Maite Galbán: The Harshest and Sexist Comments Came From Women
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When we coincided with actress Maite Galbán at Habana Mambo Festival, the soap opera Tan Lejos y tan cerca had already ended; however, the entire conversation took place in the present, since Dr. Danay still has her space in the debate of an audience like the Cuban that loves so much soap operas, and also in Maite's heart.
«I’m very happy with the job, really», she confessed, and told us how she got to the audiovisual world: «the directors contacted me and, after the casting, I realize they always thought of me for the character of Danay».
At the same time, she acknowledges that playing Danay represented a challenge: «When I read the script, I knew this character was going to be very difficult, especially because she is a doctor and, furthermore, in the midst of the pandemic that took over Cuba and the whole world, it was a great responsibility, even scenes set in the Red Zone were cases based on real life, based on the experiences of a doctor who advised us through the MINSAP, so the commitment was already double, because she had a respect towards her, towards her stories, towards her personal life».
She also noticed other moral dilemmas in her first reading: «I told myself: Danay is going to be judged and, in fact, it happens with the public, who say: «how is it possible for a health worker to have a husband and keep an extramarital relationship? I knew that people, when they saw the soap opera, were going to judge it, but I thought: "I have to justify it", and that's the way it is, nobody is so good, good, or so bad, bad, we are human beings and that's it».
And it’s not that Maite feels personally identified with the ways in which Danay faces certain angles of life: «she is a woman with many feelings; however, she has problems with her brother, with her father, with her son, with her husband; she has many conflicts that in real life I’d have solved differently».
But the thing here is not about judgments or prejudices: «Danay is a human being. She and her husband were separated in the first place. There was no betrayal there at any time and we are human beings, why not fall in love two, three, four, five times? And she was very nice, especially since the harshest and most macho comments came from women. There’s no manual to be a good mother, a good daughter... It’s totally logical, you can be an astronaut, you can be a doctor or whatever, but first of all you are a human being».
As for her experiences with the public, she tells us that she has had a bit of everything, some of which help her train her sense of tolerance: «because, precisely, people forget that she is a character. For example, I got into a car and a man asked me: “Are you the doctor from the soap opera?” "Yes". "I already dislike you very much", but, on top of that, with a very annoying accent.
«I said in an interview that the sex scenes were really hard for me to do and there was a person who posted online: "Luckily the sex scenes are hard to perform, because you go to bed with one and you go to bed with another". Then you have to take a deep breath and learn to tolerate.
«I’m aware of the social networks all the time, my family and my friends send me comments and it’s really interesting, because people tend to go to extremes and people should not be judged, you have to understand their story, because each of us reacts to the same event differently.
Of course, not everything has gone to the negative side: «On the street they call “Danay” or “doctor” and I already know it’s me they are calling, Maite no longer exists for this season. Many good things have also happened to me, for example, I was in Santiago de Cuba and the experiences were incredible with the people, so warm, so beautiful, the children touched me... as if to say: is that really you? Yes, it's me, just like you, with feelings, with conflicts, with all kinds of problems, I'm just like you. And I’m also very grateful for that because being close to the public is always one of the greatest blessings for me.
Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff
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