'Olympo's' Breakout Star Agustín Della Corte Is Proud of his Queer Representation
"Olympo," the new drama that premiered at Netflix over the weekend, has everything you would expect from the producers of "Elite," that other Spanish drama featuring a cast of hot young people.
In this case, the characters are high-performing athletes at a special training facility in the Pyrenees. The cast of characters includes Amaia (Clara Galle), a hard-driven swimmer constantly facing the disapproval of her mother, a onetime champion athlete; her boyfriend, Cristian (Nuno Gallego), who also has the pressure of a family dynasty to live up to, given that his older brother is a rugby champion and is highly placed with influential clothing company Olympo, which sponsors an alite cadre of athletes every year; and Roque (Agustín Della Corte), an openly gay athlete who is, in addition to being Cristian's best friend, the captain at the facility's rugby team, which is a hair's breadth away from competing for the world championship.
The series is fast-paced and super-steamy; hookups abound among the queer characters as well as the straight ones, and Roque's storyline includes a relationship with a closeted swimmer, as well as fiercely hot sparks with a rugby teammate. He's also got a complicated relationship with both Cristian and Amaia, particularly since Amaia's determination to solves a mystery threatens the stability of the entire facility. Amaia's best friend Nunu (María Romanillos) has experienced an alarming health crisis and suddenly disappeared from the facility, and Amaia won't rest until she gets to the truth.
The pressure cooker of competition, high expectations, constant training, and hints that some of the athletes are doping drives the eight episodes of "Olympo" at a relentless pace; if it feels like viewers need to be in Olympic shape to keep up, imagine what the cast must go through.
Watch the trailer to "Olympo"
Even among a cast of perfectly sculpted young actors, Della Corte stands out. He's an athlete in real life, having played on Uruguay's national team and gone to the World Cup. But he's not simply someone with a pretty face and flawless physique who's been dropped into a TV project; Della Corte is a professional actor, with a role in 2023's harrowing drama "Society of the Snow" — an award-winning dramatization of the real-life plight of a Uruguayan rugby team trapped in the Andes mountains in 1972, after a plane crash.
As his surname suggests, Della Corte is of Italian descent, and his stunning good looks reflect that. He's a talented actor who brings his character to dimensional life and delves deep beneath the skin — but, that said, he's also not shy about the show's skin scenes. Whether his character is in the throes of a hookup or simply showering off after practice, he has a natural ease around sharing his physique with the camera. Arguably, Della Corte single-handedly raises the show's temperature by a few degrees. Centigrade, that is.
EDGE caught up with Della Corte recently to hear his thoughts about the show's intense storylines and sizzling visuals, his experiences as a pro athlete, and the arc of his career thus far. (Della Corte's responses were relayed via a translator.)
EDGE: Did the prospect of playing a queer character concern you, or intrigue you, given your background in sport?
Agustín Della Corte: That was no concern at all. I was, from the get-go, very comfortable with the idea — so, nothing negative there. I enjoyed playing a part that would push forward the LGBTQ+ movement in the show. It felt like a responsibility, too, but I felt proud to be able to put it on me, and it was an extra challenge that I just loved.
EDGE: Your character, Roque, gives a speech about homophobia in sports, and the show also looks at how online hate is directed at athletes, whether they are gay or straight. How closely can you identify with that?
Agustín Della Corte: Nowadays, we live in a world where it's so easy to put an opinion about anything or anyone, and we see how social media are used to convey negative comments or reviews more than positive. I think we're all exposed to negative criticism. You feel that as an actor, too. You feel the pressure to perform.
As an athlete, I did receive some negative comments, and I felt absolutely exposed. Of course, I will continue to be "exposed"... [Chuckles] ...as part of ["Olympo"]. The important thing is to be able to manage things right — to be able to value each review you agreed [with], and to be able to separate which ones you should care about and which ones you shouldn't, and not let them sink too deep inside you.
EDGE: I like your joke about "being exposed," because "Olympo" does show quite a lot of skin. Was that something you hesitated about when you were looking at the role?
Agustín Della Corte: No, I wasn't concerned about that at all. All the intimacy scenes were very well told, and what's most important about it is that each scene tells something that goes beyond what is strictly sexual or explicit. You have very specific times when this happens, and every time it has meaning. It has a specific sense [as to] "Why are they putting this there?" I think that's very helpful when working in those kinds of scenes, and in helping you not feel uncomfortable, because it makes sense.
EDGE: You and the others in the cast are playing teenagers. How easy was it — or how hard was it — to get into the mindset again of someone who's that age and that hormonal?
Agustín Della Corte: Actually, the characters are supposed to be between 20 and 23 years old, so it's slightly above adolescence, and not much different from the real age of actors. So, it falls in the comfort zone. I can say I was the older actor, being 27.
EDGE: Older and wiser? Like Roque, who seems to be the one always trying to help Amaia control her impulses? The problems in the show often seem to happen when Amaya cannot reign herself in. Is this something that you and actress [Clara Galle] had a chance to discuss, and figure out how to make that relationship work?
Agustín Della Corte: Absolutely. I mean, there's this one thing that we mentioned throughout the show, which is that athletes — well, some of them have the right physicality, others have the right mindset. Some people have both. You see how Amaia is handling her problems and not trying to sort things out; she is more of the physicality side, and he contributes with the right mindset. He seems to be more balanced, and to be able to take some distance from the problems. It's a nice balance that is created in that friendship, which is very meaningful in their relationship. And it's a very beautiful friendship, and I enjoyed very much this part of the show — first of all, because I was able to work with Clara, who's a wonderful person, and it's a pleasure to work with her, and second, because they created this beautiful arc between the characters.
EDGE: Before this, you were in a movie called "Society of the Snow," which is another story about a group of athletes. How would you compare the two experiences you've had working with such different ensembles?
Agustín Della Corte: It's been super-enriching. I was able to contribute with my own experience as an athlete on both films. First of all, on "Society of the Snow." I would say the difference is we have sport as the backdrop of the story, which creates a link between the characters, and it creates a pattern so that they can face the difficulties based on that. On the other hand, in "Olympo," [sport] is at the forefront of the story, and the conflicts arise from there. That's the main difference. I feel very, very lucky to have been able to be part of those two big projects, and to be able to live with my experience as an athlete, too.
EDGE: The storyline of "Olympo" is full of twists and turns and conspiracies, and it may be a little larger than life, but how realistic is the sense of pressure, the intensity, the competition, and the love among the athletes, as compared to real life?
Agustín Della Corte: I think, actually, it's very well depicted in this show — the pressure an athlete can receive to perform, to meet certain goals. It goes from outside towards the inside, and it's different, depending on the person, how they receive it. I think it's very well depicted, and it's very nice to see how each character faces the pressure in a different way.
"Olympo" is streaming now at Netflix.
Check out these pics from Della Corte's Instagram: