Hello everyone! I’ve been neglecting you a lot, I’m sorry. In my last post, “When You Least Expect It,“ I mentioned that this year I was starting my year 1 in numerology, which meant new beginnings and the start of something new. And so far, it’s been more than true. In the past few months, unexpected and surprisingly hopeful and enlightening things have happened to me. Above all, they’ve made me reflect on my past and how what’s happening now has roots in the distant past.

I don’t even know where to start… Okay, let’s see, fuck yes,Iknow, from the very beginning. It’s late and today it’s taking me more effort than usual to write, since I haven’t done it in months. What I’m going to tell you has brought me “full circle.I don’t know whether to start with the past, the future, or the present… Shit, this is hard. Okay, okay, I’ll get to it, relax…

I’ll start with the recent past and then tell you about the distant past. About a month ago, a woman (Mara, love you!) contacted me on WhatsApp and said, “A friend of yours gave me your contact, mentioning that you know people who speak English. We’re looking for young actors who speak English for a series that’s going to be filmed soon.” To which I replied, “Well, I have two young people who speak perfect English, but one likes to be behind the camera and the other is a bit shy, so I don’t think they’ll work for you.” But I told her I would help find someone. And that’s what I did—I shared the casting notices with all my international contacts and in the casting groups I have. A couple of days later, she contacted me again and said, “We’re also looking for someone to play the mother. It’s a small role, can you send me a video of you saying your name, age, etc., to send to the director?” To which I replied, “Well, I speak English, but I’m not an actress.” And she said, “No problem, just send it to me.” So I recorded myself and sent it via WhatsApp saying, “I HOPE THEY DON’T PICK ME,” which made her laugh out loud. Weeks went by, and I didn’t hear from her again, and honestly, I had forgotten about it.

Suddenly, on a Friday night around midnight, she sent me another WhatsApp and said, “Please, if possible, when you wake up, record yourself saying these lines because the director wants to see you.” That night I didn’t reply, but when I woke up, I thought, ummm, should I do it? Shouldn’t I ? And then I thought, fuck it, Nuria, what’s the worst that could happen? So, without makeup, looking a mess, I recorded the lines they sent me and the same message as before saying, “I HOPE THEY DON’T PICK ME.” Hahaha, and in a couple of hours, the production team was already calling me to send me a contract and tell me that I had to be on set on Monday. They sent me a script of about 117 pages and said, “You are the mother… Good luck” (well, they didn’t say Good luck, but I wished myself luck, hahaha).

I have to say, I spent the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday trying to memorize the script, figuring out what clothes to wear, and inventing a character, since they didn’t give me a backstory for this mother (although, reading the script, I started to realize she wasn’t a very nice person, hahaha). On Sunday night, I didn’t sleep at all; I repeated the lines over and over (making up some of the words since my memory isn’t great). When I woke up, I thought, Nuria, you can do this, you are the best, the most beautiful, the most talented, hold your head high and give it your all.

I arrived early and not everyone was there yet, but suddenly people started to arrive, and from then on, it felt like a dream. There was makeup (Claudia, a young girl with a lot of talent) and hairdresser (Mónica, another professional who exuded calm and helped me relax), wardrobe (oh, how much fun I had with Paco, he’s the best). Then the main actors started to arrive: Jaime, a guy who couldn’t be more handsome and sweet, and Helena, another beauty who made me feel at home and gave me confidence. Joe, who played my husband (Darling, if you are reading this, Love you!), Tim (You bad, bad boy, you know what you did).

Then there were Maxi and Alfredo, the super producers of the series, who treated me like a queen, super respectful and professional. The sound team, poor things, especially Duli, who had to stop scenes from time to time because the mic on my chest only picked up my heart beating a thousand miles an hour. The rest of the team: Toni, Andreu, Dani, Ana, Ezequiel, and Asun, my former classmate from the Production Coordinator course, who gave me the best advice that I will carry with me for life. And Benjaaaa, hahaha, I won’t say more! Those who read this and know what I’m talking about will laugh. And I’m sure I’ve forgotten half of them (I’ll fill in as I remember). And finally, there was the director, Licheng, and the DOP, Chris. I don’t know how to thank them for treating me like an actress (they told me that if I hadn’t said I wasn’t an actress, they wouldn’t have noticed, hahaha).

I spent about 5 days filming, and each day I loved it more than the last. I had a great time; the team told me I did very well (I still don’t know if they said it to make me feel good and not leave crying or because I’m actually a star and deserve an Oscar, hahaha). I can’t and don’t want to tell you what the series is about until you see it, and I’ll write another post where I’ll tell you what I experienced in each scene. For now, you’ll have to wait.

And going back to the very, very distant past, since I was little, before falling in love with dance, my other passion was always to be a famous and glamorous actress, hehe. And going back to the not-so-distant past, I must tell you that when I lived in Los Angeles, when I was about 20 years old, I briefly worked as an extra and did some commercials. One day, I was chosen for an important role in a movie, but I had plane tickets to go see my mother, who had just returned to Spain to live with my grandmother, and I said no to the role. In the end, when I returned, my life took a turn for other reasons, and I went back to Miami, and my dreams of being an actress ended. 30 years later, a new opportunity has knocked on my door, and although I’m older now, I have wrinkles, I’m chubby, the passion of that little girl still lives in my heart.

Time and the universe will tell…