Date: Saturday September 29, 2007
Source: TV show Myths and Truths 50th Anniversary of the soap operas/Televisa Mexico,
Thank you Jacqueline/Jacqui for the translation as always!

Veronica Castro: I’m in New York, and I was invited to the most beautiful baby shower and I’m with a person whom is very beloved by all of you, and of course that she has to be in the 50th anniversary of the soap operas, because she has the most successful Trilogy of soap operas, who is she? She is Thalia.

Thalia: My Vero, it was a very beautiful introduction. My beautiful Vero, now we have met each other in this stage of my life. And only because of you and because of the 50th anniversary of the soap operas in the world, that is why I am here.

Veronica Castro: You had to be part of this homage, and sincerely, I have to thank you, because you are going to become a mother soon, so it was difficult for you to give an interview, and really it’s a happiness to see you shinning from inside and from outside, and in some time now you are going to be more illuminated, because God is going to be with you.

Thalia: Blessed be God.

Veronica Castro: But we have to talk about the Marias, and in the soap operas there are many lies and also many truths.

Thalia: Of course.

Veronica Castro: and like they were a long time ago, so we can say about those things.

Thalia: Well not everything because there are some that were very hot truths.

Veronica Castro: Well those that you can say, but well tell me because sincerely it was very difficult for you to start to make the Three Marias because you were working in Spain.

Thalia: My mother and I, we were in Spain. I was working in a TV show named "VIP Noche" and which was one of the most important TV shows in Spain in that age. Over there I received a call from Valentin Pimstein and I thought "Oh My God, that man is the creator of a soap opera´s Empire, because he had an analytical and a magic eye, and he told me “I’m Valentin I know you are working over there, how long will you be staying there?” and I told him, I’m going to be here for two months more, and he told me, well I want you to go back to Mexico, because I have for you the best soap opera that I have ever made and after that soap opera I have an idea, because I want to make the first Trilogy in the story of the soap operas, so I arrived in Mexico and he told me the story and I fell in love of the story and that’s how we gave life to Maria Mercedes which was the first soap opera from the Trilogy.

I remember that when Maria Mercedes was released the ratings of that time were 86 points. And Maria Mercedes was an impact in my life, to live that character, very poor, and who worked in the streets. I had to learn from a person from the circus how to play the balls, to get my money in the corners of the streets, and I learned about a reality that in that moment I didn’t know.

Veronica Castro: You were very involved with the costumes of your characters.

Thalia: I was involved in everything, we had to repeat the first 20 episodes because my first costumes were very fake, it was like very pop look, so talking with Valentin Pimstein, I remember I told, I want my character to have real elements, like that bow/rope which was her belt, her pants were too big and she doesn’t have money to buy a belt.

MARIMAR

Veronica Castro: which is your favorite Maria, Maria Mercedes, Marimar or Maria la del barrio?

Thalia: I identify myself with Marimar, when she was wild, when she lived in the beach, when she was a free soul, and when she said what she felt and what she thought, and at the same time she was very lovely, innocent.

Veronica Castro: There is a very nice scene in Marimar, because really it had to be very difficult to work with a dog, so I saw you talking with the dog, and it had to be very difficult.

Thalia: Do you know which part of that scene was the most difficult? It was Pulgoso's breath, and yes there were unique things like in Marimar, that the dog speaks, and to act with him, I was told to put a sausage above my head, so the dog looked at me.

Veronica Castro: I can’t believe it¡¡¡

Thalia: So sometimes a little piece of dog food was left from my head, so all the time I smelled like dog’s food, so for me it was very difficult to find a boyfriend in that age.

I always like the reality I like that when the people are watching something they believe it, and there was a scene in the beach we were shooting in Ixtapa Zihuatanejo, and the weather was really hot, and it was the most important scene of the soap opera, because in the future when Marimar became rich she took revenge in the same way and she made Angelica put out of the mud some documents of her house, so that scene was very important and I remember that the mud they had created it looked like chocolate, so I made the scene and I always asked the producer to allow me to check my scenes so I checked those and when I watched the scene I laughed , I said, that´s a joke I look like a baby who ate chocolate, I want real mud, so they took mud I don’t know from where , I didn’t ask anything, I remember that after the scene I was told "Look we didn’t want to tell you but look the mud in which you put your mouth it was filled with worms, and I said, thanks my love thanks that you didn’t say it to me before because I had run away , I put my face inside the mud I looked for the bracelet and I remember even my teeth were filled with mud, and because of the humiliation of the scene I started to cry, I didn’t have to cry in that scene but it was too humiliating for me and for the character that scene that I couldn’t stop crying.

Thalia: Capetillo in that age, he was the boy friend of Bibi Gaytan, they haven’t gotten married yet, she was not pregnant yet, and each time we have a kissing scene, he got very nervous, he was like tense,,, so we started to think what was happening to him, and even Beatriz Sheridan spoke with him & she asked him what happened to you, are you nervous because you are going to kiss your ex group mate of Timbiriche? or you don’ like to kiss Marimar when she is dirty? or do you have a problem?, until somebody learned that outside of the studios where we filmed the soap opera there were some screens and there Bibi was watching how our kisses were, so the solution was to turn off all the screens, and we had delicious kisses.

Veronica Castro: Alfredo Diaz Ordaz died while you were in Marimar do you remember the scene which you were making when you were told about his death?

Thalia: Yes. it was terrible, we were shooting the scenes for the soap opera’s opening in which I’m like in a stone eye and I appear there with Pulgoso, so we had a break to eat and suddenly, my mom gave my cell phone and I saw her face she was affected, so I was told about his death, so I was like in shock. I thought that was not really happening and the first I did was to run, until I arrived to a tree, I was very bad. I was crying and I remember I said, I hope you are fine where ever you are, and in that moment a wind moved the tree, don’t ask me how, and in that moment fell little flowers and we both we had a complicity with flowers, so that was a way to say to me, I’m fine keep on working and keep on doing your things, I’m fine. And the tears of that soap opera were very real, there are some things in you life which you can put away throw your work.

MARIA LA DEL BARRIO

THALIA: I was bitten by a monkey; he bit me in my navel.

Veronica Castro: You have to explain that, because the people want to know what a monkey was doing to your navel.

Thalia: At the beginning he was on my shoulder but he started to get mad and he wanted to scratch me so I put it down and he bitten me in my navel so I took the monkey from his tail and I threw him away, later I was sorry for the monkey, but he bit me, because of his fault I was injected by a vaccine, and that was in Maria la del barrio because Valentin Pimstein had the idea to have pets in the soap opera and it was also the first soap opera with cartoons, I appeared a Cinderella.

In another scene we filmed it in Apizaco but the weather was very cold, it was -0°C,

Veronica Castro: and there was when you got sick.

Thalia: there was when I got sick, because Maria la del barrio was already a lady and although, they wanted to make me look older, like Nandito’s mom, so I said no with the attitude I’m going to look older, so I was wearing a mini skirt, in a weather -0°C, we were filming in the train station until 5 a.m., it was the scene in which Carmen Salinas said to me "This is my son he is not your son" and I remember Carmen Salinas was trying to warm me and after that I got sick with a high temperature , I got arrhythmia and Emilio Azcarraga sent me to USA with his doctors, and I was at the hospital two weeks and they had to change the story, and that’s why Maria went to visit a relative and the people were wondering why I disappeared for 20 episodes, and I was at the hospital, and I recorded my scenes by phone I called "Nandito my son I´ll be back soon from my trip" but I was in bed at the hospital.

Veronica Castro: So they recorded only your voice.

Thalia: Yes, my scenes were by phone.

There was another scene in Maria la del Barrio in which the prison got burned and over there were the most expert people of special effects, so I said to the camera’s director, if I fell in the fire while it’s growing I’ll make you a sign.

Veronica Castro: Some times there is no time for that.

Thalia: Yes so I started to see that the fire was bigger and I stared to feel hot and I looked at the guys of the production and they were very calm drinking soda, and I almost fainted.