The King recognizes Sergio Peris-Mencheta's creative legacy: "I've overcome the feeling that I don't deserve it."

Sergio Peris-Mencheta 's mark lives on in Los Angeles, the city where he lived for eight years. The Official Cross of the Order of Civil Merit , which he was awarded on Saturday night, was presented to him at a friend's house in North Hollywood, in an intimate, heartfelt, and "somewhat improvised" ceremony, surrounded by a battalion that the actor considers "his chosen family" in the city of stars. It is recognition of the work of an actor, director, and theater producer who has not only "kept the flame of Spanish cinema alive in Hollywood," as the Spanish Consul in Los Angeles, Gerardo Fueyo, said, but is also "a human example," having battled leukemia for almost two years.

The 50-year-old Madrid native admitted to being "overwhelmed" by a medal "that I didn't know existed," awarded by King Felipe VI , a gift he feels is "a little bit of all" the actors who are in Hollywood "creating the Spanish brand." It is, as the theater director noted, "a recognition not only of surviving and not losing touch with my creative self despite chemotherapy, the transplant, and everything else, but also of not having let go of the theater despite having been working in Hollywood."

With or without a medal on the chest of a jacket lent to him by a friend, Román, for the ceremony, Peris-Mencheta looks like a changed man . He says he prefers the Sergio from after the illness to the one from before, that he no longer judges himself with the harshness he once did and that he has learned to look at himself in the mirror, "not from a place of narcissism, but from a place of acceptance."

The illness he was diagnosed with at the end of 2023 has changed his mindset. "I don't waste a second looking at my children, looking at my girlfriend, being with myself, accepting myself," he says in a chat with EL MUNDO. "I've learned to silence the inner father who told me I'm not enough, I'm not okay, I'm not worthy, I shouldn't sing, I shouldn't paint, I shouldn't dance, I don't know how to do it, I should study, I should sacrifice... a series of mantras. I've overcome that feeling of constant unworthiness."

His wisdom has grown by leaps and bounds, supported more than ever by his wife, actress Marta Solaz , and his two sons, Olmo and Río. "I'm proud of having overcome the leukemia that took my grandfather and my father, for being able to show my children that you can get through this," says the playwright.

Back in the United States for a film shoot, the actor, who began his professional career in Out of School and has appeared in projects such as The Borgias and Love Ranch , admits he no longer feels fatigued or nauseous all the time, but he also can't put on a sock by himself. "It's a very strong shock that reminds me that I'm finite. There are little things that constantly remind me that I have a condition. It's getting better, but little by little. The key word is acceptance, not patience."