Soledad Silveyra spoke frankly about aging and euthanasia: “I’m tired of all the effort.”

It starts with a song and with a six-year-old girl who turns up the volume to cover the noise. A Winco spinning without pause, the same phrase repeated as a refuge: “leave her alone, alone and alonethe”, of Palito Ortegawhich is still known by heart today. In that attempt to isolate himself from the family quilombos, a nickname was born that later became a registered trademark. “I made myself alone”he says today Soledad Silveyrawho after having fought for it all his life, at 74 years old, dares to speak without a filter about old age, pain, death and the need to continue working to avoid falling.

In the hall of the San Martín Theater, with a coffee in between and journalists coming and going, the actress moves slowly. He recently suffered a fall at home that caused him a fracture in a lumbar vertebra and, when he walks, he clutches his lower back and admits that it hurts. Even so, she looks flirtatious, wearing makeup, smiles, makes jokes and stays all afternoon talking to the press.

The formal reason for the talk is the premiere of The last trip to Chinathe documentary about China Zorrilla who stars and who arrives Monday, April 20 at the San Martin Theater.

But in the first response it is immediately clear that the film is not just a premiere, but an excuse to return to a meaningful bond with her friend that spans her entire life. “I think it’s a wonderfully poetic documentary.”, he defines in an interview with Clarion.

On that journey, the camera accompanies her to reunite with spaces, memories and people that were part of the universe of Chinaamong them Carlos Perciavallewith whom he reconstructs anecdotes, scenes and shared moments.

There is archival material, testimonies and, above all, a constant conversation between past and present that seeks to capture not only who the Uruguayan actress was, but what she left in those who loved her and worked with her.

In that sense, Silveyra can contribute from a unique place about her friend: “For me she was the mother I didn’t have, the father I didn’t have, the teacher. I learned by watching her, how she did, how she said, how she managed time. “I always admired his family, his training and his way of thinking.”

And he assures that, even though he died in 2014, stay connected with her: “I look at her when I go on stage, I always have her very present. I have a photo on the nightstand and another in the theater. It’s like my little virgin”.

He especially invites young people to watch the feature film “Let them see China, it will do their soul very good. They will understand it and They are going to understand what it is like to be a woman with an enormous desire to live.. That’s what young people have to have: desire,” he declares.

The tribute does not remain only in memory. It also pushes her to look at herself today. While reliving China, Solita stops in her present, in her body and in her head.

Solita confesses that she returned to therapy to reconnect with the simple, with enjoyment, with laughter and with the people she loves, something that — she admits — had been costing her a lot. The body pain, she explains, made her harder, changed her mood, made her more irritable, “bring out the demon inside me“He tells it without a filter, as part of that attempt to settle in again.

Lately is recognized as more sensitivemore observant. She says that everything excites her, that any everyday scene can disarm her or leave something spinning. That state, he says, is not new but it is more intense now.

Another thing that, he says, is good for him is working. “If I don’t work, I die,” he repeats. In that impulse to continue, even with a resentful body, the blow that he had to go through with his body also appears. Luis Brandonihis partner in Who is who?the work that had to be suspended after the health problems he faced after a severe fall.

When he talks about Luis, his facial expression and tone of voice change. “It makes me very sick,” he says. And he remains silent for a few seconds. “He is the great Argentine actor, we do not have one greater than him.” The admiration is total, but what goes through it is another, the impact of seeing him vulnerable.“It is unbearable to see a colleague lost on stage“, he confesses.

And in that image the projection appears. “I got very upset with Beto because I also projected: ‘Alone, you’re going to fall on stage, you’re going to forget the lyrics.’” That idea—of seeing herself in the other—depressed her a lot.

In the middle of the tribute to her great friend and attentive to the phone, pending the news about her partner, the actress sees up close how her generation is making way for the next ones. And he even dares to put it into words, without drama. “You’re next, Sole. life is like that“, she says, more like acceptance than fear. She doesn’t believe there is another life, “when you die, you die,” she repeats with conviction.

But he can’t imagine holding on to the end at any cost. Since the stroke he suffered in 2021 and Arnold’s neuralgia in 2024, the possibility of euthanasia began to be part of daily conversations with their children. One agrees and would accompany her; the other doesn’t. She, in any case, already found out what the process would be like: she would have to travel to Geneva and the cost is around 15,000 pounds.

He raises it from what he sees up close, in families going through long illnesses and exhausting processes. “My mom committed suicide and I don’t want to repeat that story.. For me it’s not about that, but about avoiding suffering for my children,” he says. And he remarks: “I don’t want my children to have to go through that. I don’t want to leave you pain or a burdenFar from worrying her, he says it almost as a practical way out after a life of always pushing forward.

“I’m tired”, admits Soledad Silveyra, after having been – as she herself defines – “put, put and put in the work” all the time. She recognizes herself in a “critical” moment, going through pain that, she says, devastated her.. But it doesn’t stay there. Even so, he talks about projects, about desire, about not giving up.

Towards the end of the talk, almost as if in passing, he says that is preparing a biographical novel. He says he wants to organize his story, leave some things said.

And there everything goes back to the beginning. To that girl who played a song to cover up the noise and make her own place. Today, with more than half a century of career, her body hurt and her head full of uncomfortable questions about the passage of time and death, Soledad Silveyra continues to do the same thing: sustain herself. In his way. With decisions that can make you uncomfortable, with critical moments, with fatigue. But with something that does not negotiate: continue.