The race of Erdwin Fernandez in acting is far from diminishing, in Miami the renowned Cuban artist has joined several of the projects on the PRONYR TV platform, including the premiere series “You decide”.
In interview with CyberCuba The actor shared details about the influence of his parents on his life, his career in theater, film and television in Cuba, his personal and professional experiences upon arriving in the United States and also the criticism he receives on social networks. for criticizing Cuban reality.
You grew up in a family of great artists, what is the main legacy that your parents left you for your career?
Erdwin Fernandez: “I'm going to start by saying that I grew up in a family with all the freedom of imagination possible, with a lot of love, I have fabulous memories of my childhood, of my parents, of my grandparents, of my grandmothers. It was a house always full of magic where we did everything, from building small model airplanes, drawing with Raúl Eguren, painting, building things (...) With this I want to tell you that it was a very beautiful childhood, full of a lot of imagination and a lot of freedom and, above all, very demanding and sincerity.
“My father was an extremely sincere man, my mother much more sincere than him, much more diplomatic, but much more direct and that is what that demand and sincerity have left in me. They always told me, say the things you have to say, don't be afraid. I know you are going to have a lot of problems in your life, but at least you are going to sleep peacefully.”
Actors almost always have a character that is their favorite or that they remember most fondly. What is that character that has marked your career?
Erdwin Fernandez: “I was at Teatro Estudio for almost 10 years, working with Armando Suárez del Villar, Bertha Martínez, Nicolás Dorr, Héctor Quintero, Vicente Revuelta, Raquel Revuelta and I worked in almost all the theater festivals in Havana, and all the theater characters They are favorites, all of them. I have great memories of all of them.
“In the cinema I made a film with which I have a Latin ACE award in New York Dancing with Margot. We did a lot of radio, a lot of dubbing, and on television I have two favorite characters, one is Lachy, Lázaro, from Nightlife and the other is Gonzalo de Viñangó in the adventure The legend of Lightning.
“I usually make complicated characters, when they sell you a villain character, in a novel what you have to look for is the human part. Lachy, for example, is a guy who is capable of deceiving a woman, but he loves her, he cries, he suffers, he has fun and, as written in the novel, he is much more of a human being than the good guy. “Those are the characters that have marked me the most in my television career.”
In 2022 you arrived in Miami, you left behind a career built, an audience that recognized you. How difficult was it for you to take that step and start from scratch?
Erdwin Fernandez: “There is a contradiction in your question because of what you just said, that is, you left a career behind, therefore you are not starting from scratch. You come here with a career you already had. You arrive with a base, you start making your new life, that's something else. You do not leave behind the recognition of the true public, now we have a divided public, the true public that loves art does not care how the artists think, that is the true public and there is the other public, which is the one that is dedicated to insulting you.
"A new audience has even reemerged, which is the public that specializes in acting, in art, in theater criticism, in film, who tells you that you are a bad actor. They say it to almost everyone just because they have a different opinion. I always say that I did not stop working for the public that recognized the work of all of us. The people of Cuba, those who criticize us, forget that here in Miami there are many Cubans who saw all our work, all our soap operas, the movies, they have. I've seen all the serials and you find them on the corner and they ask you to take photos with them, and they tell you 'hey, I saw you in Cuba until the other day.'
“Then you don't arrive naked and realize that this little thing from the artists' cemetery doesn't exist. You are starting from scratch because a new life is beginning, but you have a career that people recognize you and they really recognize you on the street, it is not a lie. Of course it is difficult to make that decision because it is your country, you have all your memories, you have everything there, but when it has to be made, it is made and that's it, it is not questioned so much, it is done and that's it.
On more than one occasion you have said that all work is worthy and we have seen that you have questioned a lot those people who criticize Cuban artists in exile because they have had to do other work outside of their careers. In your case, was it an opportunity to grow or do you feel it was a setback?
Erdwin Fernandez: “There is no going backwards in your life. There is a new learning that is another story, there is a new life that you are going to discover, another completely different story, it all depends on how you look at it. What happens is that in Cuba there are people who have very bad memories and I am talking above all about the people who criticize on social networks and tell you 'now you are a carpenter', I was selling, I was a salesperson in a store, I was not a carpenter, With my respect for carpenters, many of them are artists. There is one thing that those people who criticize you forget. In Cuba, next to the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, there is a restaurant where artists work as waiters, shop assistants, lounge captains, among them, many good Cuban artists. No one there found it degrading, now, because we do it in exile, then is it degrading? No, we are the same.
“My father, when he left prison in Cuba, they told him that he was going to work in an agricultural market and he told the officials, 'ok, perfect, but they are never going to take away the artist that I am, I will be the artist that He works in an agricultural market, therefore, it is not scary. Plus, damn, they're paying you. My wife Adriana and I always talk about something that makes us laugh. It's incredible that in Cuba I had to paint the apartment and thanks to that we learned how to do it. Here they pay us to paint the apartments, money that you use in the gym, money that you use in rent, money that you use in your career too. So it is not degrading, we are human beings who have the ability to act, but when you do other work you are also making art. It's that easy".
You are one of the artists who has criticized the Cuban reality the most, even while inside Cuba. Now that you are in Miami, do you feel that it is your duty as a Cuban to criticize that reality through the networks or in your daily life?
Erdwin Fernandez: “I always start by saying, there are people who forget. There are people who forget that many of us studied in Cuba and studied university degrees, and they taught us and insisted a lot on political subjects and you learn several things, several things that people have forgotten or prefer to forget, which is the concept of citizen and the concept of public official. The citizen is a person who has to fully integrate into the community where he lives, therefore he has rights and duties and has the obligation to participate in the political life of a country. And politics is very broad, it is not a sector, it is not the Communist Party. You have all the right in the world as a citizen to use the word, to criticize, to point out, God, nature gave us that right, the right to the word. There is no man who can take it away from you. Therefore, as a citizen I have that right. And I exercised my right and I still exercise it from here.
“Another thing they forget is the concept of a public official. As I understand it, I read a lot, believe me, before going to an interview I inform myself, the public official, if I'm not mistaken, is from the president of a country to the last one who runs an office, they are people who are at the service of the population, they are not gods and they are exposed to criticism, accusations, even when they are of no use they are subject to you telling them that they should not be there.
“I always say, who can believe in an artist if you are not sincere in your personal life. If you are only sincere on the screen and in your personal life, you keep your mouth shut about everything that you believe is unfair. The other day a woman even answered me on Facebook, 'Be calm, Erdwin Fernández, you've never shit on anyone here.' And I told him, 'You're absolutely right, you don't need to shit on anyone to tell the truth.' With reason, logic, studies and knowledge you can refute anything without insulting anyone.”
I imagine it has been a bit difficult to see those types of comments that are often not even true.
Erdwin Fernandez: “You have to deal with it and know that those are the consequences. There are many people in Cuba who say they can't say no to certain things. I don't tell people to do what I did. I tell them that it can be done. After the event of 9/11 and the Ministry of Culture, they made a call to me, an official that I loved very much because he helped my father and mother a lot, he was summoning me for an act of revolutionary reaffirmation. I knew what was coming to me, I knew the consequences, but I told him, 'Look my brother, I don't think I can because I don't have the blood for that, after everything I've seen I don't have the blood for that.' But you have to accept the consequences, it's knowing your place in the world."
Tell us a little about what you are doing now. We have seen you in recent months in several projects with PRONYR TV sharing with many Cuban artists in Miami.
Erdwin Fernandez: “PRONYR TV has been like a lifeline for all of us. I already told you that you arrive in this country with everything you come carrying and everything they tell you on the networks that Miami is the cemetery of artists. Although you see that it is not, you feel that fear. PRONYR opened the doors for us to do television again. I am very grateful to my friends Tony Salud, Jean Michel, Orlando Fundichely and many others for giving us the opportunity to be able to say we are alive and not abandon our dreams. It's a very nice job, we have a lot of fun, I think that when we go in to film it's a shrink, we mess around, we make stories and when it comes to work, we work very hard too. And it has been wonderful. It is wonderful. We are doing what we like, what we want and on top of that they pay us. What a pretty thing".
PRONYR TV has just premiered a new series, Up to you, in which you participate in the first chapter “I want to be a man” with a quite complex, delicate story, but one that is very present in society. Tell us what this experience was like.
Erdwin Fernandez: “From the outset, Jean Michel was directing us, who is also an actor and therefore knows what he is talking about. The protagonist is Chris Gómez, Amarylis Núñez and I are the co-stars of the story, and it is a different story, that is, it is something that has never touched us closely. It is a quite violent theme, but from an artistic point of view it breaks quite a bit with the pigeonholing that we had in Cuba. They are busy beings in a very difficult and very beautiful situation at the same time and I think the main message is that you have to support your family all the time. Whatever they do, you guide them, you tell them, you try to get them to do the best in the world, but in the end they are your children, if not them who is going to love you.”
Up to you, PRONYR TV's first interactive series in which the public decides the ending they want to see, is now available on this platform, without a doubt an opportunity to enjoy excellent performances like that of Erdwin Fernández.
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