TAKING ON A LEGEND
Mexican star Pedro Fernandez leads cast of ‘Malverde: El Santo Patrón’
Mexican star Pedro Fernandez takes on another icon in “Malverde: El Santo Patrón.” The series, premiering at 9 p.m. Tuesday on Telemundo, is one of the network’s most ambitious productions to date. Fernandez portrays Jesús Malverde, a Mexican folk hero from the late 19th and early 20th centuries who helped the disenfranchised and the poor. He is known as a “narco-saint” among drug traffickers.
Despite no definite proof that he actually existed, Malverde has lived on through stories and merchandising. His image is featured on everything from candles to key chains.
A team of almost 200 people created an entire 1900’s town for “Malverde: El Santo Patrón,” complete with full-scale buildings. Fernandez says the role is one of the most important of his career. He has released more than three dozen albums, starred in 25 films and a series of TV novelas.
Fernandez spoke about his new role and how it transported him back in time.
Q: How familiar were you with Jesús Malverde before the series?
A: Very little because the topic of Malverde is still one that we don’t talk about. People get scared or don’t want to talk about it. I didn’t avoid knowing about Malverde, but it wasn’t an everyday issue. I didn’t have that much information, honestly. When this marvelous project came to me, I went overboard with all the documentation of his life. He is an extraordinary character. He was obviously a person with defects but with extraordinary virtues, with a sense of justice, of protection, of love, of generosity, of attachment to his land, of attachment to his people. Something similar to a Mexican Robin Hood who, at whatever cost, defended the helpless people, the poor. And that makes him magical.
Q: Was it an immediate “yes” when
you first got the script?
A: No, it wasn’t. It might seem like it would be easy but it wasn’t. You immediately think, “What was Malverde like? What did he do? Who really was he?” In my very personal way of thinking, I have to think immediately if it is something that my public would like, if it is something that my public is really willing to receive, regardless of whether you can get the love or admiration of another audience that at the moment you do not have. Then, I think, “How capable am I of doing this thing?” I have to be aware of what that demands of me and if I really have the ability to do a decent job with commitment and respect. When they tell me, “This series is not talking about the urban legend of Malverde. It is about talking about the unpublished story of the life of Jesus Juarez. This completely changes everything. I begin to discover a character who is and was a legend.
Q: What were the challenges of taking on a character like Malverde?
A: This represents a very important challenge for me, to create a character we haven’t seen (in the media) before. You have to create his look. You have to give him a walk. You have to create body expression. You have to create the character. You have to realize the character. You have to present him to the world the way they have imagined him, with all his attributes and defects. I am happy because if this isn’t the most important project of my career, it’s at least one of the most important.
Q: How important is it for you to find a connection with the character?
A: My connection with Malverde has been magical. There’s no other explanation. When I see images of Malverde, of what I did, I truly say, “That’s not me.” There really is a character there. It fills me with joy because I am not seeing Pedro. I’m seeing Malverde, and that’s what it’s about. That’s what I worked so hard on.
Q: How much of an additional challenge was creating this during the COVID-19 pandemic?
A: If playing Malverde was a challenge, it was also a challenge making the series at the same time this was happening in the world. With all the social distancing and everything else, imagine us hugging and kissing. What’s going to happen?
We can’t pretend we weren’t concerned. But Telemundo did an extraordinary job taking care of us and our health at all times. The protocols were demanding and sometimes uncomfortable because it’s not easy taking (COVID-19) tests three or four times a week. We were isolated with no phones and no internet, but it transported us to 1910 to a town that was constructed specifically for this story. We were truly living outside reality and outside the actual world, with all that represents in the scripts, the costumes, the horses, the carriages. We had gone back in time.