To say Gaby Spanic is to say iconic villain. The actress, who played such popular roles as the villain in telenovelas like La Usurpadora y La Intrusa now appears in the show Secretos de Villanas, which brings together a group of iconic telenovela villains to talk about life, love, and what exactly makes them so memorable, spoke to Remezcla about the type of conversations that happen in the show and reaching a new generation with her characters.
“We are iconic villains. And some people think that you get up with makeup on, that you are always looking perfect, with your eyelashes curled up, that you don’t have needs and wishes. And no, we are human beings who feel, who suffer, who are not perfect,” Spanic shared about the women that make up Secretos de Villanas.
In the show, we see the group of women, who for Season 3 includes Aylín Mujica, Cynthia Klitbo, Sabine Moussier, Laura Zapata, and Catherine Siachoque discuss multiple issues that aren’t just about being an iconic villain, and sometimes agree—and in other occasions, really disagree. There have even been big controversies about the things being said in the show, but for Spanic, that’s a good thing. No one’s pretending to be someone they’re not.
“This is the diversity and the wonder of these confrontations because everyone is defending their own point of view,” Spanic said. “And everyone is who they are. And I like that because we discuss very important and very difficult themes. And I think that has been the success of Secretos de Villanas,” she said, adding that she isn’t “like those women who act like they never do anything wrong, and in private they do.”
“I am not a hypocrite. I came from nothing. I haven’t had powerful people sponsoring my career,” Spanic told us, adding that this is the reason why “I don’t keep anything in. And I don’t care what they say. Because you do good, you do bad, they’ll always talk.” So she might as well speak her mind.
Spanic shared she’s very grateful for the audience that has supported her for so many years, and for the fact that there is a new generation discovering her work—through the actual telenovelas, or through memes. And being remembered this way isn’t something that embarrasses her, on the contrary, she is very happy to be remembered this way. “How beautiful is it to have played such different characters and that people can now look back and enjoy them, new people, and the same people who enjoyed them before.”
Back when La Usurpadora was airing, according to Spanic, “people thought it was my twin sister,” playing the second character in the telenovela. And the actress, who has played more double characters than any other telenovela actress is proud of the work she did, even though it was “double the work,” and not double the pay. That work is what has brought her here, to being a recognizable enough villain that she is on a show about iconic villains.
There’s a certain nostalgia, as we talk, about the telenovelas of old, which Spanic says were “better,” than the ones we see today. A lot of fans would agree, and that’s why so many of the classics keep getting remade. Spanic shared with us that she is often stopped in the streets and asked “Why don’t you do the type of telenovelas you used to do before?”
She doesn’t have an answer. Spanic, after all, doesn’t make those decisions. But she has, undoubtedly, shaped how we look at telenovelas—and especially, at the villains.
