This is undeniable for Maria Solomou. She is only interested in being herself. Not now. Since she was five. Speaking to Chrysa Kakioris and Real Life, on the occasion of the M.A.I.R.O.Y.L.A. play in which she stars, she revealed a lot.

-Did you grow up in a liberal family?

“No, she was too classic, too put together, too ‘must have’. The family above all, let’s all eat together, celebrate the holidays together. These trivialities of normal families were observed by my parents and they suffocated me. That’s when I realized that something was wrong with me and it “had to” because I was reacting since I was a child – I didn’t react when I was 12-13, I reacted since I was five”.

-Did it help you to become the person you want?

“I became the person I wanted to be since I was 12. Serious reaction, I broke everything, how we should be, what we should do, food, gatherings. I dismissed all this very quickly and as I grew older I saw that it was not a reaction. I am like that. I’m not reactionary to be, it’s not the reaction of adolescence against everything. Waited for my mother to pass puberty, to calm down, now we are waiting for menopause to pass – it can’t be done, it’s the same! For me, nothing has changed in my beliefs, which means that this is my core, it was not a reaction.”

-But now he accepts you as you are.

“My mother can’t do anything else anymore. He got tired. He has the same questions he always had. “Why my child? How do you do it?” I don’t get into conversations anymore. It has no why, how and what!”

-In the age of social media, where anyone can have an opinion on anything, how do you handle the toxicity that is pervasive?

“I’ve been used to it for many years now. Criticism in life, in personality, in what you wear, in your hair, in the way you speak, criticism for criticism, malice, hate without reason or cause. I’ve been wanting to read something to the point, a review that isn’t passionate. Let’s not kid ourselves, in the gym we know very well who will write to bury you, who are malicious, which women have a problem or which men respectively. It doesn’t affect me because I see the hole in it all.”

-On your scale, does friendship lean more than love?

“I kind of take friendship for granted, the people I have next to me. I have had my girlfriends in my life since the beginning, since school. I didn’t find them along the way. I made other friends after that and I’m close friends with them, but my best friends are the ones I have from school. And I have people I trust in the space and I will listen to them. But because I take this for granted, love is a driving force for me and I want it in my life. I want that feeling to exist, I like it.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Maria Solomou (@mariasolomou_official)

-You mean flirting and heart palpitations, while it lasts…

“Yes, yes, as long as this lasts, I try to last. If it’s gone, it’s over, at least for me.”

– What is the secret to keep love? The “not too close”?

“I don’t know what the secret is, I’m looking for it too, it’s definitely not a formula. I have tried everything. The normal relationships, the bad relationships, the crazy loves, the possessives, the jealousies… It’s all happened in my life, I guess all people go through all the stages, what doesn’t work for me for sure is the “we’ve been together for five years , we are in the same house, come and watch the series”. That will happen too, because that’s fun too, but that can’t be my life.

Also, “continuing together” doesn’t work for me, because then he becomes your cousin, your friend, your bestie. I believe that a live relationship should be romantic. Clearly when you are in love you want to see the other person all the time. When that stays and love goes away, it just becomes a habit and you’re with a person out of habit – I don’t want that. You will tell me “there are other things later”. Yes, others are made and the others are nice, I don’t object.

For others, it’s a question, to each his own. You want security. It would be best if there was trust in people, if they loved each other, if there was respect, and from then on, if they meet twice a week and are not inside a house, it’s fine.”