The father of fellow actors Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez, decorated performer Martin Sheen first rising to prominence in the 1968 drama ‘The Subject Was Roses’ and then Terrence Malick's 1973 crime drama ‘Badlands’. Sheen was catapulted to superstardom when he brilliantly portrayed Captain Benjamin Willard in Francis Ford Coppola’s Oscar-winning ‘Apocalypse Now’ in which he appeared alongside Marlon Brando and Robert Duvall.
Sheen continued demonstrating his superb skills as an actor when he nabbed the role of President Josiah “Jed” Bartlet on the critically lauded political drama ‘The West Wing’, winning two Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Golden Globe for his compelling portrayal. The 84-year-old actor, born in the U.S. to a Spanish father and an Irish mother, admitted that he never officially changed his name, noting that he still keeps his name as Ramon Antonio Gerardo Estévez. ‘The Way’ is a haunting movie starring Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez that takes its viewers on the road to a very popular destination, the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. Pilgrims hike here in large numbers and from long distances, often starting in France, to venerate this highly revered saint. For over 10 centuries, millions have come on pilgrimage to this great shrine along a variety of routes from all over Europe.
The American actor of Galician origin Martin Sheen and his son, Emilio Estevez, are the lead actor and director of the film ‘The Way’ described by them as a “miracle” as they had the possibility to shoot some scenes of the film inside the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. “It's a miracle”, Sheen confessed at a press conference in which he appeared with his son which tells the story of an ophthalmologist from California who travels to France upon learning that his son died in a storm in the Pyrenees, and he discovers that he intended to undertake the Camino de Santiago, so he decides to do it for him, taking his ashes with him.
Q: Martin, do you speak Spanish?
A: Not good enough. After being in Spain so many times, I’ve been able to learn a little bit but I’m not fluent.
Q: You and your son Emilio are the only ones who were able to shoot inside the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
A: Yes. I attributed it to a possible misunderstanding in our translation. One of the concerns of the Church was that they did not want it to be offensive. A film had never been shot inside before, and it was always my desire to enter it and record the pilgrim mass with the botafumeiro. I never thought we could do it. But you know that when you enter it puts you on your knees and that is what happens in the film with the pilgrims.
Q: Are you going to do ‘El Camino de Santiago’ again?
A: Absolutely, I would do it even if it takes me three months to finish. The path is an internal spiritual journey for anyone, whether Catholic or not. In fact, shooting the movie we encountered a majority of non-Catholics and non-believers on the road.
Q: Your real name is Ramón Estevez. Have you ever regretted changing your name?
A: Yes. That is one of my only regrets. Sometimes you get persuaded when you don't have enough insight or even enough courage to stand up for what you believe in, and you pay for it later. But, of course, I'm only speaking for myself.
Q: Most of your kids are also actors and directors. How do you feel about them following your steps?
A: I didn’t know they wanted to follow me when they were young. The only influence that I had on my son Emilio was supporting him in his decision to keep his name. When he started out, his agent was advising him to change his name to Sheen and he wouldn't do it. And I thank God he didn't."
Q: Your dad was from Galicia, Spain, and was born very close to Santiago de Compostela. Was doing this film a little like walking in your father’s footsteps?
A: Oh, very much so, yeah. Emilio dedicated the movie to his grandfather Francisco Estevez, my father. He was the foundation of the entire project. My father was never comfortable with me having changed my name, although I never changed it officially, my show business name really kind of distracted him. And so, I was trying to get back in his good graces, with his spirit, by doing ‘The Way’. It was a very conscious family effort and it stretched to my grandson Taylor. Taylor and I were in Spain in 2003 and we were driving El Camino de Santiago because I didn’t have time to walk it, yet I wanted to experience it as much as possible. I had to get back to LA to do the next season of ‘The West Wing’. And when we got to Burgos, we stayed in a refugio called ‘El Molino’, which means, “The Mill”. Emilio would have to go over there to see him, because he wasn’t coming home that often and he got interested in what was going on there and started to follow El Camino and began to write about it, and he eventually settled on a father-son theme. He had this image that he’d lost his son to El Camino and he didn’t quite know what it was. And so, he wrote about it and eventually it became known as The Way and that was the story.
Q: Did you get your ‘Compostela’?
A: No. We went over and over again for the shooting of the movie, but I did not earn a ‘Compostela’ because I didn’t complete the entire journey, I did earn the respect of the Camino for what I did of it. I still long to do it. I would love to do it. I don't know if I'm beyond the age that could make it, but I'd still love to give it a try someday.
Q: You also wrote a book about that moment Along the Way: The Journey of a Father and Son that is a remarkable dual memoir, between you and your son Emilio Estevez. Do you like to work with your family?
A: I love it. We recount our relationship as father and son, but we alternate chapters and voices on our fifty years of family history and reflect on our journeys into two different kinds of faith. I’m extremely close to Emilio, but I’m not any closer to him than I am to my other children, Charlie or Ramon or to Renee, it’s just on a different level. I know them in different places at different times doing different things. Everybody has a memory and a contribution, and a lot of the times my kids objected to going to faraway places for long periods of time, but now they’re glad they did, because they had personal experiences in foreign countries or faraway places in the states that no one else knew. They had these experiences as a family.
Q: How do you feel looking back to ‘The Way’
A: Without a doubt it is the best movie I’ve ever done. That’s the thing I’m most proud of. The Way has been the most gratifying thing I’ve ever done. I do recommend doing the journey of El Camino.
Q: Do you feel connected to Spain?
A: Very much. My sister lives in Madrid, in Atocha. I go there often. Is part of me.
Q: Do you like to eat Spanish food?
A: Yes, I love a good Jamon and queso manchego. Of course.
Q: How do you feel getting older and still working?
A: The older I get, the more I love life, even the difficult parts. It’s still life and it’s still an opportunity for growth and sharing and love and commitment. I never tire of just the experience of waking up each day, and no matter what I have to face that day or what went on the day before. Every day is a new adventure and I’m sort of privileged to be a part of it, no matter how much of it I’m aware of. I think it’s a problem to dwell in the past because you miss what’s going on right in front of your eyes. You can’t do anything about yesterday and you have no possibility of affecting tomorrow. This is all you get to experience.
Q: What did you get from doing El Camino de Santiago?
A: It is a pilgrimage for those that are hungry for a little meaning. They don't know what's missing in their lives, but they know something's missing in their lives. I think that consciously or unconsciously, travelers, pilgrims, are seeking to unite the will of the spirit to the work of the flesh. And that is a continuous journey. Even after you may complete one pilgrimage and you found some part of what you're looking for that has nourished a deeply personal part of your brokenness, your beautiful, blessed brokenness. You go on further because you're just being drawn further and further into yourself. The journey of pilgrimage is really a journey to our own heart, isn't it? In the long run? It's to know about ourselves, and it's reflected in every person and in every different culture, in every different place that we see. Most of the people we met on the Camino are non-practicing Catholics, or non-religious but what unites everyone is the spiritual journey that doesn’t require you to be Catholic. It’s about being human.
Q: Are you a devoted reader?
A: I am, I love sitting under a tree and reading. It is one of my favorite things in life.
Q: Is there any Spanish author that you recommend?
A: I would recommend reading ‘To the field of Stars: A Pilgrim’s Journey to Santiago de Compostela’. In this wonderful book Father Codd brilliantly captures for us the essence of pilgrimage. He is a candid and engaging guide to the physical realities involved — the beauty of nature, the aches and pains of weariness, and other pilgrims along the way. More than that, though, he reveals the interior journey, equally difficult and equally rewarding. It is a spiritual and emotional trek on which pilgrims are confronted with their own broken humanity and come face to face with the God they seek.
By María Estévez
Correspondent writer
