LUIS RIELO: THE VILLAIN OF CUBAN TV
«I never thought to turn 85, much less complete 65 years of artistic life. At 20 I stood for the first time on a stage at Teatro Nuestro Tiempo to perform at the play El cartero del rey, which meant the realization of a great dream. The following year I went up the stairs of CMQ TV for the first time and I have not gone down the same stairs yet, because I'm still acting.»
«It took me a lot of work to make my way in the performance world. I started making extras on television, but since I've always been very disciplined and respectful, I took the best from the great actors and followed their example. I remember that the great Enrique Santisteban, my mentor in performing arts, gave me some body posture advice that provided me self-assurance and strength when acting; this was vital in the interpretation of the negative characters.»
«My first negative character was called Marcus, I played him in Carlos Valiente´s program, a series that was broadcast by CMQ TV in 1956. It seems that the public liked him, because it became very popular. I began to receive proposals that pigeonholed me in this kind of character for over thirty years as the foreman in Doña Barbara, by Venezuelan writer Romulo Gallegos, or the bullying foreman Matías, in the soap opera Sol de Batey by Dora Alonso, among many others. I think the success came from never using clichés to play them, they always came out naturally, and even later it was difficult for me to break away from this stigma and re-enact the nobility of the good guys.»
«Although I have received a lot of applause during my artistic career, the emotion of the first time is always sublime. I fought against all odds to be an actor; Being a child, I worked as a salesman in several places until I was able to pay for my studies with a French teacher, who at first discouraged me, but then, seeing my will, he assured me that I would be an actor. That was the happiest day of my life.»
«I am extremely happy for what I've accomplished as an actor, as a father, a grandfather and as a human being, I continue looking today for the best character to play, the one that never comes, and I always want to give the most and the best of myself, so I keep dreaming until the end.»