Thais Valdés: I Can't Say No to Chijona

August 19, 2024

Actress Thais Valdés, a well-known face in Cuban cinema, always happily responds to the call of Gerardo Chijona and she did so with La fiesta, a film that is currently in the filming process.

After many years away from the big screen, this has been a happy reunion, the artist declared in an interview with Prensa Latina and offered brief previews of her character Maritza in this new production.

I can't say no to Chijona because there will always be a good result, a charming work environment and great learning, that's why when in 2019 he first told me about the project, I immediately answered him: you know I will always answer yes to you, she emphasized.

During these filming days I've had a wonderful time, I was fortunate to film scenes again with Isabel Santos, to work with Osvaldo Doimeadiós, with Héctor Noas and with my eternal companion Vladimir Cruz, she detailed.

The film also has an excellent technical team, full of talented and committed people, the actress highlighted.

Returning to cinema has been an enormous joy for me, sometimes reunions can have a sad or nostalgic tone, but this one has been very beautiful, it completely changed my life, she said.

For me the reunion with cinema has been a party, with Cuba, with its beauty, with the sea, with my family, with my friends, with my neighbors…"

I assumed Maritza with great maturity, regardless of having been away from film work, since in Mexico I have only done theater, but there is something that settles within your being, that doesn't heal, it doesn't go away, what is learned well is never forgotten, Valdés expressed.

If Carla Pérez, in the film Nada, was easy for me because it had so much to do with my person, Maritza has practically nothing to do with me and yet I was able to quickly find the resources and elements to take on the skin of this character and I have enjoyed it very much, she noted.

"Age has that advantage, it gives us a physical and psychological maturity that allows us to approach characters with more calm, with more confidence."

Furthermore, it is a pleasure to return to cinema again with Chijona, whom I have known since the early 1990s and whom I care for very much.

When he invited me to make the film Adorables mentiras, he already had a very solid cast of actors, like Isabel Santos and Luis Alberto García, Jorge Cao, Alicia Bustamante… Back then I was the young actress who was just starting out and we created mutual trust, she recalled.

After that experience came Un paraíso bajo las estrellas, which Chijona proposed to her in 1994 when they were in New York, where they went together to a film showcase.

When he explained that it was a musical film, Thais immediately told him yes, although it seemed like an immense challenge to play the leading role of Sissy.

The project was on pause for a while waiting for funding and I thought that maybe during that period he could find a better actress for the film, someone who sings and dances, maybe a Beatriz Valdés, she recalled.

"But he continued to trust me and so we entered into that great adventure that was Un paraíso bajo las estrellas, he accompanied me daily to the Cabaret Tropicana for my classes, to rehearsals, and a great complicity and great affection was created between us."

Then I distanced myself from cinema and went to Mexico, where I have done theater and resumed my passion for teaching, she said.

Returning to Cuba to make films has been very beautiful, she highlighted, from the moment I arrived at the airport I was impressed by the warm reception from the public, people have given me so much affection and love.

On this occasion, with La fiesta, Chijona has in his hands a film that shows how the ambition of human beings turns a cheerful family gathering into an unexpected tragedy.

Thais Valdés, a 1985 graduate of the National School of Art Instructors in Havana, has performed leading roles in some of the most notable productions in current Cuban cinema.

Films such as Plaff o demasiado miedo a la vida, by Juan Carlos Tabío; Adorables mentiras, by Gerardo Chijona; Alicia en el Pueblo de las Maravillas, by Daniel Díaz; and Nada, by Juan Carlos Cremata, are very remembered by the Cuban public who do not forget her face nor her warmth.