Eileen Acosta: “I gave Aitana my best effort”

This young and talented artist has been part of the Cuban family thanks to television: Laura, in the recently concluded soap opera Viceversa, and Aitana in Renacer, currently on air. A propos of both characters, she talked to CubaSí.

—Let's start with Laura. What has this character left you in terms of personal and professional experiences?

—I will start with the personal experiences. Laura left me many beautiful things, because she is a character who goes through many situations of spiritual and personal growth in the soap opera. She starts off being a standoffish girl, quite "me-like", so to speak, and ends up being super sensitive, fighting for her goal, which is love, which is her marriage, starting a family, fighting for the man she loves. She makes mistakes, but she learns from them. She had a pretty beautiful spiritual growth and I think people identify with that. At first, people were divided. Part of the audience wanted Laura to stay with Armando and the other did not want it, precisely because of all the things she had done in the soap opera, but hey, I think that people have the right to make mistakes and be provided a second chance.

«Professionally, as an actress, it is my first co-star in a soap opera, in such a long project, with a lot of sacrifice, many hours of work, a lot of psychological work, and the truth is that it helped me later face this character. It was practically like training, because Aitana is quite strong on a psychological level, and I think Laura gave me experience to be able to impersonate the character of Aitana with a little more strength, wisdom when working with the camera, etc."

—You had not yet gotten out of Laura's skin when Aitana knocked on your door. How did you face the challenge of differentiating one from the other?

—I was not done with Laura, literally, when I had to start working on Renacer. I had very little studio time, just a week to do a makeover. I think the beginning was the hardest, which was cutting my long hair, because my biggest fear was that the two characters would look alike. Furthermore, the two soap operas came out one after the other and both had quite an impact in the stories.

«I tried to differentiate them as much as I could physically, because the two characters have actually nothing to do with each other. Laura has a way to be, an attitude towards life, very different from Aitana. That helped me differentiate them. I tried to make it as different as possible and I think that so far, the result can be seen. I have felt quite happy. I think it has been good, from what people on the street have told me. I think that is what you appreciate the most as an actress: the greatest happiness is that people like your work and they recognize it. An actor's biggest fear is being rejected, and we work hard to achieve it, so that the public can appreciate our work.

—Which of the two characters does Eileen identify with most?

— Honestly, Eileen doesn't have much to do with none of them. They are characters with very different experiences and conflicts, but they have one thing in common and I think that I, Eileen, identifies with that. Both characters fight for a goal that they want to achieve. I have that in my life too: I fight for what I want, I try to keep the people I want in my life, I try to escape or separate myself from what hurts me, and I think Aitana does that: she detaches herself from the people who hurt her and fights for the goal of being able to have her child with her.

«In Laura's case, she fought for love, to have her man. She righted what she did wrong. She realized the things she had done wrong, and I think that's what life is about: making mistakes and being able to get rid of them. Eileen is like that: if I make mistakes, I try to right them. We are human, we can make mistakes, and I believe that second chances, whenever they can be given, should be given.

—Was Aitana challenging to you?

—The truth is, I devoted myself to Aitana, since she demanded a lot from me as an actress. Above all, many daily scenes, a 90-episode soap opera was recorded in just six months. It is the longest soap opera made by the Production Company, and it is a character that has a lot of importance: the plot revolves around her story, which is quite strong, complicated, with several sad moments, crying, and very few moments of happiness. Recording a soap opera like this in six months requires quite strong acting work and psychological preparation, and I had to assume both.

"It was a really difficult work and I tried to do it starting from the truth, starting from the roots, trying to investigate with people who went through that situation, and do it with all my heart."

—From what you have told me, Aitana is already getting some love from people on the street and social networks. Can you tell us about the feedback you have had?

—The truth is that people on the street, on social networks, have said so many nice things to me, things that have left me speechless. I have not even known what to answer, even colleagues have written to me talking about my work, the psychological effort that I had. The soap opera is still in its first episodes. I can't say much, but the truth is that I went through a lot of things. It was hard work, and seeing that people feel identified, especially women, that they write poems to me, that women have opened up and have lost their fear and have even written about their experience and their experiences on social networks, men who have also come out defending women, that is something that, truly, is very comforting and exciting. Plus, in a way, it means that people believe in what I'm doing, and that's the most rewarding thing for an actor.

—Indeed, Aitana's character has a strong symbolism in terms of gender issues. As a woman, what messages does Eileen hope to convey through Aitana?

—It is a wakeup call, because this is a very strong issue, which is barely tackled and it does happen. There are many cases of femicide, of abused and violated women, and we must say enough is enough to these types of situations.

«I believe that Aitana's character is going to open many eyes. It is going to make many women, who are going through situations like this or similar, realize that it is not worth holding on, that they do not have to do it, that being independent is one of the most important things you can achieve in your life; that women were not born to be locked up, to be housewives and that's it. We were born for many things, we have many talents and a very great capacity to do many things at the same time. We can be strong, we can do and be what we want. So, it seems to me that women have to fight more for our rights and stand up, and not be afraid of anything or anyone. I think that is Aitana's message, a message of strength, of power, of fighting for what you want and saying yes, you can. I am not afraid. I am going to get out of whatever is hurting me.

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff