Spanish Pop Star Sings a Pair of Different Tunes in ‘High Heels’

Miguel Bose is singing a different tune in Pedro (“Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!”) Almodovar’s newest film, “High Heels.”

In the comedy-melodrama about a feuding mother and daughter, Bose, one of Spain’s top pop stars, plays both Femme Lethal, a singing female impersonator, and a mysterious investigator called the Judge.

“It was a very hard (personal) investigation to do all these kinds of character things that don’t belong to me,” Bose, 35, says. “The Judge is a grave, ministerial character. I don’t have anything that relates me to that. And the woman! I didn’t think I was able to to it. But Pedro said, ‘I know you can do it.’ That made me accept it and I worked very hard.”

His legions of fans, Bose says, have been flocking to see him in “High Heels.”

“The kind of fans who come to the concerts, they go to see it,” he says. “I received a letter from a bunch of guys who are from the south of Spain who follow me everywhere. They wrote me this letter, ‘Now we have one more reason to love you--in a different way.’ It was a very funny letter.”

Bose, the son of Italian film actress Lucia Bose and famed Spanish bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguin, had a remarkable upbringing. His godfather was director Luchino Visconti, and Pablo Picasso and director Luis Bunuel were among the family friends. “My parents were very popular,” he explains. “Because of their popularity, they had friendships with people around the world.”

A singer for 18 years, Bose also managed to find time to study dancing for 20 years. “But I don’t consider myself a dancer,” he says with a shrug. “I was on scholarship with people like Alvin Ailey and Martha Graham. I think dance discipline gives you an enormous honesty with yourself. Dancing taught me how to cross the road and how to walk. I would do it again.”