Soap Opera Renacer: Alejandro Guerrero says that "Lian is Really Something"

Lian is one of my favorite characters from the current sopa opera, Renacer, and I’d love to talk directly about him with the talented actor who brings him to life, but Alejandro Guerrero is so young that it’s necessary to start from the beginning.

—How and when did you discover your vocation for acting?

—When I was a child, my mother was the one who took me to the theater group El hombrecito verde, and there I started with dance, I tried acting, music, but I’m not good at singing, so it seems I had a future in dance and acting, so that’s where I started, in El hombrecito verde, with Jorge Pedro Hernández.

—And then, how did your training continue?

—My acting training has been great, because I think that everything that happens is for a reason. I was in El hombrecito verde from 11-15 years old. At 14 I started to prepare for the ENA entering tests in the Olga Alonso group, with Humberto Rodríguez, but they didn't accept me because of nodules on my vocal cords. I passed the first cuts, the national workshop came and the doctor decided that I had nodules on my vocal cords and that this was an impediment for school.

«I got very angry and didn't want to know anything about acting, I even walked away from that world. I’d have loved to go through school, but unfortunately, I couldn't. Rather, the training I've had has been in practice, the things I've done, the directors I've worked with, who have corrected me along the way, given me techniques, explaining things to me, all in practice, making mistakes, polishing them…»

—So, what led you to the soap opera Renacer?

—I got into the soap opera Renacer through Rey Castañeda, a professor at ENA. When I did the auditions, I didn't show up anymore, I went to my pre-university school and went through my Military Service. He called me when I was in the middle of my time in the Military Service for a project and I told him I couldn't, but he called me again now for the soap opera, he asked me if I wanted to show up for the casting and so I did: I showed up and that same day, at 5:00 p.m., I had the character.

—Despite being a character with many nuances, Lian has captivated the public. What experiences have you had with viewers on the street, on social networks...?

«Lían is really something. I think he is the character who has driven my career, my life, because the acceptance it has had from the public has been huge, people have connected very well with him and I am happy, of course. The people on the street are very nice and some of them are too nice, they even say rude things to me, but everything is great, they ask me for selfies photos… The other day a young man stopped me near Maternity Hospital and told me that he was going to name his son after the character, that it was a name he had already thought of, but, because of the soap opera, he had just made up his mind; that’s an anecdote that I will always remember.

«On social media it has been an explosion, I really don't know how I'm going to manage all this shower of blessings that has fallen down on me through the chat, the very nice comments, people from all over the country write, Cubans who watch the soap opera in other countries: in Miami, Spain, Brazil, Mexico... men and women of all ages write to me, but the boys make a collage and send me photos saying: look, we look alike, I look like Lian...

«I think that the best thing I've taken from social media and from the street has been all that group of people that I knew, but that one leaves behind along the way, in the daycare center, in primary school, in secondary school, in high-school, in the Military Service, people that you meet on the street and get along with, people from the neighborhood that you stop seeing, because life goes on and leaves people behind, and now they've all written to me and I've started communicating with everyone again.»

—How much of Alejandro Guerrero is there in Lian and viceversa?

—Alejandro and Lian are very similar, my girlfriend says in everything. They really are quite similar and I took advantage of that. I think that the points of contact are that we are both young, we have almost the same dynamic of relating to people, the same charisma; I think that’s where it goes, the rest is acting, of course, I added elements I see on the street that I don't have, but indeed, we really are very alike.

—You have announced your next participation in Tras la huella. Can you tell us a little about that project?

—Yes, in Tras la huella they find me and give me the character of Yunior. I loved the project because it’s totally different from Lian, he is a naive, innocent boy, you will see his little story. I looked for a different characterization for him, to mark everything well. I had the chance to work again with Raiza D' Beche, Iris in Renacer; My father is Herón Vega, and look, life gives you surprises, because in Asuntos pendientes he was my brother's father, who is also an actor, and now, in Tras la huella, he plays the role of my father. Also working with Yura, with Laura, with Leo Benítez, Omar Alí, the whole Tras la huella team, both actors and directors. It’s the last chapter of the season.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff