About halfway through the first act of the new film La Bola Negra, there is an abrupt shift and the frame freezes. One of our young protagonists is lying face up on a table, head dangling off the side, and smoking a cigarette until he is propelled into a dance number that is dark, seductive, and devastating. The film has an ensemble cast filled with wildly talented and extremely handsome male actors, but after watching that scene I knew exactly who I wanted to interview.
Only a few days later I’m on a Zoom with Milo Quifes who, at 25 years old, I find to be completely unjaded despite being something of a Spanish wunderkind. He is a proud college drop-out, retired influencer, published YA author, and now actor whose first major role landed him on an international press tour with Oscar buzz mounting by the second. La Bola Negra, an epic that takes place over the course of 85 years, is already being called “one of the best queer movies of the century.” Written and directed by esteemed creative duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, better known as Los Javis, the film follows the intertwined lives of three gay men using the Spanish Civil War and the rise of fascism as a throughline.
Spanish popstar, rising queer icon, and Dior muse Guitarricadelafuente plays Sebastián, a musician who is forced into the Nationalist ranks in 1937 and assigned to guard a wounded republican prisoner of war played by Miguel Bernardeau. A flash forward to 2017 sees Alberto, played brilliantly by Carlos González, travel to Cantabria to collect an unexpected inheritance and grapple with its consequences with the emotional support of his boyfriend (a very tender Julio Torres). Quifes plays Carlos, a young man in 1932 who has applied to join his father’s prestigious social club at a local casino but is ultimately rejected (or blackballed) over rumors of his homosexuality.
The latter character’s storyline was adapted from fragments of an unfinished, semi-autobiographical play written by Federico García Lorca. An acclaimed poet, playwright, and theater director, Lorca was brutally executed by the Nationalist forces in 1936. Like many gay icons before him, Lorca’s work, image, and martyrdom have come to symbolize something greater than himself—resistance to fascism, artistic freedom, the culture of his native Andalusia, the queer experience. As Carlos, Quifes honors his legacy with a tragic strength that is sure to put him on many a director’s radar.
Before the film’s release on Oct. 16, I spoke with Quifes about anxiety, social media, and the La Bola Negra curriculum he was assigned by Los Javis.
Carlos was your first acting role. You were a TikToker, but I see you haven’t posted since 2024, which is very chic. Can you tell me a little about your story?
I was born in Sevilla but moved to Granada where I started to study biology. During Covid I started to do silly videos about university life which people liked. But in my last year I decided to leave university because I did not like biology. During the day I worked in a gym and at night as a waiter. At the same time I started to write a young adult book. I tried to continue these videos, but I started to have anxiety in the street so I quit.
You had anxiety because you didn’t want people to recognize you in the street?
Exactly. And on the internet too. As my account grew, I became exposed to comments and opinions I didn’t like. At first I tried to make videos about writing the book and my own experiences, but the original videos were really about university. As things went on my anxiety got worse. So during [a] time I tried to forget social media to focus on myself.
Is the anxiety back now with the pressures of the film? La Bola Negra has had an extraordinary press tour.
Absolutely the anxiety is back. But everyone on the film supports me, and I try not to look at the comments or whatever. It’s not fair because I have so much love and so much support but one little bad comment will finish me.
Are you thinking of writing more?
Yeah, I’m writing another book right now that’s autofiction. Finding time during the tour is complicated, but I want to write again. If I have to choose being an actor or writer, I would say writer.
If it’s autofiction, will you be writing about the film?
I’m thinking about it.
You’ve spoken about how you see yourself in Carlos. But there’s a key difference in your story: Your character does not come out. At the very last moment, Carlos denies his story. The character played by Glenn Close verbalizes how disappointed she is in Carlos. Were you disappointed in Carlos?
No! I can’t be disappointed with that choice. At that moment he was basically being put on trial by a group of men. We don’t know what would have happened at a different point in his life when he had more tools. He was just a child in 1932.
Speaking of, what type of research did you do for the role?
In 2025, Los Javis gave us books to read and movies to see. Throughout that whole summer I also tried to draw myself inwards to read and think. Of course I spent a lot of time reading Lorca.
I’d love some homework from Los Javis. Can you tell us some things on that list? Was there any piece of culture they recommended that you loved? Or that really impacted your performance?
Sure! A sangre y fuego by Manuel Chaves Nogales, La piedra oscura by Alberto Conejero, Lorca y el mundo gay by Ian Gibson, and of course many pieces by Lorca. There’s a film that is not about the time period but it was very important to me, especially for the dance I do in the film. It’s called Cold War. As I was preparing to do my dance, I thought constantly of its dance scenes.
I think the Los Javis series Veneno is some of the greatest queer story telling our generation has seen. I feel it holds the same gravitas and “epic” scale as this film. Is there a work of Los Javis that’s your favorite?
I have seen them all and I love them, but for me La mesías is very, very special. I think it was the relationship with the mother. I hate to make the comparison but it is a little similar to me. Life with my mother and my father was a little complicated in my childhood. But it is good now; it became good with the distance.
Is there any advice that you were given, either during this process or during filming or in your life that you think is very good advice?
The advice is to forget everything you hate about yourself and start loving the things that you are doing right now, immediately. That way when you look back, you will see all of these happy and wonderful things.
Has anyone given you any bad advice?
Go with the flow. Because if you go with the flow it doesn’t give enough importance to the moment and the process. You have to understand the pain, the suffering, and the emotion of the moment so you can learn from it. You cannot just go with the flow and avoid it.
Ya’ll are on a press tour! It isn’t exactly Wicked but it has been really amazing to watch the cast and film slay it at all of the festivals. Is there a question people keep asking that you are sick of?
It’s very hard when people ask me about my dance. I hardly remember the day we recorded it because I was very, very, very, very, very nervous. I was suffering that day and I was not present at all. Now, I love the dance. I love how it is edited. The choreography by Belén Martí Lluch is amazing. The result is fantastic. But I find it hard to talk about.
My final question is about your hair in the movie—it was just so good! Was it a wig? Any thoughts or feelings about the hair that you would like to share?
I shouldn’t read Twitter, but I read Twitter. I read this comment that was like, “I love Carlos but I was not able to connect with the character because of the hair was so distracting.”
OMG, I think the opposite! I connected with the character in part because of how amazing the hair was! How do you feel about the hair now?
Now I like it so much. I’m keeping it. Before this, my hair was usually very short but now I’m keeping it like Carlos.
Sort of like how Ariana Grande kept Glinda’s hair and make up?
Sure, I guess.
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