Conquering the Conquerors: Ricardo Darín’s Rise to Stardom in Spanish Film Culture

In the past two decades, Ricardo Darín has become a recurring figure in Spanish film culture. His appeal is due to a mixture of his ‘guy next door’ charisma; the strong influence of a large migration of Argentines to the Iberian Peninsula after its incorporation into the European Community, and later due to the ‘crisis of 2001’; and the growing connections between the representatives of the Spanish and the Argentine film industries. This article will explore the reception of Darín’s image in both specialized and general public media with the aim to question how the impact of socio- economic circumstances and the dynamics of the cinematographic industry on the reception of foreign actors reflects and refracts the collective Spanish imaginary at times of intense migration on both sides of the Atlantic.