“You don’t have to be a bastard to be a great ‘paparazzi'”

That behind a good photo there is much more than what is seen is something that Diego Arrabal knows well. Attached to a camera (almost) for as long as he can remember, he is also more than what is sold: he has earned a reputation as a brawl or as a fly ball on a set, but that is nothing more than “a role”. His, the real one, is after the lens, disguised with a wig or hidden “in a mountain” to hunt down the pink prey of the moment. And when he catches her, wham!

Do we all have a price?

-Yes, Jesús Gil already said it… I don’t like to generalize, but having seen it, you can say yes.

-What’s yours?

-I do not consider myself part of this as a character.

-But the collaborators have long been cannon fodder.

-Yes, because the programs, such as ‘Sálvame’, have been able to turn collaborators into characters, but that does not guarantee you to have fame or that a brand will do well, rather the opposite.

I was asking for your price.

-They have offered me everything, but I have always rejected it. First, because I don’t see myself; and second, because I don’t want to cross that line. In fact, I’ve gotten up from more than one set because I don’t want to cross it.

-He has a reputation for brawling.

-But it is not like that. When I sat on a set I made the decision to go with a breastplate and the easiest way was to put on the typical grumpy and ‘porculero’.

-Ummm… you’re not telling me it’s a piece of bread.

-It is that that is not my reality, although it is necessary to have a cojonera fly on the set because it is the one that opens the debates. And I’m that ballsy fly, but as a result of Rocío Carrasco’s ‘docureality’, being a critic has been more complicated than ever.

Did they kick him out for that?

-The official reason they gave me is because of my YouTube channel. There I am critical, but exactly the same as on a television set. These things make me sad, because in the end they play with the bread of a family. There are a thousand ways to pull your ears without kicking you out: in my case there was none. It went from everything to nothing.

-Has the good celebrity been lost?

-Yes, years ago. Before, celebrities needed us, but today the business is on social networks. My job is to get what the famous does not want to get out and now everything is sweetened. We are losing the charm of the bikini photo with the Michelin star, and we focus everything on what the character wants to teach. That is why we are no longer needed.

-Surely there is someone who makes you especially nervous.

-At this point no, but there are celebrities that I avoid because I know they are going to bring me problems.

-Count, count…

-(Laughs) I can’t give you names, but the successful singers who go with a lot of security personnel and who are more thugs than anything else. And the Royal House also makes me very nervous. There came a time when I decided to pass, because everything is unpleasant with them. I have no need to be threatened.

-Imagine that you have Queen Letizia topless on a yacht. I can’t believe she doesn’t shoot.

-Oh, no, no, no! And less topless. Still in a bikini, yes, but I put it on a scale and I don’t know if it’s worth it for what may come later.

Ladi Di changed his life

-For which of your photos was it all worth it?

-My great photo has been the one of Lady Di doing ‘topless’ in Mijas, because of the repercussion and because of what it meant for my career. That changed my life.

-But they were not published.

-They were saved, but it has been the report for which the most has been paid in the history of the pink press. Imagine, 1.2 million euros at that time! I didn’t take even 25% of that, but I bought a flat for my parents.

-To be a ‘paparazzi’ do you have to be a bit of a bastard?

-That goes a lot in how the person is, but you don’t have to be a bastard to be a great ‘paparazzi’. I, for example, am very playful, but I am like that in my personal life. My wife and son have won heaven with me.

-And if your son tells you that he wants to be a ‘paparazzi’ or collaborator?

-Noooo… luckily he wants to be an airplane pilot.