MIGUEL DE LEÓN

December 15, 1997
Maite (Venezuela)
Show host:  Maite Delgado

MAITE:  Hello and welcome to a special program, because today we have an opportunity, like few others, to fully enter into a love story that started in a telenovela but that ended in a church with a priest's blessing; he declared them husband and wife.  Our guests today are two great actors.  She's an excellent actress and he's an outstanding actor.  They met in a telenovela; headlining a love story within a telenovela.  But when cupid insists, no one can resist.  They're returning from their honeymoon and today they've promised to tell us everything concerning that beautiful love story.  Let's give a big welcome to Gabriela Spanic and Miguel de León!  Applause.  Welcome!  Congratulations!

MIGUEL:  Thank you!

GABRIELA:  Thank you, my love!
And may that love and that sparkle in your eyes last a lifetime because like Gabriela, no one.

MIGUEL:  No one


The applause continues.

MIGUEL & GABRIELA:  Thank you!

See how nice!  How do you feel?  They're applauding you not because of your artistic careers or because of your work in any (particular) telenovela but because of the wonderful love that truly unites you in real life.

MIGUEL:  Yes, we feel really good.  What we did these past few days by getting married is a dream come true.  The ecclesiastical act was wonderful.  Of course, everyone had a chance to see it, no?

On "Super Sábado Sensacional".  I cried with you at home and I also perspired from the heat.  But we'll touch on everything bit by bit because we're going to start at the beginning of this story.  Did you meet in the telenovela "Como Tú Ninguna" (Like You, No One) or had you known each other before?

MIGUEL:  We had met before but let's say it was mostly by sight.  In other words, there wasn't...

"Hello, hello!  Chao, chao!"

MIGUEL:  Yes, there wasn't any conversation.

In the studio's hallways, the way we've all seen each other many times.

MIGUEL:  Yes

Where we don't sit down to talk.

MIGUEL:  Yes

What did you feel, Gabriela, the first time you really actually saw Miguel?

GABRIELA:  I didn't like him.

Okay, cupid can be like that!

GABRIELA:  I couldn't stand him.  So then, when they informed me he'd be entering the novela:  "Oh no, that can't be but I can't stand that man!"

But wait, why couldn't...?

GABRIELA:  I said, "How can it be he's entering the telenovela?  Why?"

But why couldn't you stand him?  Haven't you heard that from love to hate, hate to love, there's only one step?

GABRIELA:  I don't know.

MIGUEL:  Yes

Maybe that was it.

GABRIELA:  Yes, and the tongue is the body's punishment.  I ended up married to him.

Why didn't you like him?

GABRIELA:  I don't know.  I would see him as very serious, very very proper.  He was like, like very grown-up/serious.  He would walk very straightly down the hallways.

Was he full of himself?

GABRIELA:  A lot

Conceited?

MIGUEL:  No no, I should give an...

Wait a minute.  That was her impression at the time and you respect it.  Gabriela.

GABRIELA:  Calm down, Papi.  Yes, I would see him as very... very self-important, very... very swollen-headed.

Pompous, stuffy

GABRIELA:  Yes, but then he'd greet me very warmly and I would think:  "Can it be he likes me?  But that's not possible.  Doesn't he feel the chemistry I send off that I dislike him?  Why does he greet me?"

The negative energy I emit.

GABRIELA:  Yes

Okay

GABRIELA:  And then...

Let's leave it right there.  That's how you felt towards him the first time.  Did you greet her affectionately because you liked her?

MIGUEL:  Yes

Honestly, without any reservations.

MIGUEL:  Well look, in the beginning...

You greeted her lovingly... out of courtesy? or with malice?

MIGUEL:  No, out of courtesy because I'm not malicious.  Never has a malicious thought crossed my mind with her.  We've done them which is a different story.  Maite laughs at his joke.  To give you roughly all the details...  Oh, I'm going to give you a quick background in regard to all of this.  Often, when one is ready to portray a character in a novela, one already is that character.  After the makeup, the preparation and all the rest, one transforms himself and becomes the character one is about to do on screen.

You proceed to be that person.

MIGUEL:  Ahuh, consequently I was the character a little bit and the character was, what we all commonly know as, a "wedding cake groom".  That pretty much describes the character.

Good looking, perfect.  They show a video clip of "Como Tú Ninguna".

We're looking at their first scenes, their first interactions, their first professional encounters.

MIGUEL:  Just to show you.  The image she had of me was not the image from "Como Tú Ninguna", which are the images we're looking at right now.  The image she had of me was from "María Celeste", which is a totally different character from the one in "Como Tú Ninguna".  They're poles apart.  The one from "María Celeste" was younger, more of a "wedding cake groom", a young man... let's say, a yuppie...

Yes

MIGUEL:  What we consider a yuppie... a high-level executive who has lived very well...

...perfect, good looking, impeccably dressed.

MIGUEL:  Right?  Who hasn't had any problems in life, who hasn't had...  The drama comes later...

Okay

MIGUEL:  ...in the course of the novela.

GABRIELA:  I liked Raul de la Peña better than him.

You liked the character better.

MIGUEL:  So then she had that image of me and off-screen I'm totally different.

Don't defend yourself just yet, Miguel.  Wait.  The time for the defense hasn't arrived yet.

MIGUEL:  You really know her!  You really know her!

Gabriela finds out you're going to enter the telenovela she's starring in, that you're going to be her prince charming.  Directing her question to Gabriela:   And you couldn't stand him!  What did you feel at that moment?  Wasn't it very difficult?  Didn't you say:  "No, give me someone else!"?

GABRIELA:  It was very hard but since one doesn't dictate in these matters...  Well, being a professional, I would concentrate a lot.  When we would enter a studio set...

Would he greet you:  "Hi, how are you?"

GABRIELA:  Yes, but then we'd go on to recite our lines and what-have-you.  We wouldn't have any conversation.  There were no confidences exchanged/no intimate talk.

How difficult!

GABRIELA:  Only "hi", "how are you?", "chao", we'd recite our lines and that'd be it.  And when we would enter a studio set and when he'd start to interpret Raul de la Peña, I would say:  "Now, why can't he be like the character?"  Already Gilda (in the novela), little by little...

Gilda was falling in love with Raul de la Peña.

GABRIELA:  ...was falling in love with Raul de la Peña.  Suddenly, time went by.  I would glance his way and he'd smile afterwards.  I would observe him closely/detailedly as he spoke with other people.  "But he's beautiful," I would say, "That man is precious.  How could I have disliked him?"  And slowly but surely, after Raul de la Peña, bit by bit, Gabriela started getting involved beyond Raul de la Peña.

When did you realize it was no longer Gilda who was in love with Raul de la Peña but rather Gabriela who was in love with Miguel?

GABRIELA:  In the first kiss

Ah, but that was fast!

GABRIELA:  In the first love scene

That went fast!

GABRIELA:  In the novela's first love scene, I felt...  The scene was one where he would carry me up the stairs, and he would carry me to bed and what-have-you, with that tenderness that he loved me and he wanted me.  And I would look at him.  And I forgot Gilda!  In other words, I forgot about the cameras, I forgot about absolutely everything and I would see him as Miguel.  And I would tremble nervously when I'd see the kiss coming.  "Oh my God, how am I going to do this?"

That's what I'm very afraid of.  That's why I always ask the actors/actresses.

GABRIELA:  But that's a lie (the kissing in telenovelas).  People here always say:  "No, those kisses are real.  Those two must have something going."  But everything's the exact opposite.  One retreats.  And my lips were trembling (this time).

Because you really felt something.

GABRIELA:  I couldn't...  Really!  (Usually a kiss behind the scenes) is the complete opposite of what one sees on screen.

Did you feel it, Miguel?  Did you kiss Gilda at that moment or did you kiss Gabriela?

MIGUEL:  Well, in the beginning, Raul was kissing Gilda.

Okay

MIGUEL:  What took place?  After those first scenes, I realized something had happened to me that had never happened before.  I've had, if I were to count them, over twenty-five co-stars on television, and with respect to Gabriela, I'll repeat it again:  something strange happened to me.

Let's see, tell me all about it!

MIGUEL:  I felt something I had never felt before with any woman.

What?

MIGUEL:  Including my previous girlfriends and what-have-you, my previous relationships.  I had never felt anything so strong, so... so chemically pure.

But where, if you can tell us?

GABRIELA:  Don't tell her, Papi!

MIGUEL:  No no, let me explain.

Or rather, where did you feel it?

MIGUEL:  No no no.  We're talking about something in general.

Was it in your skin, your heart, your hands?  Where was it?

MIGUEL:  Yes, my heart would race.  I couldn't understand what was happening; I would feel nervous.  First time I felt nervous with a woman on television.

Didn't you rehearse the scene?

MIGUEL:  No no.  The director prepared it.  The director prepared it and when we arrived, he told us what we needed to do; and since they were delicate scenes, they're normally not rehearsed beforehand.

But didn't you at least talk it over?  "Look, I'm going to kiss you like this, I'm going to put my hand here."

MIGUEL:  Yes, the positions more than anything.

More than anything.

MIGUEL:  But kisses, for example, and all that are not done beforehand.

GABRIELA:  But we forgot to rehearse it, Papi.

MIGUEL:  Yes

Papi.  Now things are "Papi".

GABRIELA:  We forgot to rehearse it and I think we let ourselves be guided by that chemistry, by that magic that was present.  I held back a bit to think:  :"My God, Gabriela, this is a scene.  Please don't go beyond that."  Because I thought I was in love alone.  So then:  "Don't mess up here.  You are in a scene."

How embarrassing!

GABRIELA:  "You're with Raul de la Peña; it's not Gabriela, it's Gilda."  And then, when he started to kiss me and I could "feel" his scent...  I don't know.  I let myself be guided a lot by my sense of smell and his scent fascinated me.  I would love it!  And I'd say:  "He smells so good."  And I...  "He smells so good."
I would lie on his chest...

How dangerous, my God!

GABRIELA:  My God, how dangerous!  Then all of a sudden without my realizing it, they stopped the scene and I remained here (her head resting on Miguel's chest).

And they would yell "cut".  "Cut!"

GABRIELA:  "Cut!"  Honestly!  Then all of a sudden, I realized everyone was milling around/gawking at the set and I was like this (lightly massaging Miguel's chest).

What would Miguel do?

GABRIELA:  And then suddenly I realized:  "Oh my God, how embarrassing!"  Everyone was looking at me.  Everyone noticed but no one said anything.

MIGUEL:  Of course we're talking about 3 or 4 months later (from the time he entered the novela).

What did you do after that scene?  Did you talk about what you were both feeling?  Did you each say goodbye and head home?

MIGUEL:  No no.  Nothing was ever discussed.

Nothing

GABRIELA:  Nothing

MIGUEL:  She and I didn't talk about things like that.

GABRIELA:  We didn't talk.

MIGUEL:  We would talk only about what was strictly necessary, about work-related issues but both of us had that poison inside us by then.

Both of you left with the same feeling.

MIGUEL:  Yes, by then

At what point did you talk about it?

MIGUEL:  Some time later

GABRIELA:  Much later

How much later, roughly?

GABRIELA:  We were both in serious relationships.

And those prior relationships had to be terminated.

GABRIELA:  Those relationships had to be ended.

And they weren't unstable.

MIGUEL:  Relationships that were, in turn, already...

GABRIELA:  They were already unstable.  They were bad.

MIGUEL:  ...semi-broken, shaky and, well, this was what saved our lives.

During that time, would you say you tried to forget that love?  You tried to evade what you were feeling?  You tried talking it over with another person?

MIGUEL:  There was some time evading what we were feeling.  I ran away from it.

GABRIELA:  Yes, I would think:  "Is it really Miguel de León I'm in love with or is it Raul de la Peña because...

...because once the novela is over, that sentiment will likewise be over.

GABRIELA:  It will also be over.

What a doubt, no?  How did you discover that yes, you were indeed in love?

GABRIELA:  He thought he was in love alone and I did too.

And you too.  Ay, just like little school kids!

MIGUEL:  Look, I can tell you something that is fundamental to me.  I knew this could be a very serious relationship because I felt her as my children's mother.  That says it all and it had nothing to do with the character (I was playing).

How beautiful!

MIGUEL:  I would say to myself, "I see her as my other half/my soulmate.  I see her as someone with whom to marry in a church with all the...

...the paraphernalia.

MIGUEL:  ...loveliest and best...

Like the song, "Her wedding for life".

MIGUEL:  Yes

MAITE:  I need to go to a short commercial now but I'll be back right away.  I promise you.  Because we have with us here a confidant, Edgar Torres, a lawyer and Gabriela's best friend.  The shoulder where she'd cry:  "My God, how confusing!"  He has the juiciest gossip.  We'll be back.  Thank you!