotel in Cusco, the navel of the world. It is there that he meets Ariana, a backpacking adventurer who lives a life completely opposite to his, and with whom he will fall in love despite her differences.

And it was precisely with Stephanie Cayo with whom Bruno Ascenzo began what is now a long career, first as an actor, and later as a director and screenwriter. The names of both remain related despite the time, before the soap opera “shenanigans of the heart”, which both starred in 1998 and now for the movie for Netflix.

The start of a dream career

Produced by Iguana Productions for Panamericana Television, “shenanigans of the heart” tells the story of Isabel Revilla (Patricia Pereyra), a young actress who is on her way to the airport to go to London for a job opportunity. He meets an abandoned baby. His loving character will attract more children around him, who will ask for his help, opening a series of adventures and even the opportunity to rethink his life plan. It is there that Mauro (Bruno Ascenzo) and Cinthia (Stephanie Cayo) will begin a story of friendship and first crush.

In an interview with El Comercio on December 17, 1998, Ascenzo and Cayo’s first as child actors, both revealed their experience in the well-remembered telenovela and talked about their next dreams. The Peruvian actress, for example, did not consider being an actress, but she dreamed of being an architect.

As for Bruno, 14 years old in 1998, he said that as a child he used to be attached to the Dasso house, the well-remembered mansion in Barranco where soap operas were recorded in the 1990s. Purpose? Fulfill your dream of being an actor.

“It was perseverance. I spent hours standing at the door of the Dasso house. The guard already knew me but he wouldn’t let me in, until one day I managed to get in and asked if they needed extras. On Boulevard they always wanted people to walk around and instead of them calling me and paying me, I called them and did it for free. Then they told me for the ‘casting’, I did the workshop and that’s it”, counted.

And that perseverance that Bruno Nino spoke of was what led him to stay in the middle, acting in the main productions of the late nineties and the first decade of the 2000s such as: “Whirlwind Boulevard” (1998) “what a good breed” (2002–2003) “This society” (2006) “this society 2″ (2008) among others. It should be noted that in “This society”, Bruno, in addition to being an actor, began to work as a screenwriter.

The jump to the direction

In 2007, in the midst of his work as an actor and screenwriter, Bruno publicly presented “little angel” (available on YouTube), his first short film, as part of a project that he had to present in the last cycle of the university. With a little more than 12 minutes in length, the story of this short film deals with the difficulties faced by an old woman abandoned to her fate. (Light Weapons). This work was awarded in the third extraordinary short film cinematographic competition of the National Council of Cinematography of Peru (CONACINE) that same year.

“I wrote this story without thinking that I was going to produce it. Suddenly, they encouraged me to direct it and it was possible to make this happen. No one thought that Angelita was going to win the Conacine award for best short film. At the Cusco International Short Film Festival, he received a mention from the jury”, Ascenzo declared in statements to the media in which he also let it be known that he preferred cinema to television and theater.

“I like the cinema better. It has a special charm, because everything I can do with a camera attracts me, the framing, the technical side.”.

Seven years later, in 2014, Bruno would direct “at 40″, a Peruvian comedy starring Wendy Ramos, Carlos Alcantara, Carlos Carlin, Johanna San Miguel, Gianella Neyra, among other local actors. This film was a box office success, managing to exceed a million and a half viewers. Currently, it is the fourth highest grossing film in the history of Peruvian cinema, below the trilogy of “Asu Mare”.

Notably “at 40″ it was not well received by critics. In an interview with El Comercio at the beginning of 2020, Ascenzo revealed how much this negative reception hurt him. “When ´At 40´, my first film, was released, there was a lot of criticism and it hurt me a lot, but I had to learn to handle it and live with it,” he said.

Four years afterat 40″, Bruno would co-direct his second feature film with Joanna Lombardi: “Single coveted”, starring Gisela Ponce de León, Karina Jordán, Jely Reátegui and Christopher Uckermann.

This film tells the story of María Fe (Gisela Ponce de Leon), a millennial who, after breaking up with her boyfriend, will learn to live with being single. As has happened in recent years with Tondero’s films, “Single coveted” was a box office success and is one of the Peruvian films that have managed to exceed half a million viewers (503,080) in 2018.

“Single coveted”, In addition, it was the first Peruvian film to reach the Netflix catalog. This is how Bruno announced this news at the time. “We can finally announce it!!! Single Coveted comes to Netflix!!! This October 19 SOLTERA CODICIADA will become the first Peruvian film to be acquired as original content, which means that it will not only be available in Latin America, but worldwide, subtitled in several languages. Thanks to everyone involved who made this possible. A lot of happiness”.

Parallel to his work as a director in “Until we meet again”, this year we will see Bruno Ascenzo again as an actor in the film “friends stuff”, under the direction of Giovanni Ciccia and with Rodrigo Sánchez Patiño, Oscar López Arias, Emilia Drago and Gisela Ponce de León in the cast..

“It’s a nice story with an inclusive message, but above all very funny,” Ciccia explained to this newspaper. The film opens on April 28 in Peruvian movie theaters.

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