The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20160603154310/http://mancave.cbslocal.com/2014/09/17/interview-paola-nunez/

Paola Núñez: Bold & Beautiful

Paola Núñez might not be familiar to English-speaking audiences, but in Mexico she’s one of the most widely recognizable telenovela stars, having acted since age 12. Now she’s hit the states on Telemundo, in the titular role of Reina de Corazones [Queen of Hearts]. By her own description shy, she nonetheless is unafraid to speak honestly about the realities of soap operas, the acting world, life as a celebrity, and the troubled state of her home country.

She did just that plus some fun topics in a lively and charming interview with Man Cave prior to Reina‘s premiere. And boy did we feel like lucky guys talking to her about the bevy of projects she has in the hopper for 2014 and 2015.

Man Cave Daily:  You’ve had a busy year. I would even say diverse: you’re in a telanovela, an action flick, a family comedy…you produced an indie film…was that a deliberate decision to diversify?

Paola Núñez: I’ve been doing movies in Mexico, but I wanted to do episodes in Telemundo. I wanted to do something different for the Latino world, and I thought Telemundo was a good idea. I wanted to experience that and I’m happy with my decision. Since I came here I’ve been learning so much stuff! And I’ve been doing television for so long in Mexico–so many soaps–that it was getting a little boring [laughs]. I wanted to do something else to know how they do it in another country, and the techniques. I’m happy. I’m really happy.

And this is a different kind of story. It’s a soap, but it’s different from anything I’ve ever done. It has serious twists. It’s not a conventional soap. It’s more dynamic and dramatic than most of them.

MCD: Yeah, it seemed to me more in the vein of Scandal or The Good Wife than that bombastic Days of Our Lives kind of thing.

PN: Exactly, it’s more modern. It’s a love story (It’s always a love story, you know) that develops inside a plot full of action and mystery. We don’t usually see that in a soap, not in Mexico.

MCD: Is it specifically the content or have there been changes in production when you went to Telemundo?

PN: Yeah, technique stuff, the way they resolve things. It’s funny, I’m from Mexico, the director is from Brazil, all the staff is from Cuba, and some people are from Colombia. Our stylist is from Peru. All those cultures meeting to do one product, and it has been very interesting in that sense, knowing all the different ideas and cultures, and the way to do the same thing but in different kinds of worlds.

MCD: Your set sounds a lot like my old neighborhood in Queens.

PN: When you’re in Mexico you don’t see that. Mexico isn’t like Miami, you just see Mexican people. We have the same culture and way of seeing and experiencing life. But when you come here to Miami, it’s kind of weird. You don’t feel that you’re in the United States. You feel that you’re somewhere in the world, everyone’s Latino. When I came here I thought it would be a great experience for me and I could practice my English, which is really getting bad. On the contrary, I can’t even practice it. I think in Mexico I practiced it more, because here everyone speaks Spanish. It’s incredible. [laughs]

Weird, but very fun. Here they really know how to have fun by doing it. In Mexico, we’re more serious about it. Television is so important in Mexico. Our culture depends on soaps. Here, they have more fun.

(courtesy of Anderson PRG)</em<

(courtesy of Anderson PRG)

MCD: What culture is transmitted?

PN: It’s been part of our history and of our culture: the way we act, the way we…it’s been a powerful movement. It’s a cultural parameter. If you want to talk about a period in time in Mexico, you speak of a soap: Remember when this soap was on? Then you can talk about the historic movement. But first you have to talk about a soap so they can understand what time you’re talking about.

It’s a huge thing. Everyone sees them. Everyone knows the actors. It’s not like in the U.S. if you’re an actor from soaps maybe a small percentage of people will see you. In Mexico, maybe 98% of the population is going to see you if you do television. That’s important for us actors — if you want to do films or you want to do theater you know that you have to do soaps. Because if you don’t, no one’s going to see you. No one’s going to go to your play. No one’s going to buy a movie ticket. It’s very different.

MCD: Does that carry with it a sense of awareness that you’re carrying culture with you?

PN: I’m always saying that! Everyone’s always saying how if you’re a soap actor you’re not as good as an actor is, diminishing soaps. In Mexico I think if you’re going to do it, you have to have that consciousness that you really can make a difference, because everyone is going to see you. You have to be responsible with that, you have to be serious about it. Soaps, especially in Mexico, they always write about women who are not independent, depending on a man. Women who don’t have a life. They’re not successful enough. I would fight to give that to my roles because I think women in Mexico are changing. They’re different. They are independent now. They’re just freer and they can be intelligent. They can be these new women: successful, powerful, independent…they’re–I mean, we rock. [laughs]

In Mexico, they think the women from soaps is the the ideal woman, and we have to change that. Every single role I play I think about that. I want to change the idea of women in soaps.

MCD: It sounds like that’s happening with your character Raina.

PN: Yeah, and that’s not necessarily the way she’s written, but I’m always trying to change that. If I see she’s weak I try not to do that. I don’t want to be a weak woman. I know as an actor I should play a lot of different roles, but I really want to do roles about strong women. This is a character that…everything happens her. Every single person wants to kill her–or at least that’s what she thinks–she’s getting kidnapped every single episode or someone tries to kill her. She has to be so vulnerable but at the same time she has to be strong. She can’t just be a victim of the situation, she has to be a part of the situation.

MCD: When you do get a character who’s weak or vulnerable, how do you make that person real and your own? 

PN: I try to get away with it without…I know what the writer wants. But I know what I want. I try to give her what she wants or he wants but also giving the character a little bit of something. All the leading ladies in soaps are always written like victims, all the time. I learned I can get away with it: give her something more. I can be vulnerable but I can also be strong by being vulnerable. I don’t have to be weak. I want people to see that when they see the soap. Yeah, I’m crying all the time but I’m strong, I make decisions. Maybe my eyes tell you something else, no?

MCD: So you want to give them a reality that makes sense?

PN: That word, reality, there is so important to me. Another word is truth. That’s my responsibility as an actor. People who watch soaps, they want to forget about their problems. That’s all they want is to cry with you, feel with you. But not their problems. Your problems. They’re doing their own catharsis and they don’t even know it. They’re getting out all of their stress and problems by you. They’re doing detox. What I should do is give it truth, every single scene, and it has to be real for them. Because if they don’t feel it they won’t cry and they won’t do this catharsis.

MCD: With all that in mind, what would be your ideal character if you made a character for yourself?

PN: I would like to play a woman with a lot of flaws. A lot of flaws. When you do this ideal woman, yeah, they’re weak, but they don’t have a dark side all the time. In films I’ve been lucky to be able to do a dark side, but in television it’s hard. In soaps, I mean. I would like to do a woman who has so many flaws, a real woman, living life and suffering like we all do and just maybe a love story but with more realness to the character.

(courtesy of Anderson PRG)</em<

(courtesy of Anderson PRG)

MCD: Is that a type of role more available to men than women?

PN: Oh yeah, definitely, and more involvement. When you do a soap, the guys do everything and the girl in distress is the victim. She gets saved by the guy all the time, and the guy’s the hero. Maybe that’s the character I want to do–a hero! [laughs] A girl who’s really a hero.

MCD: Well maybe you can parlay El Charro Misterioso into your own action film. 

PN: I would love to do an action film. I work out a lot, I like sports…I’m always tired because I have to shoot 15 hours a day. Everyone’s always telling me “You don’t have to work out that much!” I always say “I’m doing it because I know I’m getting prepared for a character that’s going to come to me: an action movie, you know?” A big Hollywood action movie. Something like The Matrix so I can shoot and fight…everything that’s extreme I like.

Charro, that’s one of my favorites. In Mexico we never talk about these kind of anti-hero characters. He had a great personality, great charisma. I played the wife. It was so fun. That’s the first movie I’ve done that had a big budget (for Mexico, you know). Production-wise, it was big. I played it with one of my favorite Mexican actors, Tenoch Huerta! He’s a god. He’s so talented.

MCD: So it seems less like a biopic and more like a Bonnie & Clyde “root for the criminal” film–

PN: Exactly! At the end you just want him to survive and be happy with his wife. I like when you don’t know who to root for in movies. I like those dark characters, I really do. And my character was kind of dark too. I’m robbing banks with him but at the same time I want a family and kids and to settle down, struggling with good and bad. That’s life! We all have that evil bank robber inside of us. That, for me, has been my favorite character.

MCD: Did you meet with the real-life Sonia to prepare?

PN: No! She doesn’t exist, actually. They know almost everything about him, but they don’t know about his romantic life. They knew he had a lot of women, but they didn’t know who exactly was the wife. He robbed banks with a couple women.

MCD: When you’re playing with a larger-than-life figure, did you feel the need to make your character a counterbalance to this powerful personality? Were you playing bass to his treble? 

PN: His character was so overpowering I just felt that I had to understand the movie was about him. My character was this girl who wanted to be like him. He wants to be the hero, she wants to be the boss, have his power, his intelligence, his charm. She was trying to be him the entire film but she had to be smaller and have the energy so that he could shine.

(courtesy of Anderson PRG)</em<

(courtesy of Anderson PRG)

MCD: In the U.S. our gangster films tend to do the best when there’s dissatisfaction with the powers that be at the moment. Does this film have echoes of that with what’s going on with the cartels?

PN: My country has so many problems, but the story is about the first bank robber in Mexico who had a strategy. He was the first man who had the intelligence to really think about the government and outsmart them. They say this guy opened the door to all those drug dealers who started to work like him. They say he was like the father to all the drug dealers. There was a before and after from him. I think that’s important. Before the ’70s there really wasn’t any of the problems we have today, politically speaking.

I like the story because it’s interesting, it’s about a person who really existed and it has this political theme.

MCD: Is that why he’s not talked about as much anymore? Nobody wants to invoke the guy who triggered this change?

PN: Exactly. Nobody wants to talk about him. He was a character. He was a bank robber. He also sang. He had a double personality. He put out a record! It sounds like a character from fiction. These kinds of things only happen in Mexico. That’s why I love the story. You see the movie and you can’t believe he really existed. He never got caught and when he did he got out again and again and again. That’s what’s happening with all the dealers. The security doesn’t matter. Sometimes it seems like the the ones who are moving the country are the dealers and not the government and that’s sad.

MCD: Do you worry this film might become a success with the wrong audience?

PN: It happens. It’s a part of who we are. It’s a reflection of what’s happening today. We can see the consequences. I think it will help people to know where it came from. It’s something we have to see as Mexicans. We have to open our eyes and really want a change. We have to really think we can do it. A problem in Mexico is people don’t think they can do it. We’ll make a change. It’s pushing forward. We’re not used to seeing our reality in Mexico. We’re always seeing another thing: where we want to go, where we want to be, not the reality in front of us.

MCD: I think you just wrote the manifesto for your action film. Now that I’ve made it heavy, let me ask you a fun question: has the allure of acting changed since you were 12? What drives you now?

PN: I’m an actor since I can remember. The only way I used to communicate was by fiction. I was awkward when I was a kid. I was shy and rebellious and not feeling comfortable in my own skin. I still feel that every single day [laughs] so not much has changed since I was a kid. I’m having more fun with it. Now I’m conscious about it and I’m laughing and I can joke about it all the time. But when I was a kid it was a difficult time. I didn’t know why. I wanted to be hiding behind a role or a character. Now I know why and I feel comfortable. It’s been great that I can do it as a way of living. I don’t have to choose another thing to do. This is the only way I know how to express myself. Not much has changed.

(courtesy of Anderson PRG)</em<

(courtesy of Anderson PRG)

MCD: When 98% of people know who you are and the characters you play, do you feel paradoxically that more people feel like you’re part of their family and you feel less awkward distance, but it’s for being someone other than who you are? Do strangers treat you like family?

PN: [laughs] That’s always going to be weird. Strangely, I just feel uncomfortable around people. It’s hard when they know you. When I go out in the streets in Mexico I try not to be recognized. If they do, they really want you to be the character they know or think you are. If they really do know you, they’ll probably get disappointed because they don’t want to see this shy girl. On the other hand I don’t make an effort to please to be this girl they know they can love. I just try to go incognito.

MCD: Has that happened in Miami?

PN: No, nobody knows me here. My soaps aren’t seen here. I feel great.

MCD: That’s going to change now with Telemundo.

PN: Yeah, but we look so different on TV from real life.  Especially soaps. You get all produced with fake hair and eyelashes and high heels and makeup. You get out on the street and nobody recognizes you. I’m always wearing tennis shoes and sportswear. I never wear makeup.

MCD: All the same, you’d better make a Miami bucket list before you’re at risk. 

PN: [laughs] You’re right.

 

(courtesy of Anderson PRG)

(courtesy of Anderson PRG)

MCD: You shot an indie film with friends called El Cumple de la Abuela [Grandma’s Birthday]. It seems like a good, old-fashioned farce.

PN: Yeah, it was. And the thing with that movie was we were just a bunch of friends doing it. The guys and girls in it? They’re my best friends They called me to do it and I was immediately like, “Yes.” We stayed in this hacienda in Cuernavaca near Mexico City. We had to shoot fast because they didn’t have a lot of money. We had the best time, so much fun shooting it and we all have the same sense of humor.

MCD: Was it easier working with your best friends, or did it bring its own set of problems?

PN: It was easy. We have all worked with each other in previous films. No problems here just good, old-fashioned love.

MCD: Your character’s in love with her boyfriend’s brother. Have you ever had a forbidden love?

PN: No. I really believe  that karma is a bitch so…

MCD: You also went more indie than indie with Dariela las MartesHow was it different shooting mumblecore? Did it affect your process as an actor, or was it more a technical difference? Did it make anything easier?

PN: It was the most exciting, experimental and healing moment of my entire career. We shot it in Mexico City, Paris and New York. The film is basically my story. It’s me playing me, my sleeping disorders, and depressions. when Mauricio Valle, the actor, director and producer of the film called me, he said he wanted to do a failed love story, and it ended taking a whole other path. for me, it was the beginning of my healing process.

MCD: This is a love story about a passionate couple. What happens to them?

PN: They meet each other at a difficult moment in life for her so he has to let her go and understand that there is not always a good time for a love story

MCD: You moved into production last year and on this film. What led you to the other side of the camera? Why was it important for you to make this film? 

PN: I wanted to feel free. Often as an actor you feel frustrated when you don’t understand the decisions producers make. I just needed to be in control on this one. especially because I always wanted to do a mumblecore movie; big fan of the genre.


Brendan McGinley is editor round these parts when not writing comics or Cracked columns. You can say a neighborly hello to him on Twitter @BrendanMcGinley. You’d probably enjoy his supervillain comic Heist, if you’re a fan of tarnished souls and brutal retribution. 

Down we go.

Crime pays.

Brendan proved why you should date a blonde in the weird facts behind Why Blondes Make the Best Girlfriends and interviewed nerd titan Charles Soule about his current comics projects.

Pretty much how everyone imagines blondes.

Pretty much how everyone imagines blondes.

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