Leonardo Benítez had not had an easy morning, but he entered the Cuba Si newsroom with all the professionalism and charm that we had already seen in Maykel Yunior, elder Julio and Tomás. We talk so much and with such fluidity about all of them and about Leo himself when he is not in another skin, that it is difficult for us to believe that he is a shy guy.
Tomás came to him almost by accident, the actor who plays one of the characters that has aroused the most expectations in the telenovela confessed to us You. In a couple of days she had to study to face complex scenes (some hospital scenes that we haven’t seen and, by the way, this is the closest thing to a spoilers that we were able to get from Leo; Lucky for Lester Hamlet to have an artist as discreet as he is talented).
—How was the experience with Tomás?
—Tomás is a super rich character and I enjoyed him very much. I am grateful that he has come to me, because as a result of the 2015 novel, shared beats, people framed me as a so-called “soap opera heartthrob”, and I don’t want that. Maykel Yunior stole the Show in that novel, because it marked a before and after, I think he was the first black actor who played a leading character, and as a result of that, other characters came with those colors; even in after the footprint, my character of Major Julio, every time he goes to interview a girl… if she looks at him, if she laughs… So I said: well, Tomás is a different guy, with a scar on his face, he has an injury that is not well visible, but it is on his left arm; so I thought: this has to be done, I’m going to take advantage of it.
«It has brought me spiritually to bring out things that I had inside as an actor, to search in dark areas and take them out, because that is what actors do, bare the soul, not just take off their clothes, although Tomás started the novel a little warm and, already I tell you, I have hesitated a lot. The public appreciates it, in the street they ask me where did you leave the scar? People started hating Tomás, and later it is discovered why his attitudes and now people love him, as I knew he was going to happen ».
—Any anecdote with the public?
—What amazes me is that on the networks they write to me as if I were really Tomás, it happens to me a lot on Instagram that they say to me: “compadre, why did you do that? Why did you take Ivette and the girl out of home?”. But it moves me because they tell me very nice things: people cry, because I have had very hard scenes, they send me audios with sobs. I think the character has reached the public a lot and I love that.
—It’s that Tomás is one of the characters with the most emotional twists, let’s say. How much more do we need to see with this man?
—Well, there’s the issue of the scar, you know it wasn’t Adriancito, but who did it? Adriancito knows who he was and that is something that is not over yet and is going to be very strong. What I can tell you is that I’m going to sing again. I already sang a song by Amaury Pérez once, but I need another…
—And how did you get on with that challenge Lester Hamlet gave you?
—I like to sing, because I started with sports, then I joined a rap group with my best friend, I started making music, I joined a lyrical choir, that is, I like to sing and this was divine for my.
“Did someone help you get ready?”
“Yes, King, the one from the Samplings.” He is very given to us, I proposed some ideas to him because that song was a waltz and I suggested taking advantage of the theme and taking it to a rumba, to the guaguancó, because I want to lend it to the story with Adriancito, the theme is not about that, I adapted it. He was worried if Amaury was going to like that, I told him, I think so, he’s going to feel grateful, because it’s a song that he keeps very close to the vest and we’re going to bring it to light and indeed, when he heard it , gave us the highest praise.
—As you said, Maykel Yunior was the first and perhaps the only black heartthrob in Cuban soap operas. What do you think this is?
—I can tell you that I have not suffered much from racism on television, but there is. There is an underhanded racism that exists in this society. It exists in other countries as well, but since I’m Cuban and I live here, I suffer from here. For example, Maykel Yunior was not written for a black actor, but for a white actor, and I did it because God wanted me to do it, but the newsroom didn’t want it. The co-director of that soap opera, Felo Ruiz, said: there is a Brazilian actor named Lázaro Ramos who stars in soap operas, why can’t you do it here in Cuba? He defended him and finally yes, I stayed and did it. But it generated a strong controversy on television and in the public as well, because it was not customary to see a black actor in a leading role. Later they assimilated it, but it was controversial.
“The late Tomás Piard, a film director to whom I am very grateful, made a film called The Motionless Traveler and there was a character that alluded to Mella. He wanted me to do it and the newsroom told him: no, but let’s see, we get along super well with Leo and we love him, but it’s an allusion to Mella. Perfect, it’s an allusion, it’s not Mella… He couldn’t give me that character, he gave me another, but I wasn’t interested in doing it and I suffered a little from that, because I really liked the chemistry with Tomás Piard, the way he directed me… I suffered from it at the time and said why do you think that way? affected me so much, I’ve always had a job and in the end people have accepted me well”.
—What makes Leo Benítez fall in love with a character?
—I have learned in this career, it has been 22 years in it, and it is that in acting the last thing you do is what people remember, you cannot live on the applause of yesterday. Yes, today people remember Maykel Yunior, who liked it a lot, but other characters have come who have made a noise because of how well people have seen that I have done them. I always say, well, I want to make this worthy, that it fits me well, I always want to mark a before and after, with all the projects, but if the character I see has no fiber, no viscera, I’m not interested . I have even rejected cinema for playing a character that interests me on television. That is my struggle always with the advisors in Tras la Huella, people have to see what I am made of, who the human being is and that is what I am always looking at the scripts”.
—You’ve worked a lot in film, television and theater. What do you enjoy the most?
—The cinema is what I like the most. It is where I swim best, where I feel most comfortable. It’s a single camera, it’s like more intimate and if not, I go to the other extreme, to the theater”.
—And when you are not acting, what does Leonardo Benítez prefer to do?
-I like to watch TV. I am not a consumer of Cuban television, I consume soap operas because I see myself and my friends, Los Tras la Huella, even when I wasn’t there, but I watch a lot of foreign series. Those that have thirteen-episode seasons, for example, I watch the entire season in one night. I go out with my friends, we go out a lot in groups, I like to have a great time with my friends. I like to write poems, but when I get the feeling, songs too. I am a guy who is always thinking a lot about tomorrow. I lead a generally quiet life. I am a night owl. At night I am usually awake thinking or creating or watching a series.
READ MORE: Leonardo Benitez, strength, love and soul in each character
